The sample spreadsheet
A coffee chain I made up: three stores, July to September, with revenue, orders, categories, the delivery share and a few notes. Use it to try this yourself.
Version one: one sentence
Make me a PowerPoint for our Q3 sales report.
Version two: the spreadsheet, still one sentence
Make me a Q3 sales report PowerPoint from this spreadsheet.
The prompt that worked: two steps
Step one asks for findings and an outline only. No slides yet:
Attached is the Q3 sales data for our three Hilltop Coffee stores. I'm presenting it to my boss next Monday and I only get 5 minutes. My boss is busy and only cares about the bottom line and what they need to decide. Don't make the slides yet. First read the spreadsheet and tell me: 1. The 3 findings most worth presenting, each backed by numbers from the sheet; 2. A 5-minute outline: one sentence per slide saying what the boss should remember from it.
Once the outline is right, step two:
The outline works. Go ahead and build the deck: - Put the conclusion on the first slide; every slide title is a full sentence, and the body is 3 lines max; - Only use numbers from the spreadsheet, don't make anything up; chart whatever can be charted, using charts I can edit in PowerPoint; - The last slide lists what my boss needs to decide; - Write speaker notes for every slide, about 5 minutes when read aloud; - When you're done, check it yourself for text that overflows, overlaps or is hard to read.
Mia's tips
- If the decisions come out vague, add: "For each decision, give two options, your recommendation and the reason, using numbers from the sheet."
For your own deck, fill in the brackets:
Attached is (your data or notes). I'm presenting it to (who) on (when), and I only get (how many) minutes. (Who) mostly cares about (what). Don't make the slides yet. First read it and tell me: 1. The 3 findings most worth presenting, each backed by numbers from what I sent; 2. A (how many)-minute outline: one sentence per slide saying what (who) should remember from it.
The two final decks
Mia's tips
- Five slides each, with real PowerPoint charts: right-click one and choose Edit Data. The speaker notes are written too.
- I used Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Astra in Codex with reasoning at its highest setting. If the sheet doesn't spell something out, tell it what to assume.
One last question before you present
One last thing: what are the 3 questions my boss is most likely to ask after this? Give me a one- or two-sentence answer for each.
