A Proposal Deck in One Week: Start With the Storyline
Updated September 2026: in 2019 I wrote about picking up an opportunity after its difficult delivery contact left the company, building a storyline, bringing in leaders from several teams, and then being given one week and daily calls to finish the deck. I have rewritten it as a guide to building a proposal deck on a short deadline.
I had been pulled onto the most difficult opportunity my team had worked on, and to my surprise the delivery contact I found hardest to work with had left the company. On the first day I pulled standard slides from earlier decks, built a storyline, and asked the onsite team for inputs. I set up a call with them and invited senior leaders from my team and others, hoping it would go smoothly. It turned out to be very complicated, and the leaders asked me for an updated deck within a week, with daily calls to track progress.
Why start with the storyline?
A storyline is the sequence of points the deck must make, written as headlines before any slides exist. It lets reviewers agree the argument early, so later feedback is about details rather than structure. On a short deadline, that saves days.
How do you plan a deck in one week?
- Day 1: agree the storyline and assign each section an owner.
- Days 2 and 3: draft all sections, reusing standard slides where they fit.
- Day 4: full review with leaders; collect all comments in one place.
- Day 5: revise, check numbers and format consistently.
How do you make daily calls useful?
Keep them short and structured: what changed since yesterday, what is blocked, and who acts next. Share an updated tracker before each call so people arrive informed.
What should you do when many leaders are involved?
Ask one person to own the final decision on disputed content. Senior reviewers often give conflicting comments, and without a single decision maker you end up rewriting the same slide several times.
Does a new contact change the dynamics?
Often, yes. When a difficult colleague leaves, use it as a fresh start. Set clear ways of working with the new team from the first call rather than carrying over old frustrations.