How to Make a Strategy Presentation [A Guide]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- Dec 9, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 3
Simon, one of our clients, asked us an interesting question while we were building his strategy
presentation:
“How do you get people to actually care about the strategy?”
Our Creative Director answered without blinking:
“By making them see themselves in it.”
As a presentation design agency, we work on many strategy presentations throughout the year. In the process, we’ve noticed one recurring challenge: Leaders know the strategy but often fail to communicate it in a way that actually lands.
So, in this blog, we’ll talk about how to make a strategy presentation that isn’t just clear, but actually gets buy-in.
In case you didn't know, we specialize in only one thing: making presentations. We can help you by designing your slides and writing your content too.
Why You Need a Good Strategy Presentation
Most strategy presentations fail for one simple reason.
They assume understanding is automatic. That once the goals, priorities, or timelines are on the screen, people will connect the dots on their own. But they don’t. Because strategy isn’t just information. It’s direction, context, and often, a complete mindset shift.
And if you’re leading a team, or a company, or even a project with real stakes—how you present that direction matters just as much as the direction itself.
We’ve seen teams lose months because no one really understood what the strategy meant for them. We’ve also seen entire company cultures shift because the strategy presentation was spot on. That’s the difference.
A good strategy presentation doesn’t just share a plan. It builds alignment. It answers the silent questions sitting in every room:
Why this?
Why now?
What does this mean for me?
What are we not doing anymore?
Without answering those, you’re not presenting strategy. You’re reading slides.
And let’s be honest. In most organizations, attention is the most expensive currency. If you don’t make your audience feel something in the first five minutes, you’ve already lost them.
So no, it’s not about adding more bullet points or making the graphs prettier. It’s about making the strategy human. And if you can’t do that, you’ll be re-explaining the same slide for the next six months.
How to Make a Strategy Presentation
Let’s skip the fluff and get into what actually works. After designing countless strategy presentations for companies across industries—tech, finance, healthcare, education—you start to see patterns. Patterns in what people respond to, what they ignore, and what sticks in a meeting versus what gets forgotten by lunchtime.
This section is a guide to building a strategy presentation that does what it’s supposed to: align people, drive clarity, and move things forward. Not just look good in a boardroom.
1. Start with the gap, not the goal
Most strategy decks open with the goal. “We want to become a market leader.” “We want to launch in three new regions.” “We aim to reduce churn by 20%.”
That’s nice. But it means nothing without context.
Instead, start by framing the gap.
What’s happening right now?
What’s not working anymore?
What’s at stake if nothing changes?
You want people to feel the tension first. That’s what creates the need for the strategy. If there’s no problem to solve, no one cares about the solution.
We once helped a client open their strategy presentation with this line: "Last year, 40% of our top clients gave us the same feedback: You’re slow.”
That one line created the perfect set-up. Everything that followed—process changes, team restructuring, new KPIs—suddenly made sense. Because now, the audience knew the cost of not changing.
2. Anchor everything to people
Strategy feels abstract. That’s where it usually loses the room. The trick? Make it personal.
Every big strategic decision trickles down to someone’s day-to-day. If you don’t show that, your presentation turns into corporate wallpaper.
Let’s say your strategy involves shifting focus from small businesses to enterprise clients. That’s not just a business decision. That means:
The sales team needs new materials.
The customer support team has to change its tone.
Product needs a longer development cycle.
Don’t just talk about these shifts. Show them.Use personas. Scenarios. “Here’s what this means for Maya in Customer Success.”When people see themselves in the strategy, they engage. When they don’t, they tune out.
3. Use story structure, not slide order
This one’s big. A strategy presentation isn’t a status update. It’s a story. It needs structure. Most decks follow this pattern:
Vision
Metrics
Timeline
Org chart
But real engagement comes when you follow a story arc:
What was
What is
What could be
How we get there
Start with the past and present. Build credibility. Show that you’ve done your homework.Then paint the future. But don’t just say, “We want to double revenue.” Say what that looks like in action. Paint a visual picture.Finally, walk them through the path. That’s where your initiatives and numbers go.
A strategy deck that follows a story is easier to follow. More importantly, it’s easier to remember.
