As a presentation designer, you need to understand the substance of your slides better than what is reflected in your final work. Here are the levels of understanding:
- Level 5: the expert, your boss, your client
- Level 4: the level you need to get to as a designer
- Level 3: what is reflected in your slides
- Level 2: the audience right at the end of the presentation
- Level 1: what the audience remembers in 3 weeks
- Level 0: where the audience and you start out on
The key lesson for the presentation designers: you need to shoot beyond level 3, if you cannot stand above your substance, you cannot make the right design trade-offs. So ignore the strange looks you get when asking probing questions during the briefing.