home / skills / a5c-ai / babysitter / board-deck-analyzer

This skill helps you analyze board decks for trends, flag issues, and prepare discussion points to drive effective board conversations.

npx playbooks add skill a5c-ai/babysitter --skill board-deck-analyzer

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

Files (1)
SKILL.md
2.7 KB
---
name: board-deck-analyzer
description: Analyzes board decks for trends, flag issues, prepare discussion points
allowed-tools:
  - Read
  - Write
  - Glob
  - Grep
  - Bash
  - WebFetch
metadata:
  specialization: venture-capital
  domain: business
  skill-id: vc-skill-036
---

# Board Deck Analyzer

## Overview

The Board Deck Analyzer skill reviews portfolio company board materials to identify trends, flag issues, and prepare board members for effective engagement. It enables consistent, thorough board preparation across the portfolio.

## Capabilities

### Deck Analysis
- Parse board deck content
- Extract key metrics and updates
- Identify significant changes
- Compare to prior periods

### Trend Identification
- Track metric trends across meetings
- Identify improving/declining patterns
- Spot concerning trajectories
- Highlight positive momentum

### Issue Flagging
- Flag missed targets and goals
- Identify cash/runway concerns
- Spot team and execution issues
- Highlight strategic concerns

### Discussion Preparation
- Generate discussion questions
- Prepare talking points
- Identify topics requiring attention
- Support pre-board preparation

## Usage

### Analyze Board Deck
```
Input: Board deck document
Process: Parse and analyze content
Output: Analysis summary, key findings
```

### Compare to Prior Periods
```
Input: Current deck, historical decks
Process: Trend analysis
Output: Trend report, change highlights
```

### Generate Discussion Points
```
Input: Deck analysis, concerns
Process: Develop questions and topics
Output: Discussion preparation document
```

### Flag Issues
```
Input: Board materials, thresholds
Process: Identify concerns
Output: Issue flags, priority ranking
```

## Analysis Categories

| Category | Key Elements |
|----------|--------------|
| Financial | Revenue, burn, runway, KPIs |
| Product | Roadmap, delivery, metrics |
| Team | Hiring, departures, org changes |
| Market | Competition, customers, pipeline |
| Strategy | Direction, pivots, priorities |

## Integration Points

- **Board Engagement Process**: Core preparation skill
- **KPI Aggregator**: Connect to historical metrics
- **Action Item Tracker**: Link to follow-up tracking
- **Board Member Assistant (Agent)**: Support board prep

## Common Flags

| Flag Type | Trigger |
|-----------|---------|
| Cash Concern | Runway < 12 months |
| Performance | Significant miss to plan |
| Team | Key departure or hiring delays |
| Market | Competitive threat |
| Strategy | Major pivot or change |

## Best Practices

1. Review decks well before board meetings
2. Track metrics consistently over time
3. Prepare specific, constructive questions
4. Focus on strategic value-add
5. Follow up on prior meeting items

Overview

This skill analyzes board decks to surface trends, flag risks, and prepare focused discussion points for board members. It standardizes review across a portfolio so every meeting has consistent, actionable insights. The output highlights deviations, runway concerns, and strategic issues to prioritize board time.

How this skill works

The analyzer parses deck content to extract key metrics, narrative changes, and slide-level signals. It compares current inputs with historical decks and KPI streams to detect trends and anomalies. From those findings it generates flagged issues, prioritized concerns, and suggested questions or talking points for the board.

When to use it

  • Before each board meeting to prepare directors and leadership
  • When a company submits a new board deck or update
  • To compare current performance against historical meetings and targets
  • When assessing portfolio-wide risks and common trends across companies

Best practices

  • Review analyzed findings at least 48 hours before the meeting to allow time for follow-up
  • Feed consistent KPI formats and historical decks for accurate trend detection
  • Set clear thresholds for flags (e.g., runway < 12 months) to reduce noise
  • Focus discussion points on strategic value-add, not just operational details
  • Link flagged items to action-item tracking for accountability

Example use cases

  • Generate a concise board pack summary highlighting top 5 risks and wins
  • Compare current quarter metrics to the prior three meetings and show trend lines
  • Produce prioritized discussion questions for the board chair and CEO
  • Automatically flag companies with runway under 12 months or major KPI misses
  • Surface team changes or product delays that require board attention and suggested follow-ups

FAQ

What inputs does the skill need?

A board deck (PDF, PPT, or text), plus optional historical decks and structured KPI data for best results.

How are issues prioritized?

Issues are ranked by severity using configurable thresholds (financial runway, KPI deviation, strategic pivots) and contextual signals like recent team changes.