# The pitch deck, ten slides This is what you hand in on Sep 21: about ten slides and a ten-minute recording of you talking over them, camera on in a corner. Two files on Blackboard, the deck as a PDF and the recording as an MP4. The deck is Brown's discovery document, five sections in his order, but every slide is written so that it can be filled from something you have already turned in. Nothing on it is new work except the direction, which you make in the Sep 14 studio. Each slide below gives you the headline to write, what goes under it, where it comes from, and what the books say about it. Write the headline as a sentence, not a label: "Members search twice because the results are stale," not "The problem." --- ## Section 1 of 5: objectives and outcomes ### Slide 1. The product, and the problem it answers - **Headline.** The product in one line: what it is and who it is for. ____ - **On the slide.** The problem statement, verbatim from Sep 14, in large type. Nothing else. - **Comes from.** Sep 14. ### Slide 2. What we will make - **Headline.** One output sentence: "Create ____ for ____, using ____, to help ____ do ____." ____ - **On the slide.** Under the sentence, five short lines: scope, outputs, fidelity, time, priority. - **Comes from.** BRIEF.md section 1, the project objective. ## Section 2 of 5: the problem, elaborated ### Slide 3. Who has the problem - **Headline.** The audience in a phrase, specific enough to name three of them. ____ - **On the slide.** Four lines: who they are; how many, with the source; what they use today instead; what that costs them. Then the two audiences you did not choose, one line each, and why. - **Comes from.** Sep 9, the audience, with the question marks resolved. ### Slide 4. The situation they are in - **Headline.** The one fact about the business or the technology that most shapes the work. ____ - **On the slide.** The business context (who makes it, what it costs, whether there is revenue) and the technology context (what exists, what it can and cannot do) in two short columns. The competitor in a sentence, and the opening. - **Comes from.** BRIEF.md section 2. Hall's audit of the workaround. ### Slide 5. The problem, framed - **Headline.** The cause underneath, where your five whys landed. ____ - **On the slide.** The ladder or the problem picture. Then the statement rewritten as a hypothesis with a number: "By ____, ____ will ____ by ____." - **Comes from.** Sep 14. ## Section 3 of 5: the design direction ### Slide 6. The concept - **Headline.** The one central idea, one line. ____ - **On the slide.** The line, and two sentences on how it says both what the product feels like and how it works. - **Comes from.** The Sep 14 studio. ### Slide 7. The principles - **Headline.** The first principle, as an imperative. ____ - **On the slide.** Two or three principles, each with its finding in front: "We learned ____. The implication is ____." - **Comes from.** The Sep 14 studio, from what you found in September. ### Slide 8. The boards - **Headline.** The descriptors the boards are testing, as words: "authoritative, warm, plain." ____ - **On the slide.** Two or three boards or style tiles, one per page, each labelled with its descriptors. No favorite. - **Comes from.** The Sep 14 studio. The boards form. ## Section 4 of 5: supporting details ### Slide 9. What we found - **Headline.** The one finding that most changed your mind. ____ - **On the slide.** Your three research questions and their answers, each with its source. One competitor screen. One trace of the audience talking (a review, a thread) without being asked. - **Comes from.** BRIEF.md section 4, answered. ## Section 5 of 5: next steps ### Slide 10. What happens next, and the ask - **Headline.** The next milestone and what it will contain. ____ - **On the slide.** Scope, outputs, fidelity, time and priority in five lines, what the work would cost, and the number from slide 5 that will say whether it worked. Then the problem statement once more, and the ask. - **Comes from.** BRIEF.md section 15, and the next-steps worksheet on the pitch handout. --- ## The same ten, sketched on Brown's example Brown's chapter 2 case, the industry association's search engine, filled in as far as his book allows. Where he gives nothing, the line ends in `?`. 1. **Members search twice, because the Guild's results are stale and narrow.** Statement verbatim: "Association members are frustrated with the site's search results, because they display out-of-date information and promote irrelevant matches from a narrow slice of the site's content." 2. **Design a search experience with modern features that sets the stage for personalized results.** Scope: search across all Guild sites. Outputs: `?`. Fidelity: `?`. Time: `?`. Priority: relevance first, personalization second. 3. **Members unfamiliar with the inner workings of the organization.** How many: from the analytics `?`. They use Google instead. It costs them a second search and the PDF content they never find. Not chosen: staff, executives. 4. **Much of the important content is trapped in PDF.** Business: several lines of business, different revenue models. Technology: a Google Search Appliance that works. The competitor: Google, fast and blind to login. The opening: a search that knows the member. 5. **The organization is so big that different areas run on different revenue models, so content is managed differently everywhere.** Hypothesis: "By showing suggested results as users type their search terms, site analytics will show 50% less 'pogo-sticking.'" 6. Concept `?` (chapter 3 work). 7. Principles `?` 8. Boards `?` 9. **What we found:** interviews with stakeholders and users, a brainstorm, complaints from members, employees and executives, the PDF problem. Sources: Brown's own project narrative. 10. **Next:** the personalized results, once the content problem is addressed. The number: pogo-sticking, against today's rate. --- ## What the books say, slide by slide **Slide 1. The product, and the problem it answers** Brown: a problem statement "gives your team something to aspire to: 'Our project should fix this.'" Say it first so everything after it is judged against it. **Slide 2. What we will make** Brown: the objective is deliberately concrete, because "you express in concrete terms what you and your team need to accomplish" and every noun in it becomes something the room can argue with. Hold it "as a hypothesis to be tested rather than an instruction to follow." **Slide 3. Who has the problem** Davis: prove the target exists "through quantitative data," then "warm up the cold data" with a person. Hall: "the hardest competitor to beat is the one your potential customers are using right now." **Slide 4. The situation they are in** Brown: contextual statements "describe everything else surrounding the product." Capture only "the things that impact the design." Hall: the audit's seven questions, run on what they use today. **Slide 5. The problem, framed** Brown: the whys "form a problem statement, pointing to the underlying challenge"; the hypothesis form "is effectively a true-or-false test." Hall: a number arrives with its denominator and its year, and the category average is "the number to beat." **Slide 6. The concept** Brown: "only a concept can establish a vision." His example is the Kodak Carousel, which names the feeling (reliving memories) and the mechanism (the wheel) at once. **Slide 7. The principles** Brown: "done right, principles should make you squirm a little." A principle without a finding in front of it is a preference, and the room will treat it as one. **Slide 8. The boards** Brown: a mood board checks whether the words in your direction mean the same thing to everyone. "Present two or three options." "Don't have a favorite." **Slide 9. What we found** Hall: a research question has a source and a date, "or it is a wish." Brown: "say what the machine did." **Slide 10. What happens next, and the ask** Davis: be clear on timing, "list any phases, and pad a day or two." Hall: "if you don't already have quantitative goals, define some."