McKinsey Deck Builder

I've spent 15+ years as a consultant, at firms such as McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group, and then as an entrepreneur and freelancer. After I left consulting, I built StrategyU, a platform for teaching the frameworks, skills, and principles of top-tier consulting firms. This skill is all of the best ideas, principles, and approaches packaged for an LLM.

It helps you create world-class slides, titles, and persuasive content. You can start from scratch, start from a pile of research, or hand it a deck you've already built and get structural feedback. Pair it with open-source PowerPoint libraries such as Python-PPTX, Marp, or Reveal.js to move from strategy to finished slides in a single workflow.

The principles and frameworks it draws from:

SCQA (Situation, Complication, Question, Answer) to define the actual problem before you start building. Most decks fail because nobody stopped to figure out what they were trying to say. SCQA forces that conversation.

Pyramid Principle to structure the argument. One main point at the top. Three supporting insights underneath. Evidence below each one. Built bottom-up from data using the Label, Sort, Insight technique. Communicated top-down so the audience gets the answer first.

MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) to pressure-test every level of the argument. No overlap between ideas, no gaps in the logic.

Vertical flow so the title of every slide is the takeaway, not a topic label. "Q3 Revenue" tells you nothing. "Q3 revenue grew 22% because enterprise deals doubled" tells you what happened and why. Everything below the title proves the title. Nothing else.

Horizontal flow so the slide titles, read in sequence, form a coherent story. If you copy all your titles into a document and they don't make sense on their own, the deck isn't ready.

Proven memory science for content so the two or three slides that matter most actually stick. People retain about four chunks of information from a presentation. The skill helps you decide which four and makes sure they land.

A full AI writing layer with vocabulary watchlists, sentence rhythm rules, and pattern detection so nothing in your output reads as generated. No "in today's rapidly changing landscape." No "this marks a pivotal moment." Specific, tight, human.

Suggested uses:

• Feed it raw research, interview notes, or data and have it build a full argument structure with SCQA and a pyramid before you touch a single slide.

• Generate a list of slide titles that each make a specific claim. Review them in sequence. If the story holds, the deck is ready to build.

• Generate a ghost deck in markdown. Just titles, in order, no content. Read them back to back to see if the narrative works before committing to design.

• Hand it a finished deck and get structural feedback. Pretty Slide Syndrome, titles that don't match content, buzzwords pretending to be insight.

• Rewrite vague or generic slide text into something specific. Turn "Market Landscape Overview" into the actual point of the slide.

• Tailor a deck to a specific audience level. A board member needs different language and framing than a director. The skill adjusts sequencing, detail, and vocabulary to match.

• Generate an executive summary slide that captures the main recommendation and three supporting insights in a format a busy exec can read in 30 seconds.