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Martin Tanner, 21st August 2025

The slide looked great in rehearsal. It had movement. Arrows. A build. It was meant to show how everything connected.

But in the room? It landed like a brick.

• “Wait, what's the arrow pointing to?”
• “Was that meant to animate in that order?”
• “Why is that box floating?”

Suddenly, the room's squinting. Someone's trying to redraw it on a flipchart. And the person presenting it is realising they've become the slide's interpreter, not the pitch's storyteller.

We've all had one. The slide that looked good on paper but fell apart in execution.

• It derailed the flow.
• It invited confusion.
• It turned a confident pitch into a decoding exercise.

And the worst part? You knew it was risky. But you left it in anyway.

So here's one for the pitch teams:

• What's the one slide you always regret including?
• And why was it such a disaster?

I would love to hear your stories... and any lessons learned!