Consulting-grade presentations
Turn a rough deck into a McKinsey-style argument
A free Agent Skill that drafts, critiques, and upgrades slide decks with consulting-grade structure — action titles, the Pyramid Principle, and Situation-Complication-Resolution. Try it in Claude or ChatGPT in one click.
What is a “McKinsey-style” deck — and why is it better?
A McKinsey-style deck is a presentation built as an argument, not a slideshow. The name comes from the methodology developed at McKinsey & Company and now standard across top-tier consulting firms — but the ideas are older than any firm and belong to anyone who has to convince a room.
The defining rule is the action title. On an ordinary slide, the headline names a topic — "Revenue Overview," "Market Landscape." On a consulting slide, the headline states the takeaway as a complete sentence. Stack those sentences and the titles alone — read top to bottom, ignoring every chart and bullet — tell the entire story. An executive skimming your deck in the elevator gets the argument in thirty seconds. That is the whole trick, and it is why these decks win decisions.
It works because it respects how busy people actually read: conclusion first. A consulting deck leads with the recommendation, then supports it (the Pyramid Principle), and carries the audience along a Situation → Complication → Resolution arc. A normal deck buries the point on slide 14; a McKinsey deck puts it on slide 2 and spends the rest earning it. The difference isn’t polish — it’s that one is designed to be understood and the other is designed to be presented.
Before · Topic title (weak)
Revenue Overview
After
Revenue declined 15% year-over-year, driven by three operational failures
Before · Topic title (weak)
Market Landscape
After
The addressable market has doubled since 2022, but three incumbents control 74% of spend
When you’d reach for it
Any time a deck has to change a decision, not just inform. If the audience can walk out having learned something but done nothing, structure barely matters. The moment money, headcount, or strategy hinges on the room saying yes, the argument has to be airtight — and that’s where this methodology pays for itself.
- Board and investor decks, where you get three slides before attention is gone
- Fundraising and pitch decks that have to make a case, fast
- Internal strategy, budget, or go/no-go recommendations to executives
- Any deck that’s ever earned a blank stare or a “so what?” in the room
What this skill does
Most slide decks decorate. A consulting deck argues. This skill applies the methodology pioneered at McKinsey and adopted across top-tier firms so your deck reads as an argument an executive can follow from the titles alone.
It works in three modes. Critique — hand it an existing deck and it evaluates the narrative, the titles, and each slide’s logic, and tells you exactly what to fix. Draft — describe the situation and it builds a storyline from scratch. Update — point it at specific problems and it applies the fixes. It’s a Productivity-category skill and it’s free.
Try asking it
Real prompts, and what the skill hands back.
You ask
“Critique this 20-slide board deck. Read only the titles in sequence — do they tell a coherent story? Flag every topic title and rewrite it as an assertion.”
What comes back
A slide-by-slide critique against narrative, title, and logic dimensions — with every “Q3 Results”-style topic title rewritten into a takeaway sentence.
You ask
“Draft a ghost deck for a Series A pitch: situation, complication, resolution, then three proof pillars. Action titles only, no design yet.”
What comes back
A storyboard of full-sentence action titles that tells the whole argument top-to-bottom before a single slide is designed.
The consulting method it applies
Action titles
Every headline is a complete sentence stating the takeaway. Read the titles top to bottom and you have the whole argument.
The Pyramid Principle
Lead with the answer, then group support into MECE pillars — each level proves the one above it (Barbara Minto’s method).
Situation–Complication–Resolution
The deck’s arc: shared context, the tension that demands action, then your recommendation.
One message per slide
Each slide makes exactly one point — the one in its title. Every chart, table, and icon exists to prove it.
The “So what?” test
No slide leaves the audience thinking “so what?” — the implication is always explicit.
Ghost deck first
Lay out the full sequence of action titles before any design. If the titles don’t tell a story, the deck isn’t ready.
The stack it plugs into
Slide Craft gets the argument right; a style skill gets the look right. Stack it with a deck-styling skill — the way our own team pairs it with agentman-pptx-style — and you go from a rough storyline to an on-brand, exhibit-driven deck in one pass.
It also pairs naturally with research and analysis skills: let a synthesis skill find the story, then let Slide Craft structure it into an argument an executive will actually approve.
Who it’s for
- Founders building pitch and board decks that have to land in the first three slides
- Operators and analysts who present recommendations to executives
- Anyone whose deck has ever gotten a “so what?” in the room
Do it yourself — without hiring a consultant
The methodology is a consulting firm’s core product, and this skill puts it in your own hands for free. Here’s how to run it on a deck you already have (or one you’re starting from scratch):
Point Claude at the right skill
agentman_skillsmckinsey-slide-craftAlready connected your library to Claude? Just tell it: “Use the mckinsey-slide-craft skill from the agentman_skills MCP server.” Not connected yet? The Try in Claude / ChatGPT button above loads it from the public library — no setup. (connect your library.)
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Load the skill
Click “Try in Claude / ChatGPT” above, or — if you’ve connected your library — tell Claude: “Use the
mckinsey-slide-craftskill from theagentman_skillsMCP server.” Naming the slug and server points it at exactly the right skill. - 2
Pick a mode
Tell it whether you want to Critique an existing deck, Draft a new one, or Update one with specific fixes. If you don’t say, it’ll ask.
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Start with the titles
Paste your slide titles (or describe your situation) and ask it to read them in sequence: do they tell a coherent story? It will flag every topic title and rewrite it as an action-title sentence.
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Build (or fix) the ghost deck
Before any design, get the storyline right: title → executive summary → situation → complication → resolution → next steps. The skill lays this out as action titles first, so you approve the argument before investing in slides.
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Choose the right exhibit
For each slide, ask it which chart fits — it applies a chart-selection guide (comparison → bar, change over time → line, part-of-whole → waterfall, never pie) and flags anti-patterns like data dumps and bullet-point disease.
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Pressure-test before you present
Ask it to run the “so what?” sweep: every slide has to make its implication explicit. If a skeptical executive would think “so what?”, the skill tells you where and how to fix it.
That’s the same sequence a consultant would run — the difference is it costs you a prompt instead of a retainer, and you keep the methodology for the next deck.
Try McKinsey Slide Craft right now
One click loads the skill into Claude or ChatGPT — no account, no setup.
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