NarrativeFirstPresentation
title: Narrative-First Presentation type: technique created: 2026-09-20 last_updated: 2026-09-20 related: [] sources: ["https://martinfowler.com/articles/never-send-slides/nail-your-narrative.html"] radar_quadrant: Techniques radar_ring: Assess radar_position: inner
Many presentations start in slide software, which pushes the presenter to slice the story by visuals while also making design choices. Narrative-First Presentation is a method for settling the story before any slide exists, so the deck follows the argument instead of shaping it.
The method in Nail Your Narrative, written by Sumeet Gayathri Moghe of Thoughtworks, has five steps. The presenter first identifies the big idea by defining a point of view and what is at stake, then combines them into one sentence. Next comes an audience persona, built by naming, personifying and describing the audience and identifying what they will take away, capped at three takeaways. The presenter then chooses a story structure, fleshes out the narrative, and finally creates a storyboard that describes each slide simply, using sticky notes or a slide sorter view, before designing anything.
The essay recommends six story structures: Sparkline, Explainer, Pitch, Hook-Meat-Payoff, Situation-Complication-Resolution and Hero's Journey. It offers four ways to flesh out the narrative: collaborative whiteboarding, diagram-centric development, narrative writing, and voice memos with AI transcription. The essay stresses that the narrative is not a static artefact, because designing slides challenges the assumptions of the outline.
The essay follows a piece titled "Do You Even Need a Presentation?" in a series on never sending slides, with later posts planned on slide design principles.
The technique is placed in Assess. It is a clear, reusable sequence from a well-regarded source, but the evidence is a single essay and there is no first-person use. It is worth trying on the next presentation that has to persuade rather than merely inform.
