Research Talk Deck
Turn your research into a spoken, slide-driven deck built for a live audience.
Turns your AI into a talk-deck coach — turns a research project into a spoken, slide-driven deck built for a live audience, with one idea per slide, speaker notes, and timing that fits the slot.
Install it in 3 steps
No sign-up. No CLI tools. Pick your AI, copy one line, paste it over.
Prefer doing it yourself? Buy the skill ($4.99), download the ZIP from your checkout confirmation, unzip it into the directory shown above, restart your AI session — same result. Already bought it? Your AI assistant can download it for you.
What’s inside
One SKILL.md (the playbook) + one starter template. A preview:
Research Talk Deck
When to use
- You're giving a conference talk, seminar, lab meeting, or thesis defense and need slides that support your voice instead of replacing it
- You have a paper deck and need the spoken version — same research, completely different deck
- Your last talk ran over time, or the audience glazed over during slide 12 of your methods wall
- You're rehearsing a job talk or keynote where the audience ranges from specialists to non-specialists
- You need a deck that works when the projector fails — because you know the story, not just the slides
Workflow
- Find the story (input: paper/project materials → output: talk arc)
A talk is not a paper read aloud — it's a story with a spine: a puzzle or problem the audience can feel, the idea that cracked it, the evidence that convinced you, and what it means next. Write the arc in four beats before touching slides: Hook (why should anyone care), Gap (what's missing), Approach (your idea, in one sentence), Payoff (what changed). If you can't state the approach in one sentence, the audience won't be able to either. This arc is the contract for the whole deck. - Budget the time (input: talk arc + slot length → output: timed outline)
Take the slot length, subtract 20% for questions and transitions, and divide what's left across the beats: roughly 10% hook, 15% gap, 25% approach, 35% evidence, 15% payoff. Assign each slide a time budget in the outline — a 20-minute talk is about 15–20 slides, not 40. Write the timed outline before building any slide; a talk that runs long is a talk that disrespects its audience. - Build one-idea slides (input: timed outline → output: draft deck)
One idea per slide, one visual per slide, almost no text: a headline that states the idea in a full sentence, one figure/diagram/photo that carries it, and nothing else. Methods get one slide with a simple diagram, not a protocol. Results get one slide per punchline — show the one chart that lands the point, and say the number out loud instead of writing it in a paragraph. If a slide needs the audience to read more than ten words, split it or move the text to your notes. - Write the spoken script in the notes (input: draft deck → output: rehearsal deck)
Write what you will actually say in the speaker notes, slide by slide: the transition into the slide, the one sentence that lands the idea, and the transition out. Include stage directions — "pause here," "point at the red curve," "ask the audience" — and mark the slides where you must check the clock. The notes are the talk; the slides are the scenery. If you can't deliver the talk from the notes alone with the projector off, the notes aren't finished.
Template preview
Research Talk Deck — Template
One talk = one deck. Slides are scenery; the notes are the talk.
Talk arc
Slot length: {minutes} | Audience: {specialists / mixed / general} Hook: {why should anyone care — one sentence} Gap: {what's missing — one sentence} Approach: {your idea, in ONE sentence} Payoff: {what changed — one sentence}
Timed outline
Slide plan (one idea + one visual per slide)
Slide checklist (per slide)
- [ ] One idea only
- [ ] Headline states the idea in a full sentence
- [ ] ≤10 words of body text (the rest goes in notes)
- [ ] One visual, legible from the back row
- [ ] No slide you would skip or apologize for
