How to Avoid a Presentation Disaster (Lessons from the Trenches)
- Mrunalini Dhas | Creative Director, Ink Narrates
- May 8, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 27
"Mrunalini, how do we make sure this presentation doesn’t turn into a disaster?"
That’s how the conversation started. Our client, Jason, was gearing up for a high-stakes investor pitch, and his question wasn’t just about design, it was about survival. He knew that even the best business ideas could sink if the presentation fell apart.
As a presentation design agency, we work on hundreds of investor decks, sales presentations, and corporate keynotes every year. And we see the same problems over and over again. The good news? Most presentation disasters are entirely preventable—if you know what to look out for.
In this blog, we’ll talk about the most common ways presentations go off the rails and, more importantly, how to stop them before they do.
How to avoid a presentation disaster
1. The "Too Much, Too Soon" Syndrome
We get it—you have a lot to say. But cramming everything onto a slide (or worse, into your first five minutes) is a recipe for disaster.
We’ve seen presenters throw 20 bullet points onto a single slide, thinking more information equals more credibility. It doesn’t. It overwhelms your audience. The moment they stop reading, they stop listening to you.
The fix: Keep your slides clean. One key idea per slide. Let your visuals do some of the heavy lifting. And when in doubt, cut. If the audience needs a microscope to read your text, you’ve already lost them.
2. A Design That Screams "Help!"
Some presentations look like they were made in 1999 and never updated. Others are so chaotic that they give people motion sickness.
We’ve seen it all—text in five different fonts, mismatched colors, and slides with so many elements that they look like a conspiracy board.
The fix: Stick to a professional, consistent design. Choose two fonts (max), a simple color palette, and a layout that breathes. Not a designer? Use a professionally made template—or, you know, hire experts (wink).
3. The Never-Ending Monologue
The fastest way to lose an audience is to treat your presentation like a lecture. We’ve worked with speakers who are incredibly knowledgeable but deliver their content like a bedtime story (and not the good kind).
The fix: Engage your audience. Ask questions. Use stories. Break up your speech with visuals or audience interaction. The more your audience feels involved, the more they’ll remember.
4. The "I’ll Just Read My Slides" Catastrophe
If your slides are your script, you’re in trouble. Nothing kills engagement faster than a presenter who turns their back to the audience and reads every word from the screen.
We’ve seen executives with billion-dollar deals on the line do this. And every time, we see investors check out.
The fix: Your slides are there to support you, not replace you. Keep your text minimal, use key points as memory triggers, and practice enough that you don’t need a script.
5. Tech Nightmares
Your slides won’t load. The clicker dies. The sound doesn’t work. We’ve witnessed last-minute tech failures that have sent even the most seasoned speakers into panic mode.
The fix: Always do a tech check before you present. Have backups—bring a second copy of your deck, a spare battery for the clicker, and know how to troubleshoot if something goes wrong. If you’re presenting remotely, test your setup on the actual platform you’ll be using. Zoom and Teams do not behave the same way.
6. The Jargon Overload
Nothing makes an audience zone out faster than a slide full of industry jargon that sounds like a foreign language. We once worked on a deck where the first slide alone had seven acronyms that no one outside the company would understand.
The fix: Speak like a human. If a term isn’t common knowledge, explain it or replace it. If your audience has to decode your slides, they won’t focus on what matters.
7. The "Data Dump" Disaster
Data is great. A wall of numbers? Not so much. We’ve worked with teams that insist on putting entire spreadsheets into a presentation, expecting the audience to make sense of them in seconds.
The fix: Highlight the key takeaway. Use charts, graphs, or a single bold number that tells the story. If you need to show detailed data, put it in a leave-behind document, not your main slides.
8. No Clear Takeaway
A lot of presentations end with... nothing. No conclusion, no clear next steps—just a slide that says "Thank You."
We’ve seen clients deliver brilliant content but leave the audience wondering, So, what now?
The fix: Always end with a clear call to action. What do you want your audience to do next? Invest? Buy? Follow up? Make it obvious.
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.
How To Get Started?
If you want to hire us for your presentation design project, the process is extremely easy.
Just click on the "Start a Project" button on our website, calculate the price, make payment, and we'll take it from there.
We look forward to working with you!