Action titles: how to write slide titles that carry the argument

An action title is a slide headline written as a full sentence that states the slide's conclusion, for example “Revenue grew in every region; the Nordics led with +27%” instead of “Revenue”. The term comes from strategy consulting. PowerPoint has no special feature for it: you type the sentence into the normal title placeholder.

An action title answers the question “so what?” before anyone asks it.

There, decks are often read without a presenter. A partner, a client or a board member flips through forty pages before a meeting and reads mostly the titles. If the titles carry the argument, the deck works even when nobody reads the body.

People read titles first, and often only titles. Read in order, action titles tell the whole story of a deck. They also force you to know what you think before you design the slide, and they move the meeting from “what does this chart mean?” to “is this right, and what do we do?”

They suit decks that are skimmed. Board packs, pre-reads and sales decks forwarded inside a buying committee are skimmed. The title is the one line you can be sure gets read.

They force you to know what you think. You cannot write “Margin expansion came mostly from volume” until you have checked that it did. Writing the title first exposes slides that show data without a conclusion.

They make the storyline visible. Read the titles in order and you see whether the argument flows, repeats itself or jumps. That is much harder to notice when every title is a noun.

They shorten meetings. When the conclusion is on the slide, the discussion moves to whether it is right and what to do about it, instead of what the chart means.

1. One message per slide#

If your title needs an “and” to cover two unrelated points, you have two slides. “Revenue grew 18% and we need to replace the ERP system” is two messages and deserves two pages.

2. Write a full sentence with a verb#

“Strong Q3 growth” is still a topic. “Revenue grew 18% in Q3” is a statement someone can agree or disagree with. Verbs such as grew, fell, doubled, missed, outperformed, costs, saves, requires do most of the work.

3. Say the “so what”, not only the “what”#

A title can be true and still useless. “Customer satisfaction is 7.8” states a fact; “Satisfaction fell below 8 for the first time, driven by delivery delays” tells the reader why it matters.

4. Keep it to two lines#

At normal title sizes, two lines hold about 8 to 15 words. If you need more, cut adjectives, move the detail into the body, or split the slide.

5. Make the body prove the title#

The chart, table or text below the title is the evidence. If the title says the Nordics led, the Nordics should be highlighted in the chart. A title that the slide does not support is worse than a topic title, because it teaches the reader not to trust your headlines.

6. Use numbers, and the right ones#

Specific beats vague: “+27%” is stronger than “strong growth”. But pick the number that supports the point. If the point is relative growth, give the percentage; if it is scale, give the absolute value.

Notice what changes: every action title contains a verb, most contain a number, and each one could be wrong. That is the point. A title that cannot be wrong does not say anything.

You can check any deck in a few minutes, including one you did not write.

Here is what a deck passes the test like. These are the eight slides of the example board presentation template; the titles alone tell the quarter.

Paste your slide titles, one per line, and see which ones pass the test.

The rules apply to every slide, but the message sits in a different place depending on the content. These rules of thumb help with a first draft.

Chart slide. The title says what to see in the chart: the trend, the outlier or the comparison. “Margin fell for three quarters in a row to 11.4%” fits a line chart. Which chart suits which message is covered in our guide to choosing the right chart.

Table slide. A table shows many numbers; the title picks the one row or column that matters: “Only product C is above the margin target”. Highlight that row in the table.

Process and timeline slide. The message is usually “by when” or “what blocks it”: “The migration finishes in March if approval comes in January”. A title such as “Timeline” gives away the condition.

Comparison slide. State the result of the comparison, not the criteria: “Option B is 20% cheaper but takes four months longer”.

Decision slide. The title contains the ask: “We ask for €1.2m to build the pilot plant”. Whoever reads the title knows what is expected of them.

The title gives a number without a comparison. “Revenue is €4.2m” does not say whether that is good or bad. “Revenue is €4.2m, 8% above plan” gives the audience a yardstick.

The title is a question dressed as a statement. “Where is the market heading?” is a topic title with a question mark. Answer the question in the title: “The market grows 6% a year until 2028”.

The title hedges. Words such as “possibly”, “tends to” or “rather” take the force out of the message. If there is real uncertainty, name it precisely: “Revenue rises 5 to 8%, depending on whether customer A renews”.

The title is a paragraph. Nobody reads three lines of subclauses. Cut adjectives and filler, and move side findings into the body of the slide.

The title no longer matches the slide. This happens when you update the data and leave the title alone. “Every region is growing” becomes a false sentence as soon as one region shrinks. After any change to the numbers, check the titles first.

In the executive summary, the action titles of the main slides return in short form: the summary is then nothing but the list of titles as full sentences, plus the decision you need. That makes a good reverse test. If a main point does not fit in the summary, it is probably not a main point.

When several people work on one deck, everyone writes only their titles into a shared list first, and the group agrees the order before anyone builds slides. That avoids the most painful kind of rework: slides that are beautifully designed and have no place in the story. Titles are also an easy way to ask for corrections from others, because someone with only a few minutes can check ten sentences but not forty slides.

Not every page argues something. Keep short topic titles for:

• the title slide and section dividers,
• the agenda,
• quotes and testimonials, where the quote is the message,
• appendix pages that hold reference data.

Everything else, which is usually most of the deck, should get an action title.

AI tools are good at drafting action titles if you ask for them and give them the facts. They are bad at it if they have to guess the numbers or your conclusion.

When you brief a tool, say explicitly that every content slide needs an action title, and give it the numbers or attach the source files. Then run the title test on the result: a draft title can sound convincing and still state something your data does not support.

Ask to see the planned pages before the AI builds them, so you can correct the storyline at the outline stage and not on a finished slide. You still own the conclusions: read the titles in order before you send the deck. Our action title checker flags titles that are only a noun phrase.