Pitching Ideas

If your concept is so esoteric that you can’t describe it in 30 seconds at a cocktail party, it’s either too complex or you don’t understand it yourself. -jason cohen

the Elevator Pitchgoing up?

NO SALESMAN CRAP.rule 1.

the investor is not your customer. do not try to sell them the product.it is not a product yet.

the Elevator Pitchgoing up?

“i’m here to tell you about an opportunity...”“get ready for the next...”“presenting the...”“for only $4.99...”“wouldn’t your life be better if...”

TALK LIKE A REAL PERSON TALKING TO REAL PEOPLE. NOT LIKE YOU ARE IN A TV INFOMERCIALand be honest.

the Elevator Pitchgoing up?

Businessweek’s Perfect Elevator Pitch suggestions:know what you are trying to achieve know your target (who are you pitching to)it’s not about you (it’s about the idea)keep it real (no slang or buzz words)be specific (use actual examples)solve a problemlet your passion showkeep it shortpractice and prepare no notecards,

1 hour for every minute

NO NOTECARDSDON’T MEMORIZE WORD FOR WORD

the Elevator Pitchwhat do I include in 1 minute?what is the need/opportunity?what is the product or service idea?how does it work?what makes it novel/better/different?who is the market/user?what is the market size?how much will people pay?can you protect it?

Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories - Roger Schank, cognitive scientist

support with research/data/real examples. make eye contact.be excited and engaging.can use a prop/prototypeuse storytelling

sketch quality vs. creativity

vs.

these sketches represent the same idea

not so creative rating very creative rating

(High quality sketches were 2.6 times more likely to be ranked as the most creative idea compared to the same idea drawn with lower quality.)

Kudrowitz, B., Te, P., & Wallace, D. (2012). The Influence of Sketch Quality on Perception of Product-Idea Creativity. Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design and Manufacturing: Special Issue on Sketching. 26 (3), 267-279.

presentation quality vs. creativity

well presented ideas make ideas seems betterpoorly presented ideas make ideas seem worsefor all ideas: fair, good, and excellent

presentation quality vs. creativity

enunciation (.96**) eye contact (.93**)vocal tone (.93**)physical attractiveness (.77**) friendliness (.82*)body gestures (.87*)

assignment 7final idea pitch with slides

This is not a blog post! You will be designing two slides to use to pitch your idea as well as a one minute elevator pitch.

This Thursday during discussion day, you will present your 1-minute pitch with slides to your team and instructor. Everyone should bring a laptop on Thursday to both present and then later edit slides. You will focus on receiving and giving feedback on the concept, the pitch, and the slides. Everyone will present and get feedback during the first 45 minutes, then there will be a 30 min break to make edits to the pitch and slides and, lastly, your team will do another round of practice pitch with the updated edits.

On Monday Dec 9 at noon, your final slides will be due in a google folder provided by the TAs. Once submitted you are not allowed to make changes. Slides must be PDF format and titled with firstname_lastname.pdf. More details shortly on what to include in slides!

Tuesday Dec 10 is the “Walleye Tank” Finale. Bring laptops. You will be graded by instructors and peers on your concept, pitch, and slides. More details shortly on the format of this.

assignment 7what do we put on the slides?With your chosen idea create two slides:

• The first slide should present the WHY/WHO details related to the problem/market/opportunity/user

• The second slide should focus on your WHAT/HOW details related to your product solution. This second slide could feature hand drawings, renderings, photographs, photoshopped images, your prototype etc.

These slides should be thematically unified and feel as if they are part of the same presentation. They should neatly and clearly summarize your work without being overly detailed or text heavy. Your name should appear on both slides.

You can use any means to create these slides, however the final submission will be two pages of PDF format, 11”x8.5” landscape orientation. We do not want you to submit powerpoint, keynote or JPEG files. Only PDFs. Make sure the automatic advance is not on when submitting.

You will need a draft of these ready to present on Thursday this week but you will have until Monday at noon to make any edits based on feedback.

Following examples are from Portfolio Review this year and so the slide titles are not appropriate. They are also all for lunchbox concepts and feature concept renderings that are more advanced than needed for this class.

• The Walleye Tank is the finale for Creative Design Methods  (a play on Shark Tank) and it takes place in class on  Tuesday December 10th

• There will be two rounds.  During the first round,  two teams will be combined.  You will hear (and score) 14 pitches - 7 from your own team and 7 from another team.  You will need at least one laptop to present for this round.

• Each student will be scored on three items:  The creativity of the concept (0-10), the presentation slide content (0-10) and the pitch quality (0-10). Only the two instructors and students on the opposite team will contribute to your grade.  These scores will not only be averaged to be their final grade on assignment 7, they will also determine the person from each team that advances to round 2. 

• Round 2 will then feature the best pitch from each of the 14 teams.  For the second round, the TAs will have access to all slides and will assemble the final slide deck for the 14 pitches during an intermission.  These lucky 14 students will then have to do their pitch again for the entire class! Only instructors will vote in this final round.

assignment 7how is the Walleye Tank structured?

product naming

trademark

good names:

able to be pronounceddistinguish a product from competitorsimply the benefitare memorable are able to be protectedlook goodhave depth

how the name maps to the product (directness)direct

(functional)descriptive (experiential)

suggestive (evocative)

no/weak connection

exactly what the product is element or description description through relationship

very distant/ abstract or arbitrary

degree of neologism real

(or other languages)portmanteau based on/

sounds like real words

made up/acronym

letter/sp.variation/

abbr.

product namingjudging a book by its cover

Julie Kucinski

questions?