Structuring a Presentation That Flows

The Architecture of Attention

In the previous lesson, we explored understanding your audience and purpose. Now let’s build on that foundation. Think of the best movie you’ve seen recently. It didn’t start with the credits and work through the entire plot chronologically. It opened with something that grabbed you. It built tension. It paid things off. It had a rhythm: intense moments followed by breaths.

Presentations work the same way. Structure isn’t just organization. It’s the architecture of attention. Get it right, and the audience follows you effortlessly. Get it wrong, and they’re on their phones by slide four.

The Foundation: Situation-Complication-Resolution

Every persuasive presentation follows a single pattern, whether the presenter knows it or not:

SITUATION    → Here's what we all know / agree on
COMPLICATION → Here's the problem / challenge / opportunity
RESOLUTION   → Here's what we should do about it

This works because it mirrors how the human brain makes decisions. We start with shared understanding, encounter a problem, and seek a solution.

Example:

• Situation: “Our customer satisfaction scores have been industry-leading for five years.”
• Complication: “But last quarter, we saw a 15-point drop, the first decline in our history, and it correlates exactly with the new checkout process.”
• Resolution: “I’m proposing we revert the checkout flow and run a proper A/B test before making any more changes.”

Use AI to find your SCR:

My presentation topic: [what you're presenting]
My audience: [who]
My recommendation: [what you want them to do]

Help me frame this using Situation-Complication-Resolution:
- Situation: What shared understanding can I start with?
  (Something the audience already agrees on)
- Complication: What problem or tension disrupts that
  understanding? (The reason this presentation exists)
- Resolution: What's my answer to the complication?
  (My recommendation, proposal, or insight)

Make each element one or two sentences. If it takes more,
it's not clear enough.

Opening Strong: The First 60 Seconds

You have about 60 seconds before the audience decides whether to pay attention. The opening must create a knowledge gap: a question, surprise, or tension that makes them need to know what comes next.

Five Opening Techniques

1. The surprising statistic “Every year, companies spend $356 billion on meetings. Sixty-seven percent of those meetings are considered unproductive by their own attendees.”

2. The question “When was the last time you left a meeting and thought, ‘That was a great use of my time’?”

3. The story “Last Tuesday, I watched a customer try to check out on our website. It took her eleven clicks. She gave up on click nine.”

4. The bold statement “Our hiring process is broken. Not struggling. Not underperforming. Broken.”

5. The contrast “Our competitors ship product updates weekly. We ship quarterly. Here’s what that gap is costing us.”

Use AI to generate options:

My presentation is about: [topic]
My core message: [one sentence]
My audience: [who]

Generate 5 opening options, one for each technique:
1. Surprising statistic
2. Provocative question
3. Brief story (under 30 seconds when spoken)
4. Bold statement
5. Contrast or comparison

For each, explain why it would work for this
specific audience.

The Three-Point Structure

After your opening establishes the SCR framework, organize your main content into three points. Why three?

• It’s the maximum most audiences retain from a single session
• It creates a satisfying rhythm (beginning, middle, end within the middle)
• It forces you to prioritize ruthlessly

My core message: [your resolution from the SCR]

Organize my supporting evidence into exactly 3 main points:
1. [The most compelling argument/evidence]
2. [The second most compelling]
3. [The third, which should also set up the conclusion]

For each point:
- State it in one sentence
- Provide the strongest evidence or example
- Connect it to the audience's priorities (from your cheat sheet)
- Suggest a transition to the next point

Quick check: Before moving on, can you recall the key concept we just covered? Try to explain it in your own words before continuing.

The Internal Structure of Each Point

Every main point follows a mini-structure:

CLAIM    → State the point clearly
EVIDENCE → Data, example, or story that proves it
MEANING  → Why this matters to the audience
BRIDGE   → Transition to the next point

This keeps each section focused and prevents the common trap of presenting evidence without interpretation.

Signposting: Your Audience’s GPS

Never assume the audience knows where they are in your presentation. Tell them explicitly.

Opening signpost: “I’m going to show you three reasons why we should invest in this project and what it means for our Q3 targets.”

Transition signpost: “That’s the customer impact. Now let’s look at the financial case.”

Summary signpost: “So we’ve seen the market opportunity, the competitive advantage, and the implementation timeline. Here’s what I’m asking for.”

Signposts feel redundant to the presenter but are essential for the audience. The presenter has lived with the material for days. The audience is encountering it for the first time.

The Close: Landing the Plane

Bad endings: “So, yeah, that’s about it. Any questions?”

Good endings do three things:

1. Summarize. Restate your three points in one sentence each.

2. Restate the core message. Circle back to the opening. If you opened with a problem, close with the solution. If you opened with a question, close with the answer.

3. Call to action. Tell the audience exactly what you want them to do next. “I need your approval by Friday.” “Sign up for the pilot program before you leave today.” “Think about one process you could improve, and bring it to our next meeting.”

My presentation covers these 3 points:
[Point 1]
[Point 2]
[Point 3]

My core message: [one sentence]
My opening used: [which technique]

Write a closing that:
1. Summarizes all three points in 2-3 sentences
2. Circles back to the opening for symmetry
3. Ends with a specific, clear call to action
4. Fits in under 90 seconds when spoken aloud

Time Management: The Slide Budget

Plan your time before building slides:

Always include a buffer. Presentations run long, never short.

The slide budget rule: Roughly one slide per minute for content slides. A 10-minute presentation needs about 8-10 slides. A 30-minute presentation needs 25-30. Fewer is almost always better.

Exercise: Structure Your Presentation

Using the audience cheat sheet from Lesson 2:

1. Write your SCR (Situation-Complication-Resolution) in 3 sentences
2. Choose your opening technique and draft the first 60 seconds
3. Organize your content into exactly 3 main points
4. Write signposts for each transition
5. Draft your close with summary, callback, and call to action
6. Create your time budget

Do all of this before touching your presentation software. The structure is the presentation. Slides are just the visual accompaniment.

Key Takeaways

• Every presentation follows Situation-Complication-Resolution, whether intentionally or not
• The first 60 seconds determine whether the audience pays attention; create a knowledge gap
• Limit yourself to 3 main points; more and the audience retains less
• Use signposts to guide the audience through your structure
• Close with summary, callback to opening, and specific call to action
• Plan your time budget before building any slides
• Structure first, slides second; always

Next lesson: writing slides that communicate clearly. One idea per slide, maximum impact.