22 Claude Prompts for Storyline
The sequence strategy consultants use to build a top-down argument from raw findings to board-ready presentation. Twenty-two copy-paste prompts covering governing thought, SCQA, pyramid structure, slide-level logic, executive communication, and storyline diagnosis.
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What this is
Twenty-two ready-to-use Claude prompts for building a top-down consulting storyline from first principles to finished deck. They cover the full structure-building sequence: drafting the governing thought and SCQA opening, building and validating the pyramid argument, converting findings into slide-level assertions, writing the executive-facing documents, and diagnosing and repairing structural problems in draft decks.
The prompts are built around the Pyramid Principle - the same top-down logic framework used at McKinsey, BCG, and Bain. Each prompt enforces answer-first structure at the specific point in the process where that discipline is hardest to maintain: when converting raw findings into a governing thought, when testing whether slide bullets prove their titles, or when auditing an entire deck for logical consistency the night before a presentation.
Use them in sequence to build a storyline from scratch, or use individual prompts on whichever part of the deck is stuck. Each prompt includes a trigger, a fully written copy-paste template with {{placeholders}} the user fills in, and a clear statement of what the output should contain.
These prompts work best as the first step in a consulting workflow. Once the argument is structured, competitive analysis prompts and issue framing prompts handle the analytical workstreams that generate the supporting evidence.
The 22 Prompts
The prompts are grouped into four phases of storyline work. Click any prompt to expand it and copy the full text.
Governing Thought and Pyramid Structure
Use these before building any slide or writing any body copy. They establish the logical foundation: the governing thought, the SCQA opening, and the argument structure that every other part of the deck flows from. A weak foundation cannot be fixed at the slide level.
Draft the Governing Thought
Use when: You have a body of findings and need to identify the single top-level message that unifies them
Output: Governing thought as one sentence, two alternative formulations, and the three to four supporting arguments below it
Build the SCQA Opening
Use when: You need to write the opening of a presentation and the reader has not been primed on the context
Output: Four-part SCQA opening with a logical consistency check and a suggested revision if any link is weak
Build a Deductive Argument
Use when: You have a recommendation to make and the audience requires a logical proof, not just a list of evidence
Output: Three-step deductive argument (major premise, minor premise, conclusion) with a logic test and a prose version
Build an Inductive Argument
Use when: You have multiple parallel findings and need to group them under a single governing message
Output: 3-4 named argument buckets, bucket headings that support the governing message, and findings assigned to each bucket
Validate the Pyramid Logic
Use when: You have a draft pyramid structure and want to test whether the logic holds before building the slides
Output: Pass/fail assessment on vertical logic, horizontal logic, and completeness, with specific revisions for each issue and an overall rating
Run the MECE Test on Arguments
Use when: You have a set of issues or supporting points and need to verify they are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive
Output: Overlap analysis, gap analysis, MECE verdict, and a revised MECE list
Slide-Level Logic
Use these once the governing thought and argument structure are in place. They test and fix the logic at the individual slide level: whether titles assert rather than describe, whether supporting points prove the title, and whether data is presented with a conclusion or left for the reader to interpret.
Write Action Slide Titles
Use when: Your slides have topic titles and you need to convert them to complete sentences that state the point of each slide
Output: Revised action titles for every slide, a check on whether titles alone tell the full story, and notes on which titles required the most significant rewrite
Validate Supporting Points Logic
Use when: You have a slide title and supporting bullets and want to verify the bullets actually prove the title
Output: Proof/Relates/Contradicts classification for each supporting point, explanation of failures, and a revised slide with either corrected title or corrected supporting points
Apply the So-What Test
Use when: You have findings or data points and need to convert them from observations into conclusions before including them in the presentation
Output: Two-level so-what chain for each finding, second-order implications grouped by theme, and findings flagged as having no direct strategic relevance
Rewrite a Data-Led Slide
Use when: You have a slide where the title is a topic header and the body is a chart or data table with the conclusion left implicit
Output: Action title, bridging annotation, annotation for the key data point, and list of data to retain vs. move to appendix
Convert Bullets to a Narrative Paragraph
Use when: A slide or section uses bullets that fragment the argument and you need flowing executive prose for a memo or pre-read
Output: Single prose paragraph with explicit logical connectives, a one-sentence headline, and bullets flagged as better kept as a list
Executive Communication
Use these to write the high-stakes documents that senior audiences read most carefully: the governing recommendation, the executive summary, the opening three slides, the closing ask, and the decision-forcing summary. These prompts apply the same answer-first logic as the pyramid but for delivery-facing outputs.
