Short answer: a case study presentation outline is the plan you write before the deck exists — seven rows that say what each slide must prove, how many minutes it gets, and the talking points you will say over it. Fill the planner below in about twenty minutes, copy the result, and slide design turns into typing instead of deciding.
Every deck goes wrong in the design app for a decision that was skipped earlier: nobody budgeted the talk. The outline is where a case study presentation gets its shape — which slide argues what, in what order, with how much clock. Build it first and the deck is assembly; skip it and slide five becomes a surprise at one in the morning.
This page is the planning layer of the cluster. The case study presentation example shows a finished, annotated deck; the case study presentation rubric scores the talk you give; the ending guide owns the last minute. Here you plan the empty deck — and hand it to the delivery layer in how to present a case study once it is filled.
Who is this for? Anyone facing a graded case talk: seminar presentations built on a written case, MBA classes that cold-call after the deck, and capstone defenses where the panel reads along. If your course publishes a rubric, keep it open while you fill the planner — the weights tell you which rows earn the extra minutes.
The outline builder: seven rows before the slide app
Each row below is one slide with three decisions: the title it will carry, the minutes it gets, and the talking points you will actually say. The side panel keeps score — total minutes against the ten-minute target, a flow check on any slide taking more than a quarter of the talk, and a count of what is filled and done.
The word budget under each talking-points box assumes a calm 130 words per minute, and it moves when you change the row's minutes; a row marks itself Done once its talking points cover a quarter of that budget. Everything autosaves in this browser as you type — reload and the outline is still here; nothing leaves the page.
Slide Outline Builder — minute budgets and talking points
Seven slides, live timing gauge, flow check. Nothing is uploaded — the outline stays on your device.
0 of 65 budget words — speaking pace 130 wpm
0 of 130 budget words — speaking pace 130 wpm
0 of 195 budget words — speaking pace 130 wpm
0 of 195 budget words — speaking pace 130 wpm
0 of 260 budget words — speaking pace 130 wpm
0 of 195 budget words — speaking pace 130 wpm
0 of 260 budget words — speaking pace 130 wpm
Copy the outline and you get plain text: numbered rows, each with its role, minutes, title and dash-prefixed talking points — the shape that pastes cleanly into speaker notes, a notes app, or a printout for the podium. An over-budget plan prints a trim warning at the top, so the cut happens on paper instead of on stage.
The sample outline runs on an invented case — a small regional bakery chain weighing an expansion. Every figure in it is illustrative and none of it is market data; the point is the shape, not the bakehouse. Practice the same seven rows on any case from the case study sample for students before your graded one arrives.
How the sample plan reads once loaded
Load the sample and the side panel shows a plan that fits: ten minutes exactly, no flow flags, and every chip at Done because each row's talking points clear the planner's done line — a quarter of the words its minutes imply. The table below is the same plan on paper — compare it to your own row 5 when the findings evidence feels thin.
| Row (sample case) | Minutes | Word budget | Share of the talk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Title & hook | 0.5 | 65 | 5% |
| Context & stakes | 1 | 130 | 10% |
| The problem | 1.5 | 195 | 15% |
| Approach or decision | 1.5 | 195 | 15% |
| Findings & evidence | 2 | 260 | 20% |
| So-what impact | 1.5 | 195 | 15% |
| Ask + Q&A | 2 | 260 | 20% |
Notice the two twenty-percent rows carry the argument, and no single row crosses the quarter mark. That balance is the flow check doing its job — the middle of the talk owns the clock because that is where the case is decided.
What belongs on each of the seven slides
The planner gives each row a job; this section gives each job its content. Forty to eighty words of planning per slide is enough to design from.
Title & hook
A name and a promise: a title that names the problem rather than the course code, one number or image that buys attention, and a byline with your name, course and date. Write the hook sentence you will say over it — the figure the room will not forget. Half a minute here, no more; this slide is a doorway, not a room.
Context & stakes
Two or three facts that make the rest of the talk followable: what the organization is, what changed, and what the numbers say now. Every fact traces to the case — no interpretation yet, because interpretation without setup reads as bias. Name the sources the way the case hands them to you, so the chain from evidence to claim is visible later.
