CEO-level Presentation Skills - Slide Writing for Consulting (Udemy.com)
Learn presentation skills from former strategy consultant, create slides meeting the standards of top consulting firms
Created by: Heinrich Rusche
Last updated February 2024
Our take
Based on the ratings of 6,529 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in February 2024. No course pays to be reviewed.
This is a 3.7 hour course on writing slides the way strategy consultants do. Heinrich Rusche, a former McKinsey consultant who now teaches slide writing in the University of St. Gallen MBA program, covers storylines, structure, charts, consistency, slide blueprints and workflow across 46 lectures. It is tool agnostic, though the demos run in PowerPoint. The audience is employees who prepare decks for leadership, consultants and business students. About 39,000 students have joined, and it holds a 4.2 rating from 6,529 reviews.
Most reviewers like how clear and organized it is. They mention tips they could use right away, such as treating each slide as a table, and one person said the alignment section alone was worth the class. The complaints repeat, though. People want more examples, more exercises and real case studies, especially in the storyline section. One reviewer found the MECE explanation vague and wanted more effort spent showing how to build slides quickly with blueprints. Two 2-star reviewers found the sample slides plain or dated, and one 3-star reviewer said it could have been a YouTube playlist and pointed to Minto's Pyramid Principle instead.
The last update was February 2024. It is short, which makes it a primer rather than a deep dive. Anyone who has already worked at a consulting firm will probably pick up little, as one reviewer put it. For newcomers who want a fast, organized start before practicing on real decks, it is a sensible pick.
Pros
- Clear, well-organized lessons that reviewers find easy to follow and apply to real decks
- Practical tips like treating each slide as a table, plus a well-liked section on alignment
- Covers storyline, structure, charts, consistency and blueprints in about 3.7 hours
- Tool agnostic, with templates, and taught by a former McKinsey consultant who teaches MBAs
Cons
- Few exercises and case studies, especially in the storyline section, say several reviewers
- Last updated February 2024, and some reviewers call the sample slides plain or dated
- Adds little for people with consulting experience, and the MECE explanation is called vague
Very clear and structured videos, and there are some interesting tips that I had not think about before, such as treating each page/slide as a table. Well done!
All Levels is generous. It suits beginners and intermediates with basic PowerPoint skills, not ex-consultants.
What you will learn
- Create slide presentations, meeting standards of top management consulting firms
- Write a storyline for your presentation, effectively bringing your message across
- Create structure in your presentation using tracker elements and other established tools
- Visualize your data in an effective way with charts and diagrams
- Improve your slide writing speed by understanding the application of slide blueprints
- Master the most important and practical keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint
Course content
8 sections · 46 lectures · 3.7 hours of video 6 quizzes, 10 articles
- 1Introduction to this course 4 free previews9 lectures · 36 min
- 2Create compelling storylines 2 free previews7 lectures · 1 quiz · 30 min
- 3Structure your presentations 1 free preview7 lectures · 1 quiz · 26 min
- 4Effective data visualization 1 free preview5 lectures · 1 quiz · 19 min
- 5Consistency as presentation principle 1 free preview5 lectures · 1 quiz · 39 min
- 6Increase production speed with slide blueprints 1 free preview5 lectures · 1 quiz · 26 min
- 7Workflow and other valuable tips 1 free preview5 lectures · 1 quiz · 42 min
- 8Wrap-up3 lectures · 2 min
Who it is for
The instructor says it suits
- Employees of any industry that need to create management-level presentations for their leadership
- Consultants that want to polish their slide writing skills and learn from top management consulting firms
- Business students eager to improve their presentation skills for better course grades or interview training
What you need before you start
- This course is run with PowerPoint, though any other presentation program works as well
- Basic understanding of how the presentation program of your choice works
- Be ready to learn a great amount of awesome new skills
How it compares
Against the other 392 rated Udemy courses in Communication Skills on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.2 out of 5higher than 6% of them
- Reviews6,529#62 of 393 by number of reviews
- Length3.7 hourslonger than 72% of them
- Last updatedFebruary 2024earlier than 71% of them
Course Description
Welcome to this presentation course that will teach you all presentation skills you need to create top management-level slide presentations! There are a couple of other course options on this topic out there, but this is without a doubt the most effective and comprehensive course on the market. This is why:
Teacher was Project Lead at MBB consulting firm (strategy consulting firm) with 4+ years of experience and 1,000+ created slides
I have slide writing teaching experience within my consulting firm but also teaching students in business schools
Slide templates, including tables, charts, structure pages and much more
Comprehensive slide writing skills covered from storyline to structuring details
Constantly updated with new material and examples
Does not require any specific presentation program - you choose your tool that best fits your workflow
I want you to stay focused, this course covers slide writing concepts and teaches you all the necessary presentation skills to create slide presentations like top management consultants. It will not focus on the specifics of how to use a presentation program.
Did you ever wanted to create slide presentations like a top strategy consultant? No matter if you are a young consultant, an entrepreneur or a business school student who wants to improve his slide writing skills, I will teach you the ins and outs of creating professional top management presentations.