Write the One-Sentence Recommendation
Use when: You need the governing recommendation as a single sentence that encodes the what, the why, and the implication
Output: Governing recommendation in one sentence, three alternative formulations, a test against the findings, and flags for unsupported assumptions
Write the Executive Summary
Use when: The deck is complete and you need a one-page pre-read that allows a senior audience to grasp the full argument before entering the detail
Output: SCQA-structured one-page executive summary with opening, three supporting paragraphs, risk acknowledgment, and a specific requested action
Build the Opening Three Slides
Use when: You need to structure the first three slides of an executive presentation to land the governing message before the detail begins
Output: Action title and body points for slides 1, 2, and 3 (Situation, Complication, Recommendation), with a setup-to-payoff assessment
Write the Closing Slide
Use when: You need a closing slide that restates the governing recommendation and makes the requested action explicit
Output: Closing slide title, three-bullet case summary, explicit ask, optional cost-of-delay sentence, and a consistency check against the opening recommendation slide
Write a Decision-Forcing Summary
Use when: You need to end a presentation with a summary structured to drive a specific decision, not just review what was covered
Output: Three-sentence case restatement, decision statement, options with consequences, conditions and next steps, and a cost-of-delay sentence
Storyline Diagnosis and Repair
Use these when a draft deck is not working and you need to identify specifically what has gone wrong before rebuilding. They cover the most common failure modes: broken overall flow, narrative drift in long decks, circular reasoning, evidence-heavy structure without a clear argument, and verbose openings that delay the point.
Diagnose a Broken Storyline
Use when: A draft deck does not flow and you need to identify where the logic breaks down before rebuilding
Output: Diagnosis on four dimensions (governing thought, title sequence, earned recommendation, structural misalignment), per-issue fixes, and a recommended revised slide order
Fix Narrative Drift in a Long Deck
Use when: A deck has grown beyond 15 slides and later sections no longer clearly connect back to the opening governing thought
Output: Per-section connection assessment, detachment point identification, drift type classification, proposed fix, and thread sentence for each section
Remove Circular Arguments
Use when: A recommendation reads as though it is justified by the conclusion itself, or supporting arguments loop back without independent evidence
Output: Circularity test and independence test for each argument, identification of missing real evidence, and a revised set of non-circular supporting arguments
Restructure a Data-Heavy Deck
Use when: The deck has accumulated many analysis slides and exhibits, but the overall argument is buried under the weight of evidence
Output: Argument/Evidence/Process classification per slide, assessment of whether argument slides stand alone, restructured two-part deck (recommendation body + appendix), and replacement sentences for moved evidence slides
Tighten an Overlong Opening
Use when: The SCQA opening has expanded across too many slides and the recommendation does not arrive until slide 6 or later
Output: Essential vs. assumed classification for every sentence in the Situation, compressed SCQA within the four-element limit, and a list of what was cut with suggested placement
Validate the End-to-End Logical Chain
Use when: The deck is complete and you want a final audit of the logical chain from opening to recommendation before the client presentation
Output: Pass/fail on five audit dimensions (opening to recommendation, recommendation to supporting arguments, proof slides to arguments, internal consistency, closure) with slide citations for each issue
How to use
Find the prompt you need
Each prompt is named for the situation it addresses. The group headings divide the prompts by phase. Start with Governing Thought and Pyramid Structure if you are building from scratch. Jump to Storyline Diagnosis and Repair if the deck already exists and is not working.
Copy and fill the placeholders
Click Show prompt on the card, then hit Copy. Fill in every {{placeholder}} with your engagement details before pasting into Claude. The placeholders are labelled to make clear what each expects: the governing recommendation, the slide titles, the supporting arguments, or the findings.
Paste into Claude and iterate
Paste the filled prompt into claude.ai and run it. Claude Sonnet 4.6 handles the structured reasoning well. For complex multi-argument structures and full-deck logical audits, Claude Opus 4.8 produces more rigorous analysis.
Tip
For a full storyline build from scratch, run prompts 1 through 6 in sequence: governing thought, SCQA opening, argument structure (deductive or inductive), pyramid validation, and MECE test. Then run prompts 7 through 11 on the resulting slides. The output of each prompt feeds the next.
When to use each prompt
Not every engagement needs all twenty-two. Match the prompt to where the storyline is currently stuck.
What these prompts are built for
Andrew Persh
Founder, Oria
Former McKinsey consultant turned product builder. Andrew founded Oria to help professionals create boardroom-ready presentations without the formatting overhead.