The problem
One decision question, phrased with should or which, carrying two live paths. This row is the hinge of the outline: if the question will not fit in one sentence, the deck will list symptoms for six slides and decide nothing. Give it a minute and a half even in a short talk, because everything after it inherits its precision.
Approach or decision
Say how you worked the problem before showing what you found: the two options compared, the framework applied, or the tests each path has to pass. The slide stops a grader from asking where your structure came from. One framework applied well beats three name-dropped, and this is the slide where that discipline shows.
Findings & evidence
The heaviest row of the budget and the one that earns analysis marks: one exhibit — a table, a chart, a costed comparison — with the takeaway line written under it in advance. Decide in the outline which numbers make the cut; a slide that needs four minutes of narration is two slides. Put the display and the sentence in this row while planning, not after.
So-what impact
The row most outlines skip. One minute on what changes if the recommendation runs: cash, staffing, risk, reputation — and what changes if it does not. Impact is where a committee decides to care, and where a grader checks that the analysis touched the real world the case describes. Write it as consequences, not as summary.
Ask + Q&A
The ask in one sentence — approve the trial, fund the pilot, pick the path — followed by the handoff into questions. Plan a planted question you can answer well, because the first question sets the tone of the whole round. Add owners and dates where the case allows it, and keep the thank-you written down so the ending costs ten seconds, not thirty.
Read the seven cards in order and a pattern shows up: the odd rows argue, the even rows support. Hook, problem and findings carry claims; context, approach and impact make them land; the ask collects. When time pressure hits, the support rows compress first — but they compress, they never vanish, because a claim without its support row is just an opinion with a slide number.
Minute budgets for an 8, 10 or 15 minute slot
The seven-row arc stretches across slot lengths without changing order — only the budgets move. The table splits three common slots; the middle column matches the planner defaults. Whatever the length, keep the findings row at or under a quarter of the total, and leave the last half-minute unassigned, because the clock in the room runs faster than the clock in your head.
| Outline row | 8-minute talk | 10-minute talk | 15-minute talk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Title & hook | 0.5 min | 0.5 min | 1 min |
| Context & stakes | 1 min | 1 min | 2 min |
| The problem | 1 min | 1.5 min | 2.5 min |
| Approach or decision | 1 min | 1.5 min | 2.5 min |
| Findings & evidence | 2 min | 2.5 min | 3.5 min |
| So-what impact | 1 min | 1.5 min | 2 min |
| Ask + Q&A | 1.5 min | 1.5 min | 1.5 min |
| Total | 8 min | 10 min | 15 min |
Budgets convert straight to word counts at 130 words per minute, which is what the planner's meters enforce: 65 words on the hook, 260 on a two-minute findings row. When a written case is still being analyzed, remember the outline borrows its problem and findings rows from the draft — the annotated case study analysis example shows the structure those rows borrow from.
Where the 130 comes from: set your own pace
The planner assumes 130 words per minute — a calm classroom pace with room to breathe between claims. Most speakers land between 110 and 150; nervous presentations run faster, which is why the budget matters more the night before a grade. If you have ever been told to slow down, treat 110 as your number and the budgets tighten by a sixth.
Measuring yours takes two minutes. Read one paragraph of the case aloud, timed, and divide the word count by the seconds, then multiply by sixty. Set the minutes column so the budgets match the pace you actually speak at, not the one you hope for — the planner only enforces arithmetic, and arithmetic against the wrong pace is false comfort. Rehearsal then tells you whether the plan survives contact with a clock.
Five steps from assigned case to finished outline
The whole method fits in an evening. Work the steps in order; each one makes the next mechanical.
Read the case once for the decision
First pass, twenty minutes: find the question the case was written to make you answer, and write it on row 3 before anything else. Details come later; the question decides which details matter.
Give every row a one-line job
Slide titles first: if a row's job cannot be written in a line, it is two rows or none. The seven-row order almost never needs reordering — only trimming.
Distribute the minutes
Start from the table above, move budget toward whatever your course weights most, and keep every row at or under a quarter of the total. The side panel flags the row that breaks that rule.
Fill talking points to the word budgets
Two or three claims per row, evidence under each. Full sentences migrate to speaker notes when you build the deck; the outline stays scannable so you can see the whole argument on one screen.
