This step is about gathering information and making sense of it. It typically involves a couple of focused calls and a deep review of existing materials. Here’s what that looks like:

• Review current earnings materials. We go back four quarters and look at transcripts, press releases, and the existing presentation (if there is one). This tells us how leadership talks about the business, what gets emphasized, and where the gaps are between what’s said on the call and what’s shown on the slides.
• Deep conversation with the IR team. What’s working in your current messaging? Where do analysts have repeat questions? What does leadership want to proactively drive in the narrative? What’s the vision for the presentation?
• Peer and industry scan. We look at how comparable companies handle their earnings communications. Is there a structure, format, or approach worth learning from?
• Our framework and experience. We layer in our four-part earnings framework, our repository of past projects, and what we’ve learned from building and studying dozens of earnings presentations.

With FICO: By the end of this phase, we had a clear picture of the opportunity. The prepared remarks were strong. The deck was not carrying its weight. The path forward was to make the slides tell the story independently, so the presentation could stand on its own.