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.

JC Penney — Everything We Could Possibly Measure

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

120 100 80 60 40 20 +20% 0% −10% −20% −30% −40% Johnson hired Pricing reset Store changes CEO exits Revenue Comp sales Traffic Online Margin Inventory Sentiment promo removed traffic falls? stores reset pricing + layout is this traffic? or margin? Q1 '11 Q3 '11 Q1 '12 Q3 '12 Q1 '13 Q3 '13 Legend: revenue, comp sales, traffic, ATV, gross margin, inventory, online sales, sentiment, peers, events, and management actions

This chart resembles the same JC Penney story, but it is not ready to present. Too many metrics, mixed units, dual axes, too many annotations, and 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 · JC Penney 2011–2013

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 JC Penney from 2011 to 2013.

In 2011, JC Penney hired Ron Johnson — the executive who built the Apple Store — to fix the struggling department store chain. His plan was to eliminate coupons and provide fewer promotions, fewer fake discounts, and everyday low prices.

Johnson was not just changing prices. He was asking customers to abandon the shopping behavior JC Penney had trained them to expect. When a brand depends on a habit — coupons, deals, weekly promotions — changing that habit overnight is dangerous. Let a competitor prove the customer will accept the new behavior first, or test it in a controlled way before forcing the whole customer base through the change.

Johnson was fired after 17 months. The four charts below give us enough story to practice with. The chart type changes. The delivery method does not.

Chart 1 of 4 · Bar chart

Slide takeaway

JC Penney's revenue fell $4.3 billion in Ron Johnson's first full year.

JC Penney — Annual Revenue

Fiscal year · USD billions · 2009–2013

$20B $15B $10B $5B $0 $17.6B 2009 $17.8B 2010 $17.3B 2011 Johnson starts $13.0B 2012 $4.3B drop $11.4B 2013

Source: JC Penney annual reports. Dark bars = pre-Johnson era. Red bars = Johnson era.

Presentation script using the five-step formula

  1. Explain horizontal axis "On the horizontal axis, we have fiscal years from 2009 through 2013."
  2. Explain vertical axis "The vertical axis is showing annual revenue, measured in billions of dollars."
  3. Walk through legend/groups "Each bar is one year of revenue. The dark bars are before Ron Johnson took over. The red bars are after he arrived."
  4. Put one number in sentence "In 2012, revenue fell from $17.3 billion to $13.0 billion — a $4.3 billion drop in one year."
  5. Share takeaway "The takeaway is that revenue collapsed almost immediately after the pricing strategy changed. There was no adjustment period."

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

Same-store sales were soft before Johnson arrived, then collapsed when customers were asked to shop differently.

JC Penney — Comparable Store Sales Growth

Quarter-over-quarter % change vs. prior year · Q1 2011 – Q3 2013

0% −10% −20% −30% Johnson hired Nov 2011 Johnson fired Apr 2013 Q1 2012: −18.9% first full quarter Q4 2012: −31.7% Q1 '11 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 '12 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 '13 Q2 Q3

Source: JC Penney quarterly earnings releases. Includes four quarters before Johnson was hired and every quarter of his tenure.

Presentation script using the five-step formula

  1. Explain horizontal axis "On the horizontal axis, we have quarters from Q1 2011 through Q3 2013. That gives us four quarters before Johnson was hired and every quarter he was in charge."
  2. Explain vertical axis "On the vertical axis, we have comparable store sales — the percentage change in sales at stores that were already open the year before."
  3. Walk through legend/groups "There is one line. It shows the sales trend over time. The dashed markers show when Johnson was hired and when he was fired."
  4. Put one number in sentence "In Q1 2012, the first full quarter after Johnson took over, comparable store sales were down 18.9%. By Q4 2012, they were down 31.7%."
  5. Share takeaway "The takeaway is that sales were already soft before Johnson arrived, but they collapsed when the company forced customers into a new shopping model and never recovered during his tenure."

Chart 3 of 4 · Bar chart — two panels

Slide takeaway

The old customer left before the new customer behavior took hold.

JC Penney — Traffic Per Store and Average Transaction Value

2011 vs. 2013 · estimated transactions per store per day and average transaction value in dollars

Transactions per store per day Average transaction value 900 850 800 750 700 650 860 690 2011 2013 down 170/day $55 $52 $49 $46 $43 $40 $50 $41 2011 2013 down $9

Average transaction value is shown in dollars. Transactions per store per day are rounded estimates derived from annual revenue, estimated ticket size, and average store count. Showing the two measures in separate panels keeps the units honest and easy to read.

Presentation script using the five-step formula

  1. Explain horizontal axis "On the horizontal axis, both panels compare 2011 with 2013."
  2. Explain vertical axis "The left panel measures estimated transactions per store per day. The right panel measures average transaction value in dollars."
  3. Walk through legend/groups "In both panels, the dark bar is 2011 and the orange bar is 2013. The dotted connector shows the size of the drop."
  4. Put one number in sentence "From 2011 to 2013, average transaction value fell from $50 to $41, and transactions per store per day fell from about 860 to about 690."
  5. Share takeaway "The takeaway is that JC Penney had two problems at once. Fewer customers were coming in, and the customers who did come were spending less. The old promotion-driven customer left before a new everyday-low-price customer appeared."

Chart 4 of 4 · Table

Slide takeaway

Across 2011 to 2013, peers stayed positive or near flat while JC Penney collapsed.

Comparable Store Sales Growth — Peer Comparison

Full-year % change vs. prior year · columns = years · rows = retailers

Retailer 2011 2012 2013
JC Penney +0.2% −25.2% −7.4%
Macy's +5.3% +3.7% +1.9%
Kohl's +0.5% +0.3% −1.2%
Nordstrom +8.2% +7.3% +2.5%

Source: company annual reports filed with the SEC. Table uses each company's reported full-year comparable or same-store sales growth. Definitions differ slightly across retailers, but the directional contrast is still clear.

Presentation script using the five-step formula

  1. Explain horizontal axis "Across the top, we have years: 2011, 2012, and 2013."
  2. Explain vertical axis "Down the left side, we have the retailers: JC Penney, Macy's, Kohl's, and Nordstrom."
  3. Walk through legend/groups "Each cell shows the full-year comparable sales growth for that retailer in that year. Blue-shaded cells are positive. Red-shaded cells are negative."
  4. Put one number in sentence "In 2012 — the center column — JC Penney fell 25.2%, while Macy's grew 3.7% and Nordstrom grew 7.3%."
  5. Share takeaway "The takeaway is that JC Penney's collapse was company-specific. Over the same three years, the peer set was mostly positive or close to flat."

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.