The Take-Home Slide
At a recent conference, one presenter did something that immediately caught my attention – and apparently everyone else’s too! You know how most talks end with a “Take-Home” slide? It’s that tidy little 2-4 bullet point summary that tells you, “Here’s what you should remember, even if you forgot everything else.” It’s usually labeled something like Summary, Key Takeaways, or In Closing, and it usually shows up near the end of the slide deck – when everyone is already thinking about lunch.
But this presenter? They put the Take-Home slide as slide #2. Right after the title. No warm-up. No agenda slide. No rambling intro. Just – bam! – “Here’s what you’re going to walk away with.”
And honestly? The audience loved it.
Most presentations have an Agenda, Roadmap, Outline, Table of Contents, or Navigation slide to cover the structure of their talk. It’s familiar, it’s expected, and it gets the job done. But leading with a Take-Home slide does something a little different: it sets expectations, not just structure. Instead of saying, “Here’s what we’ll talk about,” it says, “Here’s what you’ll get from listening.”
It reframes the whole presentation from a content list to a value promise.
And that tiny shift, from outlining the journey to highlighting the destination, changes how the audience pays attention. They know exactly why it matters, right from the start.
Just another idea for the next presentation you are designing. 😊
-Troy and the TLC Creative Services Presentation Design Team