5-minute presentation training

You Can Present Your Work.
Just Follow a Formula.

(hopefully they're charts)

The Five-Step Formula

Every chart on this page uses the same delivery sequence. Memorize these five steps and you won't worry about what to say next. The formula applies to most visuals an analyst would create and present.

  1. Explain the horizontal axis.
  2. Explain the vertical axis.
  3. Walk through the legend or groups.
  4. Put one number into a sentence.
  5. Share the takeaway.

Before the case · Why the formula matters

Bad example

You can't present every chart. If a chart is too busy the creator didn't spend enough time on it.

Carvana — Everything We Could Possibly Measure

Too many metrics · too many scales · no single number · no clear takeaway

$14B $10B $7B $4B $2B $0 $5,000 260 idx 0% −30% −$2B $360 Stimulus Prices peak ADESA bought Rates rise Revenue Net loss GPU Debt Interest Units Stock prices spike scale into it? prices roll over demand reverts is this debt? or interest? 2020 Q1 Q3 2021 Q1 Q3 2022 Q1 Q3 Legend: revenue, net loss, gross profit per unit, total debt, interest expense, units sold, share price, used-car index, peers, events, and management actions

This chart resembles the same Carvana story, but it is not ready to present. Revenue, net loss, gross profit per unit, debt, interest, units, the share price, and the used-car price index all share one frame, on scales that don't belong together, with no single number the audience can hold onto.

Do not judge your presentation ability by a slide like this. No one can present it clearly because the slide does not give the presenter a path. We are going to tell the same story in a simpler manner: one chart, one number, one takeaway at a time.

Practice Case · Carvana 2020–2022

The story we will use for practice

To practice the formula, we need a story with real charts and a clear narrative. We will use Carvana from 2020 to 2022.

When the pandemic hit, used cars got scarce and expensive. New-car factories stalled for want of chips, stimulus checks landed, buyers avoided crowded dealerships, and money was nearly free to borrow. Carvana — which sells used cars online and delivers them from glass tower vending machines — sold more cars at higher prices than ever. Management read the surge as the new normal and scaled into it: more capacity, more staff, and a debt-funded $2.2 billion deal to buy ADESA's U.S. auction business in 2022.

The demand was borrowed, not earned. People weren't suddenly buying more cars forever; they were buying while prices were spiking and dealerships felt unsafe. When used-car prices normalized and interest rates rose in 2022, the boom reversed. Carvana was left selling fewer cars at thinner margins, carrying a cost base and a debt load built for a company several times its size.

Carvana's stock fell about 98% from its 2021 peak and the company came within reach of bankruptcy. The four charts below give us enough story to practice with. The chart type changes. The delivery method does not.

Chart 1 of 4 · Grouped bar chart

Slide takeaway

Revenue nearly quadrupled. So did the loss.

Carvana — Revenue and Net Loss by Year

USD billions · 2019–2022

Revenue Net loss
$14B $10.5B $7B $3.5B $0 $3.9B 2019 $5.6B 2020 $12.8B 2021 $13.6B 2022 $1.6B loss

Source: Carvana filings; macrotrends, stockanalysis. Fiscal year = calendar year. Navy bars are revenue; orange bars are net loss, the money the company was still behind by at year-end.

Presentation script using the five-step formula

  1. Explain horizontal axis "On the horizontal axis, we have the years 2019 through 2022."
  2. Explain vertical axis "On the vertical axis, we have dollars, in billions."
  3. Walk through legend/groups "Each year has two bars. The tall navy bar is revenue, the money that came in. The short orange bar next to it is net loss — the money the company was still down by at the end of the year after it paid for everything."
  4. Put one number in sentence "Revenue nearly quadrupled, from $3.9 billion in 2019 to $13.6 billion in 2022. But in 2022 the loss bar jumps to $1.6 billion, after sitting under $400 million every prior year."
  5. Share takeaway "The takeaway is that the headline everyone repeated — revenue up four times in three years — was sitting right next to a loss that was getting worse, not better."

Notice the order

The presenter does not start with the whole business story. They follow the same five-part order every time: explain the horizontal axis, explain the vertical axis, walk through the legend or groups, put one number into a sentence, share the takeaway. And if the number matters, put it on the slide so the audience does not have to do the math.

Chart 2 of 4 · Line chart

Slide takeaway

The whole used-car market spiked, then gave it back.

Used-Car Prices — Percent Above Early-2020 Levels

% change vs. early 2020 · early 2020 through end 2022

+80% +60% +40% +20% 0% 0% +57% +84% · peak Jan 2022 early '20 mid '21 end '21 end '22

Source: Cox Automotive / Manheim. Shown as the percent change in used-car prices from their early-2020 level: up about 47% across 2021, peaking roughly 84% above early-2020 in January 2022, then falling back to around +57% by year-end. The anchors are reported; intermediate points are illustrative of the trend.

