Simple rules for productive board meetings: Memos over presentations Writing forces clarity, and nobody wants a 50 slide theater. I write everything in Notion, send it out 2-3 days beforehand for people to leave comments, and then we just discuss the areas that have comments and any agenda items. Lead with the outcome, not how you got there Don't do "we did A, then B, and ultimately landed on C which achieved outcome X". Instead: "We achieved outcome X. This matters because Y. We did this by doing Z." Every point should have a clear "So what?" Not useful: "Q2 was really good/hard/intricate on XYZ fronts" Useful: "In Q2, metric X moved to Y. We think this is good/bad. We are therefore doing/not doing Z." No gold stars The default assumption is that you are smart and that the work is hard and intricate, so don't spend time trying to prove something everyone already knows. Instead just focus on the results. You don't have to cover everything You have 90mins. Not every single area needs a whole section every single time, and it's not because it's not important - in fact it's often because an area is going pretty well and the time is better spent elsewhere. It's ok to stick with a simple FYI. Come with an opinion Don't do "Here is the context, what do you think we should do?" Instead, do: "Here is the context. The options are X, Y, Z. We think we should do Z, which means [tradeoffs]. Let's begin by talking about Z." Much more useful and targeted discussion.