One Size Fits None: How to Tailor Any Presentation to Any Audience
Introduction: Great Slides Are Not Enough
After more than 6,000 presentations at Fu Deck Studios, Ada Mazurek has seen a pattern repeat itself far too often: founders and executives walking into rooms with genuinely great ideas and well-designed slides — and walking out empty-handed. Not because the product was wrong. Because the presentation was built for the wrong person.
Her message is simple, and she repeats it throughout the keynote: one size fits none.
Start With the Right Question
Before you open PowerPoint, you need to answer one question: who is in the room and what do they care about? Demographics — age, job title, seniority — are just the starting point. The real insight comes from psychographics: interests, values, personality type, communication style.
AI makes this research faster than ever:
ChatGPT or Gemini — ask it to role-play as your target audience: "Act as a CFO. What are your biggest pain points?"
DeepSeek deep research — slower but more thorough; useful for complex, high-stakes audiences
Double-step prompting — ask AI to generate the research prompt for you first, then use that prompt to dig deeper
Crystal Knows — plug in a LinkedIn profile and get communication style, personality type, and even suggested persuasion language
And do not rely on tools alone. A single conversation with a real customer or colleague can give you more than hours of desk research.
Five Adaptation Factors
Brand Identity & Tone
Your brand stays the same — but your style should shift. Pitching to serious corporate executives calls for minimal, data-heavy slides. Pitching to young creative marketers calls for something more playful. Same fonts and colours, different energy. As Ada puts it: you would not wear flip flops to a boardroom.
Purpose & Goals
Most startups need more than ten different decks. Each one should connect directly to the action you want your audience to take — a signed deal, a partnership, a media feature. A founder pitching investors with a product-feature deck full of marketing language is answering the wrong questions entirely. Ada's P Deck system maps the full library of slides a company needs, then curates specific playlists for each audience — like Spotify, but for presentations.
Decision-Makers & Individuals
With AI, creating one extra personalised slide takes two minutes. That slide can be the difference between a deal and an empty handshake. Ada demonstrated this with three examples:
Satya Nadella — lead with cost savings and strategic alignment with Microsoft's vision
Mark Cuban — he hates meetings and loves Marvel; "Ultimate Meeting Killer — Flow Ops Superhero"
Oprah Winfrey — skip the ROI, lean into purpose and a well-placed reference to her dog
Presentation Setting
Live, virtual, and send-ahead decks are three completely different formats. In-person slides should support you — not compete with you for attention. Virtual presentations need more interactivity to hold focus. Decks sent ahead need to be self-explanatory. Ask yourself where and how you are presenting before you design a single slide.
Cultural Context
The same slide that wins in New York may fall flat in Paris. Ada uses the Culture Map by Erin Meyer as a prompt framework — feeding it into ChatGPT to help shape content for specific cultural expectations. Direct, low-context cultures (US, Germany) respond well to bullet points and repetition. High-context, principles-first cultures (much of Europe) want to see the framework and the evidence before they are ready to hear the pitch.
Q&A Highlights From The Audience
How do you prepare for tough audience questions? Use AI chatbots to role-play your Q&A before the presentation. Tools like Perplexity can surface questions already being asked in forums and reviews. Gong Live and Notta can even whisper suggested responses in your ear during live calls.
Is it realistic to customise slides for every single person? With AI, one extra tailored slide takes minutes. The return in trust and connection far outweighs the effort.
What is the single most overlooked factor? Cultural context — especially as more companies pitch internationally. Most people simply do not account for it.
Final Thoughts: Be Personal, Be Relevant, Be Effective
The tools are available. The research takes minutes. The only thing standing between a generic pitch and a winning one is the decision to treat your audience as individuals rather than a room.
Join the Conversation
Which of Ada's five adaptation factors do you think makes the biggest difference — and have you ever lost a deal because your deck was not right for the room? Share your thoughts below.
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