Guides on consulting-quality charts, PowerPoint, and the design logic behind MBB decks.
Build a waterfall chart →Actual Waterfall Charts Used by Bain, BCG, and McKinsey
April 2025
The Best McKinsey Waterfall Charts
March 2025
How Consulting Firms Use Waterfall Charts
March 2025
The Best McKinsey Agenda Slides
April 2025
The Best Consulting Title Slides
April 2025
How to Build an ARR Waterfall Chart for SaaS
April 2026
Net Revenue Retention Waterfall Charts
April 2026
SaaS Metrics That Work Best as Waterfalls
April 2026
PE Value Creation Bridges That Win IC Approval
April 2026
Category Strategy & Spend Categorization
April 2026
Buy & Build Waterfalls for PE Portfolio Strategy
April 2026
100-Day Plan Waterfall Charts for PE OpEx
April 2026
The equity value creation bridge decomposes returns into revenue growth, margin expansion, multiple expansion, and leverage. Here's how to build one.
April 2026 · 9 min read
Spend categorization is the foundation of every category strategy. The 6 key elements every Category Manager needs — from spend analysis and Kraljic Matrix to category plans.
April 2026 · 8 min read
The buy-and-build waterfall decomposes EBITDA growth into platform performance, add-on contributions, synergies, and digital transformation impact.
April 2026 · 8 min read
How PE operating partners use waterfall charts to track pricing, cost reduction, and productivity initiatives in the critical first 100 days.
April 2026 · 8 min read
Learn how to build an ARR bridge chart that decomposes annual recurring revenue into new business, expansion, contraction, and churn.
April 2026 · 8 min read
How to build an NRR waterfall that decomposes retention into upsell, cross-sell, contraction, and churn for board and investor presentations.
April 2026 · 7 min read
Not every SaaS metric belongs in a waterfall. Here are the five that do — and the three that don't.
April 2026 · 9 min read
Real examples with the data reconstructed so you can see exactly how they were built.
April 2025 · 7 min read
A breakdown of the structural and visual choices that make McKinsey waterfall slides instantly recognizable.
March 2025 · 6 min read
BCG's distinctive approach to bridge charts — bolder colors, cleaner axes, and a different philosophy on action titles.
March 2025 · 5 min read
Bain uses waterfall charts differently than McKinsey or BCG. Here's what makes their approach distinctive.
March 2025 · 5 min read
McKinsey, BCG, and Bain reach for waterfall charts in very specific situations. Understanding when is half the skill.
March 2025 · 6 min read
The native PowerPoint waterfall chart is frustrating. Here's how consultants actually build them.
March 2025 · 7 min read
The terms are used interchangeably, but there are subtle distinctions worth knowing for senior audiences.
March 2025 · 4 min read
McKinsey agenda slides encode the structure of the argument. Here's what makes them work.
April 2025 · 5 min read
BCG's agenda slides are more visual than McKinsey's and more opinionated than Bain's.
April 2025 · 5 min read
The first slide in a McKinsey, BCG, or Bain deck is never an afterthought.
April 2025 · 5 min read
Section header slides are structural and strategic — not just navigation.
April 2025 · 5 min read
Tables are used more deliberately than most people realize — here's the logic behind when and how.
April 2025 · 6 min read