To war-game a board deck before the meeting, put the slides, the one-sentence ask, and who runs the room into one request, then instruct Pingpong to read the deck as the director who will decide the vote: judge whether the ask is clear by slide two, flag every slide that invites a trap question, and say which slide should move earlier or later before the pack goes out. Do it while slide order and wording can still change.
This page is for founders and chief executives who already have a board deck and need a pass on structure before directors open the file. For unsupported claims against the appendix and prior minutes, see review a board pack before the meeting. For a general pitch or strategy deck aimed at buyers, investors, or an operating committee, see stress-test a pitch or strategy deck. For seats and scenarios before a vote, see war-game a decision before the board meeting. Executive starting points live under Pingpong for executives.
What war-gaming a board deck is for
A board deck fails in the room when the ask is buried, when a vanity metric sits where the cash line should be, or when a risk slide arrives after the vote language. Staff who built the deck already know the story, so they rarely notice that market size fills slide 3 while the resolution sits on slide 11. The war-game presses order, ask clarity, and trap slides: booked mixed with recognized revenue, a competitive claim with no named rival, a hiring plan after the budget ask.
Name the reader. An independent chair who cuts discussion at forty minutes asks different questions than a Series B lead who owns the last round. A blank "board" label produces generic talk.
A worked example
This example is illustrative and does not describe a customer. The chief executive of a 110-person B2B software company plans to send a 16-slide board deck on Monday for Thursday's meeting. The ask is approval of a $2.4 million second product line, with a go or stop review after two quarters. The deck opens on a product demo, then market size, then logos, then the budget ask on slide 12. Cash schedule and churn export sit in a separate appendix.
The chief executive names one reader in the request: the board chair who has stopped two prior votes when the ask was unclear by page three, and who always opens on cash before product.
A useful pass opens on structure. The chair seat would not reach the $2.4 million ask until slide 12. Slide 4 claims "net revenue retention of 128 percent" while the churn export shows logo retention at 91 percent and folds in one expansion deal billed annually in advance. Slide 7 shows a competitor matrix with four unnamed "incumbents" and no win-rate backing. The risk slide naming 14 months of runway under the hiring plan is slide 15, after the resolution.
The chief executive reorders before Monday: ask and cash on slides 1 and 2, retention split into contracted recurring and the one expansion deal, the matrix cut to two named rivals with recent win rates, and the runway stop condition moved next to the budget ask. The demo moves to an optional appendix.
A request you can copy
Below are a board deck, the ask in one sentence, and the director I care about most as a reader. Role-play as that director for the whole reply. Open with whether the ask is clear by slide two, and name the first slide you would challenge. Then list every slide that creates a trap: buried ask, vanity metric, soft competitive claim, risk after the resolution, or a figure the attached backup leaves soft. Quote the slide number and say what you would move, cut, or demand before this deck goes to the full board. End with the conditions under which you would still open the meeting on this pack, or state that you would send it back and why. Stay in the director seat. Don't rewrite the slides for me.
Paste the cash schedule, prior minutes that set a floor, and any appendix the slides cite.
How Pingpong runs the war-game
The web review app sends your request through several models in order. Each later model receives the original request and every earlier answer, with instructions to assess the work so far. An early pass might open on slide order; a later pass might check whether a flagged retention figure matches the export. Check every flagged claim against the source file before you reorder. For the steps inside the app, see running your first review.
What a model can't war-game
A model does not know which director already decided to abstain, what was said in the last closed session, or which disclosure counsel has cleared for the board book. Legal, tax, accounting, and personnel questions belong with the people responsible for those answers.
If the next step is a full pack check against the appendix, see review a board pack before the meeting. When a single director seat can stop the vote, see role-play the skeptical director. When agenda control and fiduciary pressure matter more than slide order, see role-play the board chair. More guides live under work decisions before you commit.