1 Brief Breakdown & Success Criteria

Module 1 – Brief Breakdown & Success Criteria

Why this module matters

Before you gather data or design a single slide, you need rock-solid clarity on what you’re making and why it matters to your audience. This lesson gives you a fast, repeatable process for turning a vague request—“Give us a 15-minute presentation”—into concrete targets that guide every later step.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this module you will be able to…

Deconstruct any presentation brief in under five minutes.
Identify the top three questions your audience needs answered.
Define deliverables that fit a 15-minute time-box.
Set measurable success criteria you can check before you present.

1 Deconstruct the brief: five rapid questions

Ask and write down the answers to each:

Who is the audience? (Adjust tone, depth and visuals.)
Why do they care? (Link your deck to their goals or pain points.)
What must you deliver? (List analysis types, benchmarks, recommendations, etc.)
When is it due? (Controls how deep your research can go.)
How long must you speak? (Drives slide count—about 90 seconds per slide.)

2 Pinpoint audience “must-know” questions

Most interview panels secretly judge every deck on three dimensions:

Strategic insight – Can you think big-picture?
Evidence strength – Can you back claims with credible data?
Clarity & brevity – Can you communicate concisely and stay on time?

Keep these checkpoints in mind while outlining.

3 Define the deliverables

For a 15-minute interview presentation, a practical default is:

10 slides total (including opener and close).
Speaker notes beneath each slide.
Visual evidence (charts, photos, icons) on roughly one-third of the deck.
Runtime strictly ≤ 15 minutes.

4 Set your success-criteria checklist

Use this as your pre-flight quality gate:

One-sentence takeaway at the top of every slide.
No more than six bullets on any slide.
Readable visuals with alt text for accessibility.
Consistent branding (colours, font, logo).
Full rehearsal finishes under 15 minutes.

Recap

Deconstruct the brief → scope clarity.
Identify audience questions → relevance.
Define your deliverables → realistic workload.
Set success criteria → built-in quality control.

Lock these four elements now and every downstream step—research, prompting, design, rehearsal—will fall neatly into place.

Next step

Continue to Module 2: Building a Deep-Research Report in ChatGPT, where you’ll gather and verify all the facts you need before writing a single slide.