Rehearse once, fix the flagged row only
Read the outline aloud with a timer, mark the row where you overrun, and cut there. One targeted fix beats a full rewrite the night before — and the flow check tells you which row it will be.
Steps one and two decide the argument; steps three and four decide the clock. A plan that survives all five fits on one screen, which is the real test — an outline that needs scrolling to read is a script wearing a planner's clothes.
What the outline is not
Not a script. Talking points are claims with evidence underneath, written to be said differently each rehearsal. The moment a row reads like paragraphs, split it: the words belong in speaker notes, and the slide keeps the headline. Reading aloud is the fastest way to lose a room that reads faster than you speak.
Not the deck. The outline fixes jobs, order and minutes; it deliberately says nothing about layouts, colors or builds. Design decisions made before the plan exists get remade — the planner exists so that the expensive tool time happens once, against a structure that will not move.
Not the rubric. The planner's default budgets are generic because courses differ; the rubric your course publishes overrides them row by row. If analysis carries half the grade, the findings row earns the stretch and the hook does not — grading criteria live on the rubric page, and the timing table here bends to them.
The rehearsal checklist
An outline rehearses in ten minutes because it fits on one page. Run this check the night before — six taps — and the deck builds itself the morning of.
- Every row has a one-line job — the row you cannot name is the slide to cut.
- Minutes sum to at least one under the slot — slack absorbs the surprise.
- Talking points are claims and evidence — not sentences to read aloud.
- The findings row names its exhibit — the table, chart or comparison it will show.
- The ask is one sentence — a listener could repeat it after the talk.
- A copy exists outside the slide app — paper, notes app or the copied text above.
Tap each check as you confirm it on your outline.
Five of six is a pass; the sixth — the copy outside the slide app — is the one that saves the talk when the classroom machine refuses to open your file. The checklist resets when you leave the page, so run it in one sitting the night before, then copy the outline once more and sleep.
Outline built — the written analysis behind it still due?
The planner handles the talk; the case analysis underneath it is usually the bigger assignment. When the deadline is closer than the draft, a deadline-bound expert writer can take the paper on and return a submission you can defend line by line — slides included.
Quiz: plan the talk before the deck
Five questions on outline craft. Wrong picks reveal the correct answer and lock, so the quiz teaches while it tests.
1. The outline-first method says the first thing to fix is…
2. Talking points beat full sentences in an outline because…
3. The flow check raises a flag when…
4. Which row usually earns the biggest word budget?
5. The cheapest useful rehearsal the night before is…
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to build a case study presentation outline?
About twenty minutes for a ten-minute talk: five to fix the seven one-line jobs, ten to distribute minutes and fill talking points to the budgets, and five to run the flow check and copy the result. A first outline done that quickly still beats a deck designed slide by slide, because the twenty minutes are spent deciding rather than formatting.
What are the seven slides in the outline, in order?
Title and hook, context and stakes, the problem, approach or decision, findings and evidence, so-what impact, then the ask plus Q&A. The order rarely changes because each row sets up the next: context feeds the problem, the problem justifies the approach, evidence settles it, and impact makes the ask land. Stretch a row into two slides if the rubric weights it, but keep the arc.
How many talking points should each slide get?
Two or three claims per slide, with the evidence written under each claim, at roughly 130 words per planned minute. A half-minute title slide needs about 65 words; a two-minute findings row supports about 260. When a row keeps filling past its budget, the slide is doing two jobs: split it in the outline, before the deck exists.
Should the outline be built before or after the written analysis?
After the written analysis is drafted, before the deck is designed. The outline borrows its problem, approach and findings rows from the written work, so a finished draft removes the guesswork; a deck designed before the analysis usually gets rebuilt when the argument shifts. If something has to run late, let it be the slides - a talk is only as strong as the draft underneath it.
What changes when the room gives me 8 minutes instead of 10?
Take the minutes out of the middle, never the ends. Compress the context row to two facts, shrink the approach row to one sentence about method, and hold the hook and the ask at their budgets, because the first ten seconds and the last minute are where the room decides. The timing table above shows the full 8-minute split, and the flow check catches any row that kept its 10-minute budget.
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