LinkedIn carousels

Design one swipeable LinkedIn document post. Your artifact is the slides of a phone-read PDF — sequence and visual hierarchy are the product — handed back as a slide-by-slide build ready to assemble in Canva/Figma/Slides plus a one-page design+export checklist. Everything adjacent (the account plan, the feed copy, the upload, a talk deck) routes out; see Handoffs.

What you produce

• A cover slide spec — the one slide that wins or loses the swipe to slide 2.
• Interior slides — each carrying a single focused idea, large type, a clear hierarchy.
• A CTA closer — the payoff slide plus one explicit ask.
• A design + export spec — canvas, safe area, type floor, PDF checklist (one page).
• A one-line caption starter — the first feed line; full caption tuning routes out.

Precondition: a topic, an angle, or a source (post/article). If the ask is the account plan or a block of feed copy, you are in the wrong skill — see the handoffs table.

Ground first

A carousel inherits an identity; it does not invent one. Read the brand kit (colors, type, logo — owned by ../brand-identity/SKILL.md) and the voice (../brand-voice/SKILL.md) from 02-DOCS/ if they exist; don't pick arbitrary fonts. Pull the angle from any plan or post already produced by ../linkedin-strategy/SKILL.md or ../linkedin-content/SKILL.md — reuse the hook, don't reopen it. If none exist, name your assumptions on slide 0 of the spec and proceed; don't stall.

The swipe economics (why every rule below exists)

Document/carousel posts are the highest-engagement native format on LinkedIn right now — roughly 6.6% average engagement, ahead of every other format, and top-performing pages post far more of them than median pages. The reason is dwell time: a swipeable deck holds the thumb on screen, and dwell — not likes — is the algorithm's main distribution signal.

So the whole bet is the cover slide and the swipe-to-slide-2 bounce. If the cover doesn't earn the first swipe, your slide count, your arc, and your CTA never get seen; every swipe after that extends dwell and signals quality, which is why each slide must pull to the next. Design backwards from that: stop the thumb, then keep it moving.

The cover slide

This slide is the entire campaign. Build it to one job: earn the swipe.

• Lead with a curiosity or benefit headline — promise a payoff, not a topic label. Why: a label ("Onboarding tips") gives no reason to swipe; a stake ("Why 60% of users quit in week one") does.
• One dominant element — the headline reads first, before anything else. Why: a cover with three competing focal points reads as zero.
• Intentional white space — let the headline breathe. Why: a dense cover looks like work, and the thumb keeps scrolling.
• An explicit swipe cue — an arrow, "Swipe →", or a 1/8 counter. Why: tell people the format is a deck so they know there's more.

The test: would this stop my own thumb mid-scroll on a crowded feed? If you hesitate, the cover is too quiet.

Bad  (topic label, no stake, no swipe reason)
  ┌──────────────────────────┐
  │  Tips for better          │
  │  user onboarding          │
  │                           │
  └──────────────────────────┘

Good (stake + payoff + swipe cue, one dominant line)
  ┌──────────────────────────┐
  │  60% of new users quit    │   ← largest element, reads first
  │  in week one.             │
  │                           │
  │  Here's where they fall   │   ← supporting line, smaller
  │  off — and the fix.       │
  │                  Swipe →  │   ← explicit cue
  └──────────────────────────┘

More cover-hook shapes (number / contrarian / mistake / outcome / question) with Bad→Good rewrites are in references/carousel-patterns.md.

The narrative arc

A carousel is not a list — it is a sequence engineered so each slide creates a reason to see the next. Pick one arc and map slides to it. Branch on the angle:

Arc	Use when	Slide shape
Problem → tension → reveal → payoff	persuasive / insight post	cover, stakes, the wrong way, the shift, the payoff, CTA
Numbered steps / listicle	how-to, framework	cover, step 1..n, recap, CTA
Myth → truth	contrarian take	cover, the myth, why it's wrong, the truth, proof, CTA
Before → after	transformation / case study	cover, before, turning point, after, how, CTA
Data reveal	stat-led post	cover, setup, the number, why it matters, so-what, CTA

Momentum rule: end each interior slide on a small open loop — a cliff line, a "but here's the catch", a half-finished list — so the thumb keeps swiping. Why: a slide that fully resolves gives permission to stop. Each arc expanded to a full slide map is in references/carousel-patterns.md.

One idea per slide + hierarchy

The line between a finished deck and one abandoned at slide 3 is one idea per slide.

• One point per slide — if a slide has two ideas, split it. Why: cramming dilutes the message and stalls momentum; a single point is swiped through fast and remembered.
• Type floor ≥ 28 px — it is read on a phone, one-handed. Why: body text below ~28 px forces a pinch-zoom, which is a stop.
• One dominant element per slide — a headline, a number, or a visual that reads first.
• Generous white space + a consistent grid — same margins, same headline position across slides. Why: a stable frame lets the eye land instantly and the deck feels designed.

