| name | board-pack-composition |
| description | Compose narrative-first board / investor / lender reporting packs — section sequencing, KPI selection, executive-summary patterns. Numbers don't ship without commentary. Used by `board-pack-composer` (primary). |
Skill: board-pack-composition
Purpose: How to assemble a board / investor / lender reporting pack that gets read and drives decisions. Used by board-pack-composer (primary).
When to use
- Quarterly board cycles
- Monthly / quarterly investor updates
- Lender covenant-compliance packages
- Fundraising data rooms
- Ad-hoc board materials (M&A, restructuring, special situations)
Audience first
Same data, different framing. Identify the audience before you write a single slide.
| Audience | Reads for | Lead with |
|---|
| Founder board | Direction-setting, hires, customer strategy | Vision + traction + asks |
| PE / VC board | Plan-vs-actual, value-creation milestones | KPIs vs LP-promised + risks |
| Lender | Covenant compliance, cash runway, asset quality | Compliance certificate + liquidity |
| Investor / LP update | Confidence + transparency + asks | Headline number + commentary + asks |
| Fundraising prospect | Why this round, why now, why us | Traction proof + use of proceeds |
If you can't name the audience, the pack is going to drift. Ask the Team Lead before assembling.
The narrative spine
Every pack has a story. Decide the story before picking the slides.
A typical board-pack arc:
- Headline (1 slide) — the one thing the board most needs to know this period.
- Operating summary (2-3 slides) — KPIs, what moved, why.
- Financial summary (2-3 slides) — P&L, cash, balance-sheet highlights.
- Strategic update (2-4 slides) — what we said we'd do, what we did, what's next.
- Key risks / RAID (1-2 slides) — what could blow up, what's being done.
- Decisions / asks (1 slide) — what the board needs to decide / approve / weigh in on.
- Appendix (as needed) — detailed financials, KPI definitions, supporting analyses.
Total: 12-15 slides body + appendix. Anything above 25 body slides is a slow-read meeting.
Slide-craft rules
- Title is the takeaway. "Q3 revenue beat plan on enterprise upsell," not "Q3 Revenue."
- One idea per slide. Two charts on one slide is two slides.
- Numbers come with commentary. Every table or chart has 1-3 sentences explaining what it means.
- Charts > tables for trend. Tables > charts for precision.
- Color discipline. A small palette (3-4 colors max) with consistent semantic mapping (green = favorable, red = unfavorable, gray = neutral).
- No 6-point font. If it requires zoom, it's appendix material.
- Footnotes for definitions. First time a non-standard KPI appears, footnote the definition.
- Confidentiality marking. "Draft — Confidential — Board Use Only" on every page.
KPI selection
5-7 on the front pages, no more. Pick them by:
- Strategic relevance — does this KPI tie to the company's stated strategy?
- Sensitivity to action — can leadership move this in the next quarter?
- Defensibility of definition — is there a clean, agreed definition?
- Trend-readability — does a multi-period view of this KPI tell a story?
KPIs that fail these checks go in the appendix, not the front pages.
Variance commentary in a board pack
Use the ../variance-commentary/SKILL.md skill for the prose. Place commentary inline with the variance, not in a separate section. Reading a number and then having to flip 8 pages for the explanation is a UX failure.
The decisions / asks slide
This is the most underused slide in board packs. Without it, the meeting drifts and the board doesn't know what they actually approved.
Format:
- Decision needed: [specific decision] — proposed answer: [yes/no/option]
- Decision needed: ...
- Input requested: [topic where management wants opinions, not a yes/no]
- For your information: [no decision needed, just awareness]
Put this as the last body slide, before the appendix.
Investor-update specifics
Monthly cadence. Letter format, not deck.
Structure:
- Headline — one paragraph: what happened this month, what matters most.
- Metrics — 5-7 KPIs, ideally with a trend chart.
- Wins — 2-4 specific.
- Losses — 1-3 specific (yes, share these — credibility comes from honesty).
- Asks — intros, hires, pricing feedback, anything the investor base can help with.
- What's next — one paragraph: what we'll be working on between now and the next update.
Lender pack specifics
Lender packs are colder, more numerical, less narrative. The lender wants:
- Compliance certificate — covenant calculations vs. covenants, with agreement section references (see
../../agents/treasury-analyst.md).
- Borrowing base (if asset-based) — eligible AR, eligible inventory, exclusions, availability.
- Financial statements — P&L, BS, CF for the period.
- Forecast — 12-18 month projection.
- Material developments — anything they should know (litigation, customer concentration changes, major contracts).
Lender packs ship with audit-trail discipline (source citations on every figure). Lenders' inside counsel will probe these.
Fundraising data-room organization
Top-level structure:
01_Financials/ — historicals, forecast, model, audit reports02_KPIs/ — KPI history, cohort analyses, unit economics03_Customer/ — customer concentration, contracts (redacted), retention analyses04_Team/ — org chart, key bios, comp philosophy, options outstanding05_Legal/ — entity structure, IP, material contracts, litigation06_Tech/ — architecture, security, IP, third-party dependencies07_Strategy/ — market analysis, competitive positioning, roadmap99_Q&A/ — bilateral Q&A log
Naming: prefix every file with the section number + version + date (02_KPIs/cohort-retention-v3-2026-Q2.pdf).
Anti-patterns
- Pack delivered same-day as the meeting
- Slide titles that describe content, not meaning ("Q3 Revenue" vs. "Q3 revenue beat plan")
- KPI definitions changed mid-year without footnote
- "Decisions / Asks" slide missing
- Confidentiality / draft mark missing on a draft
- Lender pack without a covenant certificate
- Investor update with no ask
- Tables jammed with 20+ rows and no commentary
- 6-point font, 80-slide pack with no executive summary
See also
