Scott Berkun, from uiweb.com, developed
a thoughtful primer on pitching ideas and the skills required to do so successfully (thanks to the lead from
Jeff Nolan). This is a must read, particularly as its insight is relevant to almost any situation including business plans, product features, job interviews, or even amongst a friend group. He starts off by saying:
Coming up with good ideas is hard enough, but convincing others to do something with them is even harder. In many fields the task of bringing an idea to someone with the power to do something with it is called a pitch: software feature ideas, implementation strategies, movie screenplays, organizational changes, and business plans, are all pitched from one person to another. And although the fields or industries may differ, the basic skill of pitching ideas is largely the same.
He lays out a nine step plan, akin to a scientific methodology, for pitching an idea (whatever it might be):
- Step 0: Create and refine the idea
- Step 1: What is the scope of the idea
- Step 2: Who has the power to green light the idea
- Step 3: Start with their perspective
- Step 4: The structure of the pitch
- Step 5: Test the pitch
- Step 6: Deliver
- Step 7: What to do when the pitch fails
- Step 8: Do it yourself
The last step is probably the most useful in my opinion. It's all about persistence, and that's actually the most important characteristic of the implementation of any idea.
