Creating Workflows

This guide walks through creating a workflow from start to finish.

Before You Start

Prerequisites:

• Have a configured template available.
• Know what type of presentation you want to create.
• Understand your audience and purpose.

Planning Questions:

1. What sections should this presentation always include?
2. In what order should sections appear?
3. What tone is appropriate? (formal, casual, persuasive, etc.)
4. What style fits best? (data-driven, narrative, executive summary, etc.)

Step-by-Step Creation

1. Navigate to Workflows

1. Go to your template's main page.
2. Click the "Workflows" tab.
3. Click "Create New Workflow" button.

2. Basic Information

Workflow Name

• Choose a descriptive, specific name.
• Examples: "Monthly Sales Review", "Product Launch Deck", "Board Update Q2"

General Instructions

• Provide high-level guidance for the overall presentation.
• Be specific about key objectives.
• Include any data requirements or constraints.

Example General Instructions:

This quarterly business review should provide a comprehensive 
overview of company performance for the board. Focus on:
- Financial performance vs targets
- Key operational metrics
- Strategic initiatives progress
- Major risks and opportunities

3. Select Tone

Choose the appropriate tone for your audience and context:

Professional - Formal, business-appropriate language

• Best for: Corporate communications, formal reports
• Example use: Board presentations, annual reviews

Conversational - Friendly, approachable tone

• Best for: Team updates, internal communications
• Example use: All-hands meetings, team retrospectives

Authoritative - Confident, expert tone

• Best for: Thought leadership, expert presentations
• Example use: Conference talks, industry reports

Persuasive - Compelling, motivating tone

• Best for: Sales, pitches, proposals
• Example use: Investor pitches, client proposals

Analytical - Data-focused, logical tone

• Best for: Technical audiences, data reviews
• Example use: Analytics reviews, research presentations

Inspirational - Motivating, uplifting tone

• Best for: Vision presentations, kickoffs
• Example use: Company vision, product launches

Humorous - Light-hearted, entertaining tone

• Best for: Informal presentations, creative contexts
• Example use: Team celebrations, creative pitches

Custom - Define your own

• Specify exactly what tone you want
• Example: "Empathetic and supportive for change management"

4. Select Style

Choose how content should be structured and presented:

Narrative - Story-driven with clear flow

• Best for: Journey stories, case studies
• Focuses on: Beginning, middle, end structure

Data-Driven - Heavy on charts, graphs, metrics

• Best for: Performance reviews, analytics
• Focuses on: Quantitative insights and trends

Executive Summary - High-level, strategic overview

• Best for: Senior leadership, time-constrained audiences
• Focuses on: Key takeaways, strategic insights

Detailed Analysis - Comprehensive, in-depth

• Best for: Technical audiences, thorough reviews
• Focuses on: Supporting evidence, deep dives

Visual-Heavy - Emphasis on images and diagrams

• Best for: Creative presentations, visual stories
• Focuses on: Visual storytelling, minimal text

Problem-Solution - Structured around challenges and answers

• Best for: Proposals, recommendations
• Focuses on: Challenge identification, solution presentation

Custom - Define your own

• Specify exactly what approach you want
• Example: "Hybrid of data-driven with narrative elements"

5. Define Deck Structure

This is the most important step. You'll define which slide categories to include and in what order.

For each structure item, you specify:

1. Category - What type of slide (from your template's slide categories)
2. Custom Instructions - Specific guidance for this section (max 150 characters)
3. Use Only Once - Whether multiple slides are allowed for this category
4. Specific Slide (optional) - Lock to a particular template slide

Adding Structure Items

1. Click "Add Section" button.
2. Select a category from the dropdown.
3. Enter custom instructions.
4. Toggle "Use Only Once" if appropriate.
5. Optionally select a specific slide.
6. Repeat for all sections.

Reordering Structure Items

• Drag and drop items to reorder.
• Order matters - slides will follow this sequence.
• Consider logical flow: intro → content → conclusion.

6. Example: Creating a Monthly Sales Review

Let's walk through a complete example:

Basic Information:

• Name: "Monthly Sales Review"
• Template: "Company Sales Template"
• General Instructions: "Provide a comprehensive monthly sales performance update with focus on pipeline health, closed deals, and next month's targets."