These are some of the topics that we will cover:
Create compelling storylines that will win your audience
Structure your presentations in an intuitive way
Visualize data analyses with the right charts
Use consistency as a presentation principle
Increase production speed with slide blueprints
Learn the creation workflow and valuable design tips
I am very much looking forward to teaching you these exciting presentation skills in my course. Welcome on board!
Instructor Details
- 4.2 Rating
6,529 Reviews
Heinrich Rusche
Hi! My name is Heinrich. I am a former McKinsey strategy consultant, focusing on Marketing & Sales, Digital and Restructuring. Recently, I transitioned into an industry role, working as a CRO for a German PropTech company.
Our courses are offers from Firm Learning GmbH, our training and coaching company.
Education is a professional passion of mine. I taught students and junior employees in different roles throughout my career. Currently I teach Communications and Slide Writing at the University of St. Gallen MBA program.
I have been involved with Blockchain as a consultant and in the past contributed to projects in the Blockchain asset security space.
I graduated with distinction from the INSEAD MBA program in France and Singapore. Before, I completed an M. Sc. Accounting and Finance at London School of Economics. I also hold a B. Sc. Business Administration and a B.A. Philosophy from University of Munich.
In my spare time, I love to do sports and am quite a running enthusiast. Currently preparing for my next marathon but also interested in bouldering and fitness.
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Reviews
By Roald Niehaus on 11/10/2025
The course was good and definitely has a lot of useful hints, tips, and information. I do think the that the MECE Principle could be better explained since it was rather vague and didn't clearly convey the principle. I also think greater effort could be given to actually show how one can practically and rapidly create slides using blueprints, but other than that a great course.
By Amira Eltrabily on 8/31/2025
It's a very good course for beginners and may be good for intermediates , but for someone who actually worked before in a such consultant company it won't add much. I expected more examples and more practical exercises, especially in the storyline section , it was the most section I need. Overall Thank you for your effort, it's really a very good structured course and i highly recommend it for any one who want to start building presentations like a pro consultant! it's a very good organized begging.
By Anonymized User on 6/1/2023
Thanks so much Heinrich for sharing your knowledge. I've been watching your YouTube videos for a while, and they've been extremely helpful. I didn't get much from the course that you had not already covered in your videos and that was a little bit disappointing. However, here are my 5 stars to recognize how useful your content has been for me, regardless the source. Thanks!
By Frank Ward on 11/12/2022
The fundamentals of a slide presentation, helps see why things are the way they are. While in the course, I have gone back to presentations created by consultants that worked for us and can see the basis and how it all came together. Henrik provides a great class, with important content. The class isn't about what to put as it is so much how to put. The tips and tricks section on alignment was worth the whole class. Getting a slide to look aesthetically pleasing should be the end goal. The data should already speak for itself.
By Mark Knox on 3/13/2021
Very good course; excellent content. I have a fair amount of experience creating (high-quality) management presentations, but I still learned quite a few techniques that I will put to use immediately. I would love it if Henrich created an intermediate / advanced-level course on creating executive presentations. I would also love to see him create a beginner course on applying MBB consulting frameworks / case methodology.
By Grégor Nicolas on 1/11/2021
This is more of a presentation. The deep content on how to keep the flow of ideas and story telling has not been deep enough for me. I understand that in three hours not everything can be said but the time spent on the shortcut could be used to give case studies and examples to work on for the real life situations. As a teacher Heinrich is very professional and building the maturity on how to teach. So far he can present and make it with sometimes too much of political correctness and careful actions which do not touch the point that matter. good luck and I hope to see an improvement in the course vert soon.
By Abe Daitey on 12/7/2020
As far as using MS PowerPoint to prepare presentations go, I think this course does the job. Which is good thing if you have a tried and tested methodology to investigate a problem and propose solutions. I was left a little disappointed by the section on MECE, Issue trees and Storylines. A bit more detail would have been great. Maybe you can add links to additional resource materials. Thanks.
By Manasak Bantalapichai on 11/22/2020
The course and learning material is good, Heinrich definitely knows what he's doing. The problem is rather that most of this material is already available for free on his channel on youtube, so there is little value added in deck. Sometimes his youtubbe goes further into details even, e.g. the draft of storyboard on paper, which is a great learning.
This is a shame, as I hoped he would go more into details, as design principles/ thinking of how to a slide (e.g. left-right thinking in addition to vertical).
Anyhow if you dont bother to watch all the different youtube videos, then this course does give a good compilation.
By Kok Fung Lee on 11/15/2020
This course really is helpful in understanding the basics on developing slides in the management consulting field. Definitely an eye-opener to the tips, tricks and learnings that I have personally incorporated in my day-to-day slides making.
By Purusottam Potnuru on 11/15/2020
Course is great. Loved every bit of that. Learnt many new things.
It would be a lot better if he could have included a case study and how he would have approached it. The back end workflow on how he creates a final ppt. It would gift us a new perspective.
Overall, it was a great course. Worth it.
Thanks Heinrich
By Felicia Gentry on 11/8/2020
Yes
By Silvana Corrales on 11/8/2020
with so much experience its really sad - that you do not share some materials
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 84 / 100







