When it comes to presentation rules, few have the staying power of the 10/20/30 Rule. Now more than a decade old, it's still widely used by professionals from a broad range of industries.
If you want to become a PowerPoint presentation specialist in your own right, keep scrolling to learn the ins and outs of this rule.
The 10/20/30 Rule: Explained
The 10/20/30 is the brainchild of Guy Kawasaki, author, presentation expert, and chief evangelist of Canva. The former Apple marketing guru came up with this rule back in 2005 after suffering through long-winded pitches as a venture capitalist.
More than 15 years later, people still adhere to this rule - whether they're presenting in the board room or academic conference hall.
According to the Kawasaki method, a PowerPoint presentation should:
-
Have 10 slides
-
Last no more than 20 minutes
-
Contain no font smaller than 30 points
Although these rules may seem limiting, they'll help you streamline a sleek presentation that isn't bogged down by unnecessary information. In other words, you'll be forced to save time and focus on your presentation's real message.
Let's unpack each part of this rule.
10 Slides
According to Kawasaki, keeping track of more than 10 concepts in a meeting can be challenging-especially if your audience attends more than one meeting in the day. Anyone's endurance and concentration begin to wane after a full day of back-to-back meetings.
In Kawasaki's world, 10 slides equal 10 topics, and for the venture capitalist, it could look something like this:
1. Problem
2. Your solution
3. Business model
4. Underlying magic/technology
5. Marketing and sales
6.Competition
7. Team
8. Projections and milestones
9. Status and timeline
10. Summary and call to action
In his original blog post about this rule, Kawasaki says you can apply it to any type of presentation. You'll just have to tweak your 10 points to fit your goals.
If you aren't sure how you could possibly edit your deck down to 10 slides, you can find a PowerPoint presentation design service to help. These presentation specialists can provide expert content consulting, distilling dense information into its most salient points.
20 Minutes
Limiting your deck to just 10 slides isn't enough in Kawasaki's books. How long it takes you to get through these 10 slides is also incredibly important.
Otherwise, you could easily spend 10 minutes on each slide. Belabouring these points will undo any work you and your PowerPoint presentation design service do to curate your most important data.
Although many corporate conferences will often allot you an hour to present, Kawasaki suggests whittling your presentation down to 20 minutes. This gives you some breathing room in case something outside your control happens, like if you run into technical difficulties or your audience gets pulled away in an emergency.
If everything goes well, you'll have more time for a Q&A by keeping things short.
30-Point Font
This last point is an issue of accessibility. A larger font point helps those with visual impairments read along with your slides.
It's also a sneaky way to show off your presentation prowess. People who rely on a 15-point font are trying to fit as much text on their slides as possible so they can read their presentation. This signals to your audience you don't know your stuff.
Worse yet, your audience will start reading your slides as you talk. And because people can read inside their heads faster than you can recite them, they'll get through your material faster than you will.
Once you and your audience are out of sync, you're in trouble. It's harder for them to stay engaged and listen to what you're saying.
The Takeaway:
Basically, Kawasaki wants you to keep your next presentation short and concise. If economy of words and design aren't your forte, find a PowerPoint presentation design service to help you refine your story to fit 10 slides in 20 minutes.