Tone & Style:

• Tone: Professional
• Style: Data-Driven

Deck Structure:

1. Presentation Title

   • Custom Instructions: "Month and year with 'Sales Performance Review' title"
   • Use Only Once: ✅ Yes

2. Text Content

   • Custom Instructions: "Executive summary of the month's performance highlights"
   • Use Only Once: ✅ Yes

3. Quantitative Content

   • Custom Instructions: "Revenue by product line with monthly and YTD comparison"
   • Use Only Once: ❌ No (allow multiple data slides)

4. Mixed Text & Quantitative

   • Custom Instructions: "Pipeline analysis with stage breakdown and key deals"
   • Use Only Once: ❌ No

5. Text Content

   • Custom Instructions: "Key wins and success stories from the month"
   • Use Only Once: ✅ Yes

6. Quantitative Content

   • Custom Instructions: "Next month targets and forecast"
   • Use Only Once: ✅ Yes

7. Closing Content

   • Custom Instructions: "Action items and support needed from leadership"
   • Use Only Once: ✅ Yes

7. Connect Data Sources (Optional)

If your template has chart or table shapes you want to populate with data from your collections:

1. Scroll to Data Connections section below the deck structure
2. Review available items:
   • Left panel shows your data collections
   • Right panel shows chart/table shapes from quantitative slides
3. Create connections:
   • Drag a data collection onto a shape (or vice versa)
   • Visual connection line appears
4. Note automatic adjustments:
   • "Use Only Once" is enabled for connected structure items
   • Specific slide is locked to ensure consistency

Why connect data?

• Users creating presentations just enter parameter values (dates, IDs)
• No manual selection of which data goes where
• Consistent data usage across all presentations from this workflow

See Data Connections in Workflows for detailed instructions.

8. Save and Test

1. Click "Save Workflow".
2. The workflow is now available for creating presentations.
3. Create a test presentation to validate.
4. Refine the workflow based on results.

Advanced Configuration

Specific Slide Selection

By default, the AI chooses any slide from the specified category. You can lock a structure item to a specific slide:

When to use:

• You have a signature opening or closing slide.
• A specific layout works best for that section.
• You want strict consistency.

How to specify:

• In the structure item, click "Select Specific Slide".
• Choose from available slides in that category.
• AI will use exactly that slide for the first occurrence.

Note: If "use only once" is not set, subsequent slides can still vary within the category.

Custom Instructions Best Practices

Be specific about content:

• ✅ "Show monthly revenue vs target with variance analysis"
• ❌ "Show revenue"

Include data requirements:

• ✅ "Compare to same month last year and include growth percentage"
• ❌ "Show comparison"

Specify key messages:

• ✅ "Emphasize successful product launch impact on pipeline"
• ❌ "Talk about products"

Keep it concise:

• Maximum 150 characters
• Focus on what, not how
• Trust the AI to handle formatting details

Use Only Once Strategy

Mark as "Use Only Once" when:

• There should be exactly one title slide
• Executive summary should be singular
• Closing/thank you slide should appear once
• Section dividers (one per section)

Allow multiple slides when:

• You have varying amounts of data (might need 1-3 quantitative slides)
• Content richness varies (might need more or fewer content slides)
• You want flexibility in presentation length

Rule of thumb: Structural slides use once, content slides allow multiple.

Testing Your Workflow

After creating a workflow:

1. Generate a test presentation

   • Use representative content.
   • Check if structure makes sense.
   • Verify all sections are included.

2. Review the output

   • Does the order flow logically?
   • Are the right slides being selected?
   • Do custom instructions have the desired effect?
   • Is the tone/style appropriate?

3. Refine as needed

   • Adjust custom instructions.
   • Reorder sections.
   • Change "use only once" settings.
   • Update tone/style if needed.

4. Iterate

   • Adjust based on actual presentations created.
   • Document what works well.

Managing Workflows

Editing

• Click edit icon on any workflow.
• Make changes.
• Save updates.
• New presentations use updated version.
• Existing presentations aren't affected.

Deleting

• Click delete icon.
• Confirm deletion.
• Associated presentations remain unchanged.
• This cannot be undone.

Importing

• Use an existing workflow as a template.
• Create a copy and modify it.
• Useful for variations (e.g., "Q1 Review" → "Q2 Review").

Common Patterns

The Status Update Pattern

1. Title
2. Executive Summary (use once)
3. Multiple content/data sections (allow multiple)
4. Challenges/Risks (use once)
5. Next Steps (use once)
6. Closing

The Pitch Pattern

1. Title
2. Problem Statement (use once)
3. Solution Overview (use once)
4. Product/Features (allow multiple)
5. Differentiation (use once)
6. Proof/Case Studies (allow multiple)
7. Pricing/Ask (use once)
8. Closing

The Analysis Pattern

1. Title
2. Table of Contents (use once)
3. Multiple section dividers
4. Multiple data-heavy slides
5. Insights (use once)
6. Recommendations (use once)
7. Closing

Next Steps

• Learn about deck structure in detail
• Connect data to workflows
• Explore tone and style settings
• Create your first presentation using a workflow