4. Pick one message per slide
This sounds obvious until you see how many slides are fighting themselves.“We want to expand into APAC, streamline supply chain ops, and explore DTC.”All on the same slide.
The brain doesn’t do well with that. If you want the audience to take away three things, you don’t put all three on one slide. You give each its space.
Here’s what we recommend:
One message, one slide.
Use the slide title as the headline. Not “Q3 Roadmap” but “Here’s how Q3 will lay the foundation.”
Use visuals only to support that one message. No decoration. No filler icons.
Clarity beats cleverness every time in strategy decks.
5. Make the risks visible
Too many presentations only show the upside. We’re doing this. We’ll win that. We’ll capture this market.
But when you don’t acknowledge the risks, the audience starts doing it silently. “What about X?” “Did they think of Y?” That silent doubt erodes confidence.
Instead, name the risks yourself. Then show how you’re accounting for them. That builds credibility. You’re not naive. You’re prepared.
One client of ours had a slide titled:“What could make this fail?”That took guts. But it immediately changed the room’s energy. Suddenly, the leadership team was listening. Not defensively. But with respect.
6. Use real numbers, not vague ambition
Nothing kills belief like vagueness.
“We want to grow aggressively”
"We plan to increase operational efficiency.”
That’s nothing. Strategy isn’t supposed to inspire with fluff. It’s supposed to anchor decisions in reality. Use real metrics. Be specific.
Not “Grow user base” but “Grow user base by 40% by Q4 with X, Y, Z tactics.”
Not “Improve efficiency” but “Cut onboarding time from 12 days to 6 by automating X.”
If your numbers are estimates, fine. But explain where they come from. Show that you’ve run the math. Because if you don’t believe the numbers, your team won’t either.
7. Align design to tone, not trend
This is where we come in most often. Leaders come to us with a rough narrative, and we help shape it visually.
But here’s the part most people miss: design isn’t just about looking good. It’s about reinforcing the tone of your message.
If your strategy is bold and aggressive, your design needs contrast, sharp typography, and confident pacing.If your strategy is collaborative and people-first, your design needs warmth, white space, and human visuals.
And we’ll say it plainly—minimalism is not always the answer. A sterile, Apple-style deck doesn’t work if your audience doesn’t live in that world. Design has to serve the message, not the other way around.
8. Leave room for conversation
A strategy presentation isn’t a TED Talk. It’s a conversation starter. The best ones don’t try to answer every single question. They give just enough to invite meaningful dialogue.
That means you don’t pack the appendix with 60 extra slides. You build space for discussion. You pause. You ask.
“What about this feels unclear?”
“Where do we see resistance?”
“What needs more focus?”
When people talk during a strategy presentation, that’s not a derailment. That’s engagement. That’s what you want.
9. Rehearse the delivery like it’s a pitch
This might be the most underrated part. The strategy might be great. The slides might be strong. But if the delivery is flat, none of it lands.
Too many execs walk into these presentations thinking they’ll wing it. They treat it like a team meeting. It’s not. It’s a pitch.
You’re pitching belief. You’re pitching commitment. You’re pitching change.
Practice the transitions. Know the pacing. Hit the tone.We’ve seen leaders do two rehearsals and completely transform the way their teams respond. Not because they changed the content. But because they owned it.
10. Follow-up is part of the presentation
The biggest myth? That the presentation ends when the meeting does.
It doesn’t. In fact, the real presentation starts after that. It’s the conversations in hallways. The manager briefings. The department meetings. The one-pagers.
So, plan your follow-up. Don’t make people guess what’s next.
Summarize the key decisions in writing
Share a simplified version of the deck
Give managers talking points
Make one-pagers for teams to refer back to
If the only time your strategy is visible is when you’re presenting it, it’s already dead.
Why Hire Us to Build your Presentation?
If you're reading this, you're probably working on a presentation right now. You could do it all yourself. But the reality is - that’s not going to give you the high-impact presentation you need. It’s a lot of guesswork, a lot of trial and error. And at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a presentation that’s “good enough,” not one that gets results. On the other hand, we’ve spent years crafting thousands of presentations, mastering both storytelling and design. Let us handle this for you, so you can focus on what you do best.