Components Inventory
q-and-a
Anticipated questions paired with prepared answers — the end-of-pitch 'what we expect to be asked' slide.
Use to pre-empt the room: line up the three or four hardest questions the audience will raise and answer each one before it is asked. The question reads as a prompt; the prepared answer carries the substance. Distinct from a reference FAQ (many terse look-up pairs) — this is a few weighty defenses of a recommendation.
When to use
- The questions are the point. The slide that ends a pitch by naming the hard questions and answering them first. Anticipating the objection and closing it on your terms is more persuasive than waiting to be asked — it signals you have already done the thinking.
- Three or four weighty pairs. A few substantive questions, each with a reasoned two-to-three-sentence answer. Past five the answers compress below persuasion; for a long reference list of one-line look-ups use
faqorglossaryinstead. - Question as prompt, answer as substance. The layout deliberately weights the two unequally — the question is the lighter prompt, the answer is the payoff. Lead each pair with the interrogative line and nest the prepared answer one level under it.
When not to use
- A flat FAQ of one-liners. Six or more terse question/answer pairs you flip back to as a reference belong in
faqorglossary, which are built to stack many short look-ups. q-and-a is for a few defended answers, not a help page. - Rhetorical questions with no answer. Every question needs a nested answer that genuinely closes it. A bare question used as a section header or a hook is a
divideror astatement, not a Q&A pair. - Evaluation criteria in disguise. If the top-level item is a requirement you are scoring against (with a rationale below), that is
list-criteria, not a question you expect to be asked. q-and-a defends; list-criteria evaluates.
Slots
| Slot | Selector | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
eyebrow | p > code:only-child | no | Optional kicker above the headline — wrap a short label in backticks, e.g. Anticipated questions. |
title | h2 | no | Optional headline framing the set — name the pressure ('What the board will press on'), not a bare label ('Q&A'). |
question | ul > li, ol > li | yes | One top-level list item per question, in the order you want to take them (lead with the toughest). Author it as plain interrogative text — no bold. Questions are indexed automatically (01, 02, …), so a ul and an ol render the same. |
answer | ul > li > ul > li, ol > li > ol > li | yes | The prepared answer, nested one level under its question. Two or three sentences that actually close the question down — a reasoned response, not a restatement. Every question needs one. |
Anatomy
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ header │
│ What we expect to be asked. │
│ │
│ Q Why not wait two quarters? │
│ A The window closes in Q3. │
│ │
│ Q What if pricing shifts? │
│ A Contracts lock 2026 rates. │
│ │
│ footer 1/19 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘Variants
spine — Spine — sequential walkthrough
Threads the questions down a vertical spine with accent nodes, for when you want to walk the room through the objections in order. Drops the index for a narrative, one-after-another read.
<!-- _class: q-and-a spine -->
## What the board will press on.
- Why not extend the current vendor one more year?
- The renewal lands in Q3 and locks us in through 2028. Switching now costs a single quarter of migration; switching after renewal costs three.
- What happens to the team mid-migration?
- No headcount change. The same four engineers run both stacks through the eight-week overlap, then the legacy stack is decommissioned.
- How confident are we in the savings?
- The $1.2M is contracted, not projected — the signed rate differential, before any usage growth. rail — Rail — question / answer columns
Sets each pair as a numbered exhibit row — question and answer in parallel columns, separated by a hairline. Scannable when the answers are short and you want them lined up for comparison.
<!-- _class: q-and-a rail -->
## What the board will press on.
- Why not extend the current vendor one more year?
- The renewal lands in Q3 and locks us in through 2028. Switching now costs a single quarter of migration; switching after renewal costs three.
- What happens to the team mid-migration?
- No headcount change. The same four engineers run both stacks through the eight-week overlap, then the legacy stack is decommissioned.
- How confident are we in the savings?
- The $1.2M is contracted, not projected — the signed rate differential, before any usage growth. tab — Tab — underlined prompts
The most editorial, minimal look: a short accent underline sits tight beneath each question, then the answer drops below it. Generous whitespace, no enumeration — best for three or four pairs.
<!-- _class: q-and-a tab -->
## What the board will press on.
- Why not extend the current vendor one more year?
- The renewal lands in Q3 and locks us in through 2028. Switching now costs a single quarter of migration; switching after renewal costs three.
- What happens to the team mid-migration?
- No headcount change. The same four engineers run both stacks through the eight-week overlap, then the legacy stack is decommissioned.
- How confident are we in the savings?
- The $1.2M is contracted, not projected — the signed rate differential, before any usage growth. grid — Grid — two-up density
Packs four pairs into a 2×2 grid split by a gradient hairline cross — the density treatment for when you have more pairs than the stack holds comfortably. Each header reserves two lines so questions and answers align across a row.
<!-- _class: q-and-a grid -->
## What the board will press on.
- Why not extend the current vendor one more year?
- The renewal lands in Q3 and locks us in through 2028; after renewal it costs three quarters.
- What happens to the team mid-migration?
- No headcount change. Four engineers run both stacks through the eight-week overlap.
- How confident are we in the savings?
- The $1.2M is contracted, not projected — the signed rate differential.
- What is the rollback plan?
- A one-command revert to the pinned release, rehearsed weekly in staging. solo — Solo — one question, one answer
Gives a single question and its answer the whole slide, at display weight — for the one objection you know is coming and want to meet head-on. The question runs large as a prompt; the prepared answer sits below it in message type.
<!-- _class: q-and-a solo -->
## The one question we know is coming.
- If the pilot fails, what have we actually lost?
- One quarter and $180K, fully recoverable. The contract caps exposure at the pilot scope, with no auto-renewal and a thirty-day exit. The downside is bounded; the upside is the whole thesis.