Board Deck Builder

What this is for

The board meeting is Thursday, you have a spreadsheet full of numbers and a half-written email of "things to mention," and no story yet. This walks you through building the narrative — data cleanup, slide logic, speaker notes, and a stress test — before you touch a slide template.

Before you start

• Have your raw data open: the spreadsheet, dashboard export, or notes file.
• Know your audience's temperature going in — are they generally supportive, neutral, or does one board member always push back on numbers?
• Pick your build tool now: Gamma for speed, Claude artifacts if you want to keep iterating in the same thread as your narrative work.

The workflow

1. The data-cleanup prompt — Claude, because you can paste a full spreadsheet as text or a CSV and it holds the whole thing in context.

ROLE: You are a data analyst prepping messy numbers for a board narrative.
CONTEXT: Below is [SPREADSHEET DATA OR CSV PASTE — e.g. "Q2 metrics:
revenue by month, churn by segment, pipeline by rep, raw and
unformatted"]. I need the signal, not a reformatted version of the mess.
CONSTRAINTS: Identify the 3-4 numbers that actually matter for a board
audience — not everything that's in the sheet. Flag anything that looks
like an error or an outlier before I present it. Do not smooth over a
bad number — flag it and note the likely cause if the data suggests one.
OUTPUT FORMAT: A short list of the key numbers with one-line context each,
followed by a separate list of anomalies or data-quality flags.

2. The "so what per slide" narrative prompt — either model.

ROLE: You are a board-deck strategist who cares about narrative, not
decoration.
CONTEXT: Here are my key numbers and context from the cleanup step:
[PASTE CLEANED NUMBERS AND FLAGS]. The board's main concern this quarter
is [e.g. "burn rate and whether the sales hire is paying off"].
CONSTRAINTS: For each of 8 slides, give me one sentence that is the "so
what" — the takeaway a board member should have if they only read that
one line. Do not give me slide titles that just restate the topic
("Revenue Update") — give me the point ("Revenue is up but concentrated
in one segment, which is a risk").
OUTPUT FORMAT: A numbered list, slides 1-8, each with a one-line "so
what" and the 1-2 data points that support it.

3. The executive-summary-first structure.

Board decks fail when the punchline is on slide 6. Structure is fixed, don't skip slide 1:

1. The headline — one sentence, the single thing they need to remember if they read nothing else.
2. The number that matters most, with trend.
3. What's working, with evidence.
4. What's not working, named directly, not softened.
5. Why, in one layer of "so what does that mean."
6. What we're doing about it.
7. What we need from the board — a decision, money, or air cover.
8. Next milestone and date.

4. Generating speaker notes — either model.

ROLE: You are helping me write speaker notes for a board deck I've
already outlined.
CONTEXT: Here is my 8-slide outline with "so what" lines: [PASTE OUTLINE
FROM STEP 2].
CONSTRAINTS: Notes should be what I'd actually say out loud, not a
read-aloud script — short phrases and reminders, not full sentences.
Flag any slide where the "so what" isn't obvious from the visual alone,
since that's where I need to talk more.
OUTPUT FORMAT: One block of speaker notes per slide, max 4 lines each.

5. Stress-testing with a skeptical CFO — either model, but Claude if you want a longer back-and-forth in the same thread.

ROLE: You are a skeptical, numbers-first CFO sitting on this board. You
are not hostile, but you do not accept a claim without evidence and you
notice when a number is presented without its context.
CONTEXT: Here is my deck outline and speaker notes: [PASTE OUTLINE AND
NOTES]. Challenge me the way you actually would in the room.
CONSTRAINTS: Ask the three hardest questions this deck invites — do not
be polite about it. For each, tell me whether my current material
answers it or leaves a gap.
OUTPUT FORMAT: Three questions, each followed by "answered" or "gap,"
and what I'd need to add to close any gap.

Building the actual slides

Once the narrative is locked, build in Gamma or Claude artifacts — don't build slides before the story is right.

Gamma: gamma.app → "New" → "Paste in text" → paste your 8-slide outline with speaker notes → choose a theme → Gamma generates one slide per section. Edit slide-by-slide from there; don't regenerate the whole deck for small fixes.

Claude artifacts: In your existing Claude conversation, ask: "Build this as an 8-slide HTML presentation, one slide per artifact section, using the outline above." Claude generates an interactive artifact you can click through and refine in the same thread — good if you're still adjusting the narrative as you build.

Where this goes wrong

• You let the AI pick which numbers matter. It doesn't know your board's history or which member fixates on churn. Treat the cleanup output as a draft shortlist, not the final cut.
• You build slides before the narrative is settled. Fixing a weak story after the deck is built means redoing slides. Lock steps 1-3 before you open Gamma.
• You skip the CFO stress test because the deck "feels done." That's exactly when a gap gets found live, in the room, instead of by you the night before.

The 2-minute version

Paste your data into the cleanup prompt. Feed the output into the narrative prompt for 8 "so what" lines. Build in Gamma or Claude artifacts. Run the skeptical-CFO prompt before you present, not after.

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