Bad  — crammed, four competing points, tiny text
  ┌──────────────────────────┐
  │ Onboarding fixes:         │
  │ • Shorten the signup form │
  │ • Add a progress bar      │
  │ • Send a day-1 email      │
  │ • Show a sample dataset   │
  └──────────────────────────┘

Good — one idea, one dominant element, breathing room
  ┌──────────────────────────┐
  │  Step 1                   │
  │                           │
  │  Cut the signup form to   │   ← single point, large
  │  3 fields.                │
  │                           │
  │  Every extra field drops  │   ← one supporting line
  │  completion ~7%.          │
  └──────────────────────────┘

Slide count

Aim for the 6–12 band, ~8 as the sweet spot (cover + ~6 content + CTA). Reported peaks cluster around 7–8 slides; 8–12 is where the highest dwell/save/share rates show up. Fewer than 5 underdelivers (not worth the swipe); more than ~15 loses people before the payoff. Treat the band as a guide, not a law: length follows the arc, not a quota — if the arc resolves in 7 slides, ship 7, don't pad to hit a number.

The CTA closer

The last slide is the payoff landing plus one explicit ask.

• State the payoff first, then ask. Why: people act after value, not before it.
• One ask, tied to the payoff — "Save this for your next onboarding review", "Comment your worst week-one drop-off". Why: a bare "Follow for more" is generic and ignorable; an ask hooked to what they just read converts.

Bad   →  "Follow me for more content."     (generic, no reason)
Good  →  "Save this for your next onboarding review.
          Which step are you missing? Comment below."   (tied to payoff, one action)

Design + export spec

Canvas:    1080×1350 (4:5 portrait, recommended) or 1080×1080 (1:1 fallback). No landscape.
Safe area: keep headline + key visual inside ~880×880; ~80 px padding on all sides.
Type:      body ≥ 28 px (it is read on a phone).
Export:    PDF only (1 slide = 1 page). Cap ~100-300 MB / 300 pp depending on source; keep < ~10 MB.
Gotchas:   open the exported PDF and verify fonts — free Canva silently substitutes them;
           disable bleed / crop marks — they add black bars to every slide;
           preview on a PHONE before posting — the desktop view hides mobile crops.

Portrait 4:5 takes the most vertical space in a mobile feed, which raises dwell and the chance of a scroll-stop; PDF is the only export that preserves fonts and layout reliably across devices, since slides exported as images lose crispness and break selectable text. The full checklist in prose is in references/carousel-patterns.md.

The feed caption handoff

A document post still has a text caption above it, and its first 1–2 lines (before the "…more" fold) must restate the cover hook — that line is what people read before deciding to expand and swipe. Give a one-line starter that echoes the cover; you own the slides, and ../linkedin-content/SKILL.md owns the caption's full length/tone tuning.

Handoffs

When you actually want…	Go to
The account/format plan, cadence, niche, who to target	../linkedin-strategy/SKILL.md
A text or single-image feed post (just the copy)	../linkedin-content/SKILL.md
1:1 DMs / connection-request outreach sequences	../linkedin-outreach/SKILL.md
To publish/schedule the deck via the LinkedIn API	../linkedin-api/SKILL.md
A spoken-to 16:9 talk deck (speaker support)	../presentations/SKILL.md
The color / type / logo brand kit the deck is styled in	../brand-identity/SKILL.md
The reusable tone of voice the words are written in	../brand-voice/SKILL.md
A long-form article (the prose, not slides)	../article-writing/SKILL.md
To cross-post / schedule the finished asset elsewhere	../social-publisher/SKILL.md

Anti-patterns

Anti-pattern	Why it fails	Do instead
Cover is a title slide / table of contents	No stake, no swipe reason — the deck dies at slide 1	Lead with a curiosity/benefit headline that promises a payoff
Multiple ideas crammed on one slide	Dilutes the message, stalls momentum, forces tiny text	One focused idea per slide; split the rest into more slides
Body text under 28 px	Forces a pinch-zoom on mobile — that's a stop	Keep body ≥ 28 px; headlines far larger
Landscape (16:9) canvas	Takes minimal feed space, low dwell, looks like a talk deck	Portrait 1080×1350 (4:5), or 1080×1080 square fallback
A flat list with no arc	Nothing pulls the reader forward; they abandon early	Pick one arc; end each slide on a small open loop
20+ slides	Loses people before the payoff	Stay in the 6–12 band (~8); let the arc set the length
Bare "Follow me for more" CTA	Generic, no reason to act	One explicit ask tied to the payoff (save/comment)
Exporting slides as images, not a PDF	Loses crispness, breaks the document-post format	Export one PDF, 1 slide = 1 page, < 10 MB
Trusting Canva's PDF fonts	Free Canva silently substitutes custom fonts	Open the exported PDF and verify fonts before upload
Never previewing on a phone	Desktop view hides mobile crops and bleed bars	Open the final PDF on a phone before posting

Verify

If you wrote the spec to a file, lint it before handing off:

scripts/verify.sh path/to/carousel-spec.md

It checks (read-only) for a labeled cover slide, a slide count in 5–15 (warns outside 6–12), a CTA slide with an explicit ask, a portrait/square canvas, a ≥28 px type floor, "PDF" as the export target, and warns on any crammed (3+ bullet) interior slide. An empty or clean target passes.