ChatGPT: better feedback than McKinsey consultant?


One of the challenges I've faced with teaching the skills in Think Like A Strategy Consultant is that the best way to learn them is by getting intensive feedback from others either learning these skills or who are good at applying them in their work.

Many of the students taking the course are doing so independently. My average student is in a big company or consulting firm and is frustrated with their organization's lack of support and training. Despite that, they want to get better at these skills.

Luckily, now, with AI, you can get instant feedback on your work, for less than $20 a month. I've been using it and have been really impressed with the latest models.

Check out this example.

Here's a slide I found from a recent McKinsey report:

It's a solid slide. But can we do better?

I pasted the image into ChatGPT and included the following prompt of principles from my course (steal this!):

assume you are a very experienced strategy consultant, give feedback on the following slide. you want to make slides that are clear, compelling, and persuasive. you want to incorporate simple principles like having a title that communicates the "so what?" content that matches and backs up the title, charts that are simple and pass the "ten-second test" of being able to be understood by a large number of people, and overall slide content that is clear and not confusing. please give specific feedback and also offer suggestions on updated information or language to include:

It gave some pretty awesome suggestions (here is the full response) and here are two that were pretty good:

Feedback on the Title

  • Strengths: The title conveys a strong narrative, indicating that technological progress has historically driven economic growth and is now accelerating.
  • Opportunities: The “so what?” of the slide could be clearer. For instance, who is the audience, and why does it matter to them? If the purpose is to convince stakeholders of future technological investments, the title should reflect that.
  • Suggested Revision: Change the title to something more specific and actionable, e.g., “Accelerating Technology is Transforming Economic Growth: Why We Must Act Now” or “The Fourth Industrial Revolution: A Historic Opportunity for Growth and Innovation.”

Feedback on Supporting Quote

  • Strengths: The Peter Diamandis quote aligns well with the theme of rapid progress.
  • Challenges:
    1. The quote lacks context or a tie-in to actionable insight.
    2. Diamandis is referenced, but it’s unclear if his authority is directly relevant to the audience.
  • Suggested Revision: Replace the quote with something directly tied to implications, e.g., “Investing in future technology today could deliver unprecedented returns—10x faster growth than during the Industrial Revolution." Alternatively, keep the quote but add a subtitle underneath: “What this means for your business: unprecedented opportunities for growth and innovation.”

These tools are getting better fast. For the most motivated people, they are so helpful. Will they be able to instantly remake the slides in the future by themselves? Perhaps. But in the short term? It's the best time to learn on your own.

Let me know if you try this. I'd love to feature a before and after slide from someone who gives this a shot.

Paul Millerd

Freelancer, creator & writer

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