/mckinsey-style-visualization-skill

name: strategy-consulting-visualization
description: Use when turning any content into clear, professional visualizations - board slides, reports, proposals, research summaries, training materials, technical diagrams, infographics, process flows, timelines, benchmarks, waterfall charts, or data-backed visual specs for any audience.

Strategy Consulting Visualization

Purpose

Use this skill to turn any content into professional visualization specs with strategy-consulting clarity: insight-led headlines, disciplined layout, accurate data, restrained design, and explicit implications. It covers board slides first, and generalizes to reports, proposals, training materials, technical diagrams, infographics, and any input that benefits from visual structure.

Fast Path

Skip the pattern-by-pattern build when the user just wants a complete, real deck or document immediately.

**Full deck** — scaffold a ready-made archetype from `templates/decks/`, then fill in the illustrative placeholders with real data:

python3 scripts/scaffold_deck.py --list                       # 6 archetypes with slide counts
python3 scripts/scaffold_deck.py board-update -o my-deck       # copies deck.json + specs/
# edit my-deck/specs/*.json with real data, keeping the pattern shapes intact
python3 scripts/build_html_deck.py --manifest my-deck/deck.json -o my-deck/deck.html

**Document** — write Markdown (with `spec:`/`svg:` exhibit references where a chart belongs) and build it straight to a browser-ready, print-to-A4 HTML report:

python3 scripts/build_html_report.py my-report.md -o my-report.html --lang en

`templates/reports/` has three starting points (board pre-read, one-pager, proposal memo).

**Speaker script** — the podium version of any deck: add a top-level `"notes"` field (a string, or a list of paragraph strings) to the slides that need narration, then build a print-first, one-slide-per-page HTML script with the narration set below each slide. The renderer ignores `notes` entirely, so adding it never changes the rendered slide, and a slide with no notes still gets its own page with a muted "no script" marker.

python3 scripts/build_speaker_script.py --manifest my-deck/deck.json -o my-deck/script.html --lang en

**Deck as an article** — the same deck read top-to-bottom on a single 680px reading column instead of click-through slides or a side-nav document: a paper-first hero (kicker/lead from the manifest's optional `series`/`lead` keys), then each slide's SVG followed by its `notes` as reading prose, with optional per-slide `label`/`refs` fields adding a section tag and a "Links" aside that rolls up into an end-of-article links section.

python3 scripts/build_html_article.py --manifest my-deck/deck.json -o my-deck/article.html --lang en

All four fast paths still obey the style system and quality rubric below — they only skip writing specs from a blank page. Fall back to the full workflow for anything the templates don't already cover.

Use When

• The user needs a board slide, executive memo visual, market map, competitor benchmark, investment view, performance bridge, or strategic timeline.
• The user needs visuals for any other document: internal reports, research summaries, sales proposals, project status updates, training or education materials, technical documentation, one-pagers, infographics, or study notes.
• The user has raw data, prose, notes, a process description, or a question and needs a visual direction — even if they only say "visualize this".
• The user asks for McKinsey-style, BCG-style, Bain-style, consulting-style, boardroom-ready, executive-ready, or strategy-deck visuals.
• The output should feel like a top-tier professional deliverable without implying affiliation with any consulting firm.

Do Not Use When

• The user wants decorative art with no informational content, brand campaigns, or low-density inspirational visuals.
• The user needs regulated financial, medical, or legal conclusions without source verification.
• The user asks for a final rendered chart but has not provided enough data to check labels, scales, and claims.

Workflow

1. Identify the decision, question, or job the visual should support for its reader. 2. If the input is not an obvious chart request, triage it with `references/input-triage.md` to map any input type to a pattern family. 3. Pick the document profile from `references/document-type-profiles.md` to set canvas, density, and tone. 4. Convert the request into an insight-led headline that answers the reader's question. The headline must be a single proposition — one answer or one tension, never several claims joined by "and". 5. Select the visualization pattern from `references/visualization-patterns.md`, starting from the comparison-type gate at the top of that file. Structural patterns (`section_divider`, `agenda`, `bullet_list`, `closing`, `quote`, `end_cover`, `cover`) are deck furniture, not the argument — use them for connective tissue between slides (opening, orienting, transitioning, closing) and spend the insight-headline discipline on the content slides they connect. 6. Apply the visual system in `references/style-system.md`, using the canvas from the document profile. Write copy to its Word Budget: when text does not fit, cut words or split the slide — never shrink type. 7. Produce a structured spec, diagram-as-code source, or image-generation prompt using `references/prompt-templates.md`. When the environment allows running scripts, render supported patterns to SVG with `python3 scripts/render_slide_spec.py <spec.json>`. Twenty-two patterns render (cover, section_divider, end_cover, agenda, bullet_list, closing, quote, waterfall, gap, before_after, time_series, benchmark_table, summary_strip, process_flow, funnel, heatmap, gantt, kpi_scorecard, two_by_two, scatter, distribution, small_multiples), on a 16:9 canvas only; every other pattern and canvas is spec-only. `cov