PowerPoint Math: The 10-20-30 Rule
Today we look at another PowerPoint “rule”, this one from venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki.
According to Kawasaki, a PowerPoint presentation should have 10 slides, last no more than 20 minutes, and contain no font smaller than 30 points. Although he designed the rule for presentations to venture capitalists, Kawasaki says that it applies to “any presentation to reach agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc.”
Let’s look at Kawasaki’s rationale for the 10-20-30 Rule:
“Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting—and venture capitalists are very normal. … If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business.”
“Sure, you have an hour time slot, but you’re using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector. Even if setup goes perfectly, people will arrive late and have to leave early. In a perfect world, you give your pitch in twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for discussion.”
“The reason people use a small font is twofold: first, that they don’t know their material well enough; second, they think that more text is more convincing. … Force yourself to use no font smaller than thirty points. I guarantee it will make your presentations better because it requires you to find the most salient points and to know how to explain them well.”
The entire article by Kawasaki can be found here. Alternatively, below is a short clip in which Guy himself explains his rule. It humorous, insightful and worth two minutes of your time.
In a recent post, I slammed the 1-6-6 Rule of PowerPoint as being a bunch of nonsense. What do I think of the 10-20-30 Rule? I like it, even if I don’t necessarily agree that one must rigidly adhere to each of its elements:
Will your presentation implode if you have eleven slides? I suspect not. In fact, when thinking about this issue, I was reminded of this scene from the 1984 classic mock musical documentary This is Spinal Tap (key part starts at 1:18):
But I agree 100% with the philosophy. Do not try to overload your presentation with information. Your audience will not be able to absorb it. Hit the key points. You can always provide more details afterwards.
Same issue, really. Would a well-crafted 25-minute presentation be so terrible? Probably not. But here too, I like Kawasaki’s minimalist approach. Rigorously sticking to 20 minutes will force you to think about what is important and what can be omitted. And nobody is going to hold it against you if you speak for less than your allotted time. By keeping the presentation brief, you can expand on points of interest to your audience during the Q&A session.
An excellent suggestion. Keeping your font large will force you to choose your words judiciously and will also make it easier fo your audience to read your slides. (Of course, you should not just use text – be sure to add some visuals.)
So there you have it. A PowerPoint “rule” worth considering the next time you have a presentation coming up.
