Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 rule: make your business pitch easier to follow
When every slide needs a long explanation, the problem may be the argument rather than the design. Use constraints to decide what the audience needs.
Make the pitch short enough to discuss and clear enough to remember.
What the rule actually says
Kawasaki’s rule uses ten slides, no more than twenty minutes and text of at least thirty points. It is a presentation constraint intended to encourage focus. Our application below is a practical editing process for an owner’s pitch, not a claim that this format suits every meeting.
A technical workshop, a self-contained reading deck and a live sales conversation may need different formats. Decide what the document is for before applying the numbers. A deck that works when you speak may not provide enough detail when forwarded without you.
Begin with the audience’s decision
Write the decision the audience should be equipped to make. A prospective customer may be deciding whether to run a pilot. An investor may be deciding whether to investigate further. A team may be deciding which approach to test.
Now list the questions that decision requires you to answer. If a slide does not answer one, move it to supporting material or remove it. Do not cut relevant limitations simply because they make the offer less exciting.
Worked example: a founder’s customer pitch
Imagine a founder pitching a scheduling service to a facilities company. Her initial deck opens with five slides about the business before explaining what changes for the dispatcher. She rewrites the sequence around the customer’s decision.
The revised pitch shows the current scheduling problem, the proposed workflow, a short demonstration, the scope of a pilot, the work required from the customer and how both parties will review it. Detailed integration notes sit in an appendix for the technical discussion.
This is an original sequence rather than Kawasaki’s prescribed slide list. It keeps the focus on an understandable decision. If the audience needs to inspect a detail, the founder can open the supporting material instead of squeezing it into tiny text on the main slide.
Edit one overloaded slide
Take a slide with six bullet points and ask what claim it is making. Turn that claim into a short headline that remains accurate. Choose the evidence that most directly supports it: a product demonstration, a labelled chart or a clearly described example.
Keep assumptions and limitations visible. If a result comes from a small pilot, state that. If a figure is hypothetical, label it as an example. Large text should make the argument easier to inspect, not hide the conditions behind it.
Test the slide at the size your audience will actually see. Someone joining on a laptop or phone should still understand the main point. A readable handout can carry details that do not belong in a live presentation.
Rehearse interruptions, not just the timer
Ask a colleague to interrupt with a relevant question. Practise answering it and returning to the decision, without insisting on finishing every slide. Leave enough time for the audience to test the argument.
Afterwards, ask the listener to explain the offer, the evidence and the next step in their own words. That is a better check of clarity than whether you reached the final slide on time. Shortening a presentation helps only if the remaining story is understandable and true.
Try it in your business
Choose a real pitch and write the audience’s next decision. Remove or relocate slides that do not help with it. Rehearse once with interruptions, then ask the listener to repeat the scope, strongest evidence and remaining uncertainty.
Sources & editorial note
- Guy Kawasaki: The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint
NEXT MBA editorial analysis, prepared with AI assistance from the public sources above. The applications, scenarios and exercises are NEXT MBA examples, not quotations or transcripts. Product recommendations are ours; they do not imply the speaker’s endorsement of those products. Sources checked on 1 October 2026.