Project Deck Skill

Create beautiful presentation decks to communicate project status to your future self and collaborators.

Purpose

Based on Scott Cunningham's Part 7: "Making Beautiful Decks For My Future Self" - using decks not for public speaking but to efficiently communicate work status across time and to coauthors.

The Philosophy

"I use decks to help me keep track of the work I was doing so that I can communicate it to my coauthors and myself later in the week when we meet to go over our projects."

Claude has absorbed the "rhetoric of decks" - the tacit knowledge about what makes presentations effective:

• One idea per slide
• Titles are assertions, not labels
• Lead with conclusions
• Visual hierarchy signals importance
• Repeat for retention
• Transition explicitly

When to Use

• Before a supervisor meeting
• At the end of a research sprint
• When handing off to a coauthor
• When returning to a dormant project
• Weekly project status updates

Workflow

1. Read project context - Progress logs, current focus, recent work
2. Design deck structure:
   • Research question
   • What's been done (with figures/tables)
   • Key findings so far
   • Current blockers
   • Next steps
3. Create beautiful output - Clean design, good typography, optimal cognitive density
4. Include visuals - Figures, tables, diagrams that capture the work

Deck Rhetoric Principles

## Principles for Effective Decks

1. **One idea per slide** - Don't overload
2. **Titles are assertions** - "Distance increases abortion rates" not "Results"
3. **Lead with conclusions** - Don't bury the lede
4. **Visual hierarchy** - Most important things stand out
5. **Optimal cognitive density** - Smooth delivery, not overloaded
6. **Beautiful figures and tables** - Data visualisation matters
7. **Explicit transitions** - Guide the reader through the narrative

Extended Rhetoric Principles

For Research Decks

• Motivation slides: Why should anyone care? What's the gap?
• Methods slides: Identification strategy in plain English, visualize variation
• Results slides: Lead with main coefficient, visualize where possible
• Figures: Clear titles, labeled axes, no chartjunk

For "Decks as Thinking Tools"

When making decks for yourself/coauthors:

1. Document decisions — Why did we choose this approach?
2. Visualize data — Patterns you've discovered
3. Track progress — What's done, what's next
4. Summarize code — What scripts do what
5. Capture context — So future-you remembers

Beamer Tips

• Custom themes > recognizable templates
• Metropolis or Madrid themes as starting points
• Sans-serif fonts for readability
• Generous margins and whitespace
• Compile without warnings (fix overfull hboxes)

Example Prompt

"Create a project deck for my Indifference Adjustments paper. Read my progress logs and the current state of the project, then make a 10-slide deck that I can use in my supervisor meeting next week. Include the key figures and a clear 'what's next' section."