Document
The pitch deck
The demonstration deck, written out as a form. Ten minutes, recorded, camera on. An opening that is yours, Brown's five sections, and the ask.
What a pitch is
Ten minutes, recorded, about twenty slides, in the order of the Mise deck. Three slides of opening that are yours. Then Brown's discovery document in his five sections: objectives and outcomes, the problem elaborated, the design direction, supporting details, next steps. Then the ask.
Only the direction is new work. The opening comes from your personal statement. The problem and the audiences come from what you handed in on Sep 9 and 14. The plan and the cost come from section 15 of your brief. The concept, the principles and the boards come from the direction studio.
The slides
Every headline is a sentence, not a label. "Members search twice because the results are stale," not "The problem." About thirty seconds a slide. Section titles and photographs take five.
The opening
- 01
The cover
The product's name, and one line under it.
If you have the concept line already, this is where it goes. Nothing else.
- 02
Who I am
One sentence on what you have done that lets you see this problem.
Your name. What you have worked on and for how long. Your training. One line on why that counts here.
Your personal statement.
- 03
The problem I have seen
The problem as you first met it, in one sentence.
Three short blocks: what the thing is, how it gets done today, what that costs. A photograph of the situation can follow on its own slide, labelled as atmosphere, not evidence.
The problem statement, long form.
- 04
The opportunity, and why me
The opening, in a sentence a stranger could repeat.
What the opening is. Why nobody has taken it. Why you can see it and they cannot, and the risk in that.
The problem statement, the five whys.
Section 1 of 5 · Objectives and outcomes
- 05
What the product is
The product in one line: what it does, for whom.
Two or three lines on what it is not. Two lines on how it is used. Someone who has never seen it should be able to describe it afterwards.
The brief, the objective.
- 06
The number under it
One number carries the problem. Everything else in the deck follows from it.
The number, large. Under it: the source, the year, who was asked, the exact question. A made-up number is marked as made up. A real one is cited.
The audience, question marks resolved.
- 07
The problem statement
The statement, word for word, as you handed it in.
Under it, three lines: who has the problem, what it costs them, where it shows up. The rest of the deck is judged against this slide.
The problem statement, Sep 14.
Section 2 of 5 · The problem, elaborated
- 08
The business today
What exists, in one sentence: people, prototype, customers.
What exists. What it earns today. What it is up against, which is usually a habit, not a company.
The brief, the situation. Hall on the workaround.
- 09
The three audiences, sized
Three audiences, and they are not the same size.
Four figures, widest to narrowest, each with its source. Mark the one you chose. The next three slides take one audience each.
The audience, Sep 9.
- 10
Audience 1 of 3
Who they are, in one phrase.
Who they are. How many, and how you know. What the product solves for them. What they use today instead, and what it costs them.
The audience.
- 11
Audience 2 of 3
The same four lines for the second audience.
Say whether you chose them. If not, one line on why not.
- 12
Audience 3 of 3
The same four lines for the third.
The smallest audience is often the one most used to paying. Say so if it is true.
- 13
Why now
The one fact that makes this possible now and not before.
The thing to beat. Why it can be beaten now. Why you are the one who can see it, and the risk in that.
Hall ch. 6 on competitors. Brown on discovery as time inside the problem.
Section 3 of 5 · The design direction
- 14
The concept, one line
The one idea, as a line you could put on the cover.
Two sentences under it: how it feels, and how it works. A photograph can carry this slide, labelled as atmosphere.
The direction studio.
- 15
The principles, three rules
Rule one, as an instruction.
Three rules. For each: the rule, the finding it comes from, and what it forbids or requires in the work.
The direction studio, from the research.
- 16
Board 1 of 3
Where the product is met, as a place: on the line, at the desk, in the hand.
Four pictures, or placeholders labelled with what they will show. Three words being tested. One line on what each word means here. No favorite.
The boards.
- 17
Board 2 of 3
The second place, same shape.
The same product, read somewhere else. The words change. Say why.
- 18
Board 3 of 3
The third place, same shape.
Often the object the work is actually done from. Say which board the others are drawn against.
Section 4 of 5 · Supporting details
- 19
The research, three questions
The one finding that changed your mind.
Three questions. For each: the answer, its source, and what a real answer would look like if yours is still a placeholder. One competitor screen. One trace of the audience talking on their own, a review or a thread.
The brief, the research questions.
Section 5 of 5 · Next steps
- 20
The plan, as dates
Four dates, in the order the work has to happen.
Sep 21, Oct 14, Nov 4, Dec 2. One line under each on what gets delivered. Say what comes first, and why.
The course schedule. Section 15 of your brief.
- 21
What the work is, and what it costs
What I am proposing.
What the work covers and what you hand over. How finished each piece will be. The timeline against the four dates. What comes first. What it costs, with the hours or the rate behind it. What has to be true for this to hold. The number from slide 6 that will say whether it worked.
The next-steps worksheet. Section 15 of your brief.
- 22
The close, the ask
The concept line, once more.
The problem statement in two sentences. Then the ask: what you want the room to agree to. Then questions.
The recording, ten minutes
The pitch is a file, not a talk in the room. You get ten minutes instead of three. The room gets no questions and no chance to hear you explain. These nine cover for that. The long version, with the tools, is at /practice/recording-yourself.
- 01
The form
A screen recording of the deck, you in a small bubble in the corner, camera on, your voice over the slides. Record it in Cap (cap.so): free, Mac and Windows, no time limit, the bubble built in. If Cap will not run, Zoom recording to your computer.
- 02
The camera
Lens at eye level or a little above, never below. Arm's length away. Head and shoulders in shot. Look at the lens when you make the claim. Keep the bottom-right corner of every slide clear for the bubble.
- 03
The light
Light in front of you, never behind. Face a window, or one lamp at face height with the overhead off. A plain wall a metre behind you. No virtual background.
- 04
The audio
Bad audio is what gets a pitch switched off. Use the earbuds from your phone, 5 to 8 cm from your mouth, in a soft, quiet room. Record ten seconds of silence and listen to it first.
- 05
The length
Ten minutes at the most. Seven is fine, and often better. Past ten, the end does not get watched.
- 06
The pacing
About thirty seconds a slide. The direction slides run longer than the setup slides. Say the headline out loud, then explain it. Do not read the slide.
- 07
The open
Name the product and the problem in the first thirty seconds. A room will wait through a slow build. Nobody watching a file will.
- 08
The take
One take you are willing to keep. Two run-throughs first; they save more time than editing. Play the whole file back with headphones before you upload it.
- 09
The file
Submit the complete video pitch as an MP4, 1080p, to the Blackboard assignment before class. Include the research, problem, audience, design direction, and next steps within the presentation. If the video will not upload, put a link to it in the submission text. No separate PDF or individual worksheets are due with it.
Further reading
- Dan BrownPractical Design Discoverychapters 2 and 3The discovery document the deck follows; the problem statement, the objective, the concept, the principles, the boards.
- Douglas DavisCreative Strategy and the Business of Designchapters 1 and 10Prove the target exists, then warm up the cold data with a person. Timing: list the phases and pad a day or two.
- Erika HallJust Enough Researchchapters 6 and 9A research question has a source and a date, or it is a wish. The number to beat.