Most presentations fail before they even get going. The presenter builds to a big reveal at the end, but by then, the audience has already made up their own minds.
I used to do this too. I would save my main point for the finale, thinking it would land with more impact. It did not. People would zone out, form their own conclusions, then look confused when mine did not match.
So I flipped it. Now I start with the conclusion.
This is not a new idea. Barbara Minto developed the Pyramid Principle at McKinsey in the 1960s, and it has been a staple of consulting communication ever since. The core concept is simple: lead with the answer, then support it with your reasoning. Most people do the opposite. They walk through all their thinking, then arrive at a conclusion. But your audience is not there to watch you think. They are there to hear what you have concluded and why.
It feels unnatural at first. You are trained to build up to something. But starting with your main point does three things that make your presentation significantly more effective.
First, it focuses your audience immediately. When people do not know where you are headed, they start creating their own narrative. They are guessing at your point instead of listening to your argument. By stating your conclusion upfront, you remove that guesswork. Everyone is on the same page from the start.
Second, it forces you to build a tighter argument. When you know your conclusion before you write anything else, every point you make has to link back to it. There is no filler. No tangents. Your audience connects each argument to your conclusion as you speak, rather than trying to retrofit it all at the end.
Third, repetition works. You can reference your conclusion throughout the presentation. And just because you have said it at the start does not mean you cannot land it again at the end. In fact, you should. The best presentations hit the same point multiple times from different angles.
Next time you are building a presentation, write your conclusion first. Then build everything else around it.