In this second installment of the Pitch Deck Series, we will focus on crafting a powerful solution slide for your pitch deck and why it is so critical.

A photo of a person holding a solved Rubik's cube

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Are you forgetting something?

I encountered this much, much more frequently than I expected. You receive a pitch deck from an entrepreneur, and after reading through a whole deck you suddenly realize you have absolutely no clue how this venture solves this very attractive problem.

As an entrepreneur, you undoubtedly spend much of your waking time on the solution. You think it through, tinker and toil at prototypes and experiments, perhaps you are already developing it or have a working demo. You might even have the solution in use. You live and breathe your solution it becomes second nature to you. To your audience however, this isn’t clear nor obvious – which is why you must clearly explain your solution.

Craft a powerful solution slide

What you want your audience to walk away with:

They understand how your solution solves the problem – You want to create the clarity and understanding of how you intend to solve the problem you just outlined, and how the benefits associated with your solution can materialize.
They believe you know how to build it – Instill the confidence that you and your team know what needs to be built and you have the skills and know-how to execute.
They understand how it’s different, and why it’s non-trivial – You are solving this problem in a unique and better way, and this cannot be easily done by others. You should also have a dedicated slide on competition, so make sure the solution slide tees it up nicely.

Bring your solution to life

Use Analogies

Analogies are great because they are relatable, memorable and succinct. They help people “get it” quickly. If there’s a good analogy you can use this can greatly help in creating that intuitive understanding of how you are solving the problem. Just make sure to use an analogy that would be familiar to your audience - using an obscure one not only detracts from clarity but can also make your audience uncomfortable.

Demonstrate a Use Case

While you are very familiar with the context for your solution, your audience might not be familiar enough to understand how the solution would work in such a context. Taking a key use case that demonstrates how you are solving the core problem is a great way to create clarity and understanding. It also allows you to highlight the uniqueness of your solution along multiple points on the journey.

Use Screenshots, Videos or Animations

Many people are visual thinkers. Help them see the solution instead of forcing them to try and imagine it. This doesn’t mean you need to have the solution already – use mockups instead. The more realistic the solution seems the better, so do invest in a polished look. If you are addressing a complex workflow or interaction between parties, an animation can do wonders in making it crisp and clear.

A great solution slide - A great investment

Your solution slide has amazing reuse value. Beyond your investor pitch deck, you will find that the solution slide is one that you will be able to reuse in different contexts. It is critical when engaging potential early adopters, domain advisors, and later on in your first sales pitches as well (be sure to adapt as necessary though). Having a powerful, clear solution slide will serve you well down the road. Invest in making it truly shine.

Pitfalls to avoid

Test clarity with people who are not in the details

Because you spend so much time on your venture, you might think everything is clear. Test this with people who are farther removed - friends and family work great here. Doing this with a friendly audience can greatly help you in creating a clear and crisp solution slide. One way to test this is to pitch it and ask your friendly audience to explain it back to you. You will immediately see what they walked away with and what got lost.

Keep the storyline in mind

Your solution slide should fit naturally into your storyline. You don't want the solution slide to feel like a break from your overarching story. The use case is one way to weave it all together, but not the only way. The solution slide should underpin your story, it should not become a distraction.

Avoid going too deep and taking up too much time

A pitfall can be going into too many details or diving deep into a demo for many minutes. This is an important part of your pitch, but time is very precious and many details may not be that important. Aim for a level of detail that supports clarity, instills confidence while avoiding confusion while removing any detail that goes beyond that. As a goal, it should take no more than 2-3 minutes tops to walk through.

Watch the jargon

Your audience may not be experts in the domain you’re operating in. Avoid using industry specific or deep domain jargon. You want people to understand it without feeling confused. You can include references to the domain terminologies for those in the audience who do understand it, but not at the expense of confusing those who do not. If it clutters the slide, skip it.

If you know up front that your audience is very domain aware, you can create another flavor of the slide for such an audience. It’s always a good idea to tailor your presentation to the specific audience.

Bonus Elements

These are additional elements that add to your story, but that doesn’t mean you should cram everything into one slide. It’s ok to break them into a separate slide instead. More on that in future installments of this series 😊

Testimonials and Proof Points

You may be advanced enough in your journey to already have a pilot customer, demo product, etc. If you are, add a slide with testimonials from customers if possible. This creates great credibility. If early experiments or users can demonstrate the benefits you aim to achieve, make sure to include those as well!

Project a horizon for evolution

This is a bonus, not a must and highly depends on the stage of your venture. If you can somehow project how your solution will expand and evolve over time, this helps instill confidence in a few aspects: There’s potential for continuous value delivery, There’s more opportunity for sustainable differentiation, and, There is a potential to expand your target market over time.

Addressing Concerns and Risks

Beyond routine R&D risks that exist for any project and shouldn't be addressed, there may be other risks in developing and introducing your solution. In regulated industries such as Healthcare, this could be related to regulatory requirements and approvals. In other cases it can have more to do with the core technology, critical external dependencies or access to data. As much as possible you want to address these within your primary flow or have a backup slide ready. This achieves two things: 1) It shows you are aware of these risks, and 2) you have through them through and have an approach to de-risk them.

Have some other tips or insights on solutions slides? Share them in the comments!

Need help with your pitch deck and story telling? contact me

Craft a powerful Solution slide: the often-forgotten heart of your Pitch Deck [pitch deck series]