Webinar Wire

The 10-20-30 PowerPoint Rule

Posted by Ken Molay February 11 2009 7:32 PM EDT

Todd wrote in to share a video of Guy Kawasaki talking about his 10-20-30 PowerPoint rule. I have been aware of "Guy's Law" since his original blog post in 2005. The video is essentially a live reading of the same points he made on his blog.

Guy is a fun and accomplished presenter and public speaker. Heck, the man invented the concept of product evangelism, so he should be good at spreading enthusiasm for his points of view! The video is less than two minutes long and well worth watching. It's a great example of an irreverent, conversational presentation style, delivered succinctly, powerfully, and with personal warmth.

The 10-20-30 rule has received regular reference and reverence by bloggers and pundits since its appearance. It works well because it is easy to remember and summarize: Presentations should have 10 slides, should last 20 minutes, and should have font sizes at or above 30 points.

Is this rule applicable to your web seminars? Maybe. But maybe not.

Guy's Law is really a shorthand summation of several well-respected best practices of presentation design. Going through the underlying principles is not as fun as applying numbers and brief absolutisms, but the key ideas are these:

• Cut information to the key fundamentals that achieve your goal and that interest and provide value to your audience. Eliminate fluff and eliminate details best left for reference documents.
• Don't linger too long on a single visual or concept. Continually re-engage your audience's attention with updated content.
• Make your visual elements engaging and easy to take in at a glance so that they support your vocal delivery, not replicate it.

Guy's numerical interpretations of these concepts were written specifically for people trying to pitch investors and venture capital firms. He says so in his blog post and his video presentation. That subject area has been his primary focus for several years. The target audiences are typically older, cynical, well-acquainted with the fundamentals that any such presentation will contain, and overloaded with similar presentations.

If you are using a presentation to conduct training classes, hold lead generation events for the public, or run team meetings, the numbers may not (and probably do not) apply to you. If you are presenting technical information to a professional audience, the rule almost certainly doesn't apply. But in all cases, the underlying concepts are crucial and need to be followed.

Don't get too caught up in the minutiae of the exact number of slides and the exact amount of time spent on each. If a 24 point or 28 point font lets you fit a key concept point on one line rather than wrapping to two lines, go ahead and use it.

Remember, highly effective people don't have just 7 habits. Better webinars aren't the result of just 10 tips. Numbers are a great way to engage people's attention and get them thinking about the many different techniques that can incrementally improve the effectiveness of your work. But in the end they are marketing gimmicks. Pay attention to the underlying message and work to make your presentations engaging, valuable, and understandable. If you have no idea where to begin, Guy's Law gives you a starting point. Work from there.