When you need to show that something has changed or that something will change, it can feel complicated showing exactly how things are different today than they were yesterday, to make sure everyone gets the whole picture.
Words alone can describe some of it, but a well-designed before and after slide shows it more clearly: for example, in a side by side layout, the gap between before and now becomes obvious. This post covers seven different before and after slide layouts, each suited to a different kind of transformation story.
1. The Simple Before and After
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This layout is the most straightforward and flexible version: two columns, one for before, one for after. It's a clean side-by-side comparison with space for bullet points or short descriptions on each side.
Good for any situation where you need to quickly contrast two states: what did the service look like before and after your involvement, how was a process before and after a change, or what was the focus of a strategy before and after a shift. The simplicity here is the strength: the fewer visual elements, the faster the audience grasps the comparison.
2. The Before, During, and After
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Sometimes a two-column slide doesn't tell the whole story because there's a meaningful middle phase: an implementation period, a transition, or a process that takes time before the results show up. This three-column layout adds that middle stage. In this example layout, we have three columns labeled "Before," "During," and "After."
This layout works well for change that is coming, and hasn't yet happened. In this case, your audience may have questions or anxieties about how you'll get there. In those cases, for example, if you're describing a high-level project plan, this layout provides that missing piece and helps your audience get insight into how you'll get from here to there.
3. What'll Change
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This one is designed for change management contexts – when you need to communicate to a team or organization how things used to work and how they'll work going forward. Rather than describing the impact or result of a change, this specifies what will be different in their processes, communication, goals, and more. The layout has room for multiple rows, so you can show several dimensions of change at once: how decisions get made, how communication happens, how processes flow all in the same view.
It's particularly useful when you're presenting to people who are affected by the change and need to understand what it means for them specifically, not just in the abstract.
4. Current State to Future State: What to Let Go
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This infographic slide gives a more nuanced take on the current-to-future framework. The layout uses color coding and visualization – red for things that need to be released or stopped in the current state, green for things that need to be adopted or started in the future state – to make the transition concrete and actionable.
The description in the product is worth repeating here: the slide is intentionally not text-heavy, so the concepts can be scanned quickly while you speak to them. That's a deliberate design choice that respects the audience's attention. It works well in strategic and organizational contexts where the "letting go" is as important to communicate as the "moving toward."
5. Current State to Future State – Arrow Format
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This layout uses a "from → to" framework with an arrow connecting how you do things today and how you'll do things tomorrow. It's designed for vision, roadmap, and strategy presentations: situations where you're describing both the big picture and giving specific examples to make things land.
For example, in a marketing strategy presentation you may cover your customer focus changes in the first section, how the products will shift with specifics, and what updates you're making to your marketing campaigns. Good for pitch decks, leadership updates, and strategic planning presentations.
6. Before and After With Real Data
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This before and after slide version adds a data layer to the comparison! Each side of the slide has space for short descriptive text, an important highlight number, and a chart. So if you have real numbers to show that a recent change has made an impact, by all means, use this version! Nothing speaks louder than actual results. So instead of just describing the before and after, you can show it with a metric and visualize the trend.
This version is great for marketing campaign results, project outcomes, sales performance, or any situation where the transformation is quantifiable. The layout is flexible: you can use all three elements on each side, or remove the chart and use just the highlight number and text, depending on what you have to work with.
7. Improved Customer Journey
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This one is built for a specific and common use case: showing how your product, service, or solution makes the customer experience less complicated than it currently is. If this is the reason for a lot of painful process and product changes, it's powerful to show the result from the viewpoint of the customer. The before side shows the existing journey: longer, more complex, and with more friction. The after side shows the streamlined version: what a relief! The slide is extremely visual and compelling and you can move, edit, and delete any of the customer journey points on either side.
This layout is used in sales presentations and pitches where you're making the case that what you're selling solves a real customer experience problem. It's also useful in internal presentations when proposing process improvements.
(Note: This slide also comes in a variation that includes a customer persona sidebar.)
Choosing the Right Layout
The right before and after slide depends on what you're trying to show:
- Two states, no data needed → Simple Before and After (#1)
- A process with a transition period → Before, During, and After (#2)
- Communicating organizational change → What'll Change (#3)
- What to stop and what to start → Current State to Future State — Let Go (#4)
- Vision or strategy direction → Current State to Future State — Arrow (#5)
- Results with metrics → Before and After With Data (#6)
- Customer experience improvement → Improved Customer Journey (#7)
Each of these is available as a single slide you can copy and paste directly into any existing PowerPoint deck. Browse the full before and after slide collection to see all available options.