Presentation script using the five-step formula

  1. Explain horizontal axis "On the horizontal axis, we have time, from early 2020 to the end of 2022."
  2. Explain vertical axis "On the vertical axis, we have how much more expensive used cars were than just before the pandemic, in percent. Zero is the early-2020 price level; higher means used cars cost more."
  3. Walk through legend/groups "There is one line. Follow it over time: it climbs hard, peaks, then turns and falls."
  4. Put one number in sentence "Used-car prices peaked about 84% above their early-2020 level in January 2022 — up 47% in 2021 alone, the biggest one-year jump on record — before falling back to around 57% above by year-end."
  5. Share takeaway "The takeaway is that the boom in Carvana's numbers was borrowed from the market, and the market took it back the moment prices peaked."

Chart 3 of 4 · Waterfall chart

Slide takeaway

The profit on each car never covered the cost of selling it.

Carvana — What Happened to the Money on the Average Car, 2022

USD per retail unit · 2022

+$4,000 +$2,000 $0 −$2,000 −$4,000 −$6,000 +$3,022 −$9,700 SG&A / car −$1,180 interest / car −$7,858 loss / car GPU

Illustrative decomposition — SG&A per car (~$9,700) and interest per car (~$1,180) are derived by dividing reported full-year totals by reported 2022 retail units (412,296); gross profit per unit (~$3,022) is company-reported. The per-car figures illustrate the economics; they are not Carvana-disclosed line items. Source: Carvana filings.

Presentation script using the five-step formula

  1. Explain horizontal axis "On the horizontal axis, we have the steps that happen to the money on the average car Carvana sold in 2022, left to right."
  2. Explain vertical axis "On the vertical axis, we have dollars per car. It starts with gross profit per unit, or GPU — what's left from selling one car after the cost of the car itself and getting it ready to sell; it's Carvana's own scoreboard stat. Above the line is money kept; below the line is money lost."
  3. Walk through legend/groups "We start at the GPU bar on the left. Each bar to the right subtracts a cost — SG&A per car, which is selling, general and administrative, the overhead of running the company: the ads, the salaries, the website, the car vending machines — then interest expense per car, the rent Carvana pays on its borrowed money. The running total walks down to the loss on the right."
  4. Put one number in sentence "Carvana started with about $3,000 of gross profit per car, then subtracted about $9,700 of SG&A per car — more than three times the profit — and the bar is deep underwater before you even reach interest."
  5. Share takeaway "The takeaway is that the profit on each car never came close to covering what it cost to sell that car, so selling more cars only lost more money."

Chart 4 of 4 · Slope chart

Slide takeaway

Everything that looked great in 2021 reversed in 2022.

Carvana — Four Metrics, 2021 vs. 2022

% change from 2021 · 2021 → 2022

2021 2022 +100% +50% 0% −50% −100% Debt +100% Units −3% GPU −33% Stock −98% all start at 0%

Source: Carvana filings; macrotrends. Each line is one metric, shown as its percent change from 2021. Underlying values: retail units 425,237 → 412,296 (−3%); GPU ~$4,537 → ~$3,022 (−33%); long-term debt ~$3.3B → ~$6.6B (+100%); share price ~$360 (Aug 2021 peak) → ~$4 (late 2022, −98%).

Presentation script using the five-step formula

  1. Explain horizontal axis "On the horizontal axis, we have two points in time — 2021 on the left, 2022 on the right."
  2. Explain vertical axis "On the vertical axis, every line shows its percent change from 2021 — each one starts at zero on the left, so you can compare moves on different scales on one picture. Up means the number grew; down means it shrank."
  3. Walk through legend/groups "Each line is one metric. Units, gross profit per unit, and the stock all slope down. Debt slopes the other way — and for a company, more debt is worse, not better."
  4. Put one number in sentence "From 2021 to 2022 the stock fell about 98% from its peak, while debt roughly doubled to $6.6 billion."
  5. Share takeaway "The takeaway is that nothing about the 2021 story survived contact with 2022, and the debt taken on at the top is what turned a bad year into a near-bankruptcy."

What you just practiced

The chart type changed. The approach to presenting them didn't.

The lesson: do not make the audience decode the chart alone. Use the five-part order: explain the horizontal axis, explain the vertical axis, walk through the legend or groups, put one number into a sentence, share the takeaway. You just did it for a grouped bar, a line, a waterfall, and a slope — four different charts, same five steps, same order.