Pitching and voting Add/remove

Purpose:

The purpose of this tool is to pitch each concept proposal in order to narrow down the solution space. The pitches are used to find a common ground for how to present each concept proposal before voting which concept(s) to further detail

Step by step Facilitating tips Materials needed Goes well with

Tips to include participants who are not able to:

See

If participants are unable to see, presentations could be performed with use of a prototype for each group for each presentation. This would ensure that the participants can feel the prototype when it is being pitched.

Speak

If participants are unable to speak, the presentation could be done through sign language if an interpreter is present. If the participants can not speak sign language, or no interpreter is present, a powerpoint with text or a video with text could be played.

Hear

If participants are unable to hear, the presentation could be done through sign language if an interpreter is present. If the participants can not speak sign language, or no interpreter is present, a powerpoint with text or a video with text could be played.

Focus

If the ability to focus is limited because of time crunch, shorten down the time spent on the presentations to a couple of minutes per pitch. If the ability is limited because of distractions, make sure facilitators keep a calm and attentive attitude, and prolong time for presenting.

Keep noise level down to highen the ability to focus.

Think

If participants have a hard time grasping the task of creating a pitch, keep argumentation for the concept simple and make sure that the facilitator is aware of participants and helps to create the pitch.

Keep pitches short and simple.

Hold

If participants are unable to hold make sure to have a partner to spar with that can note down and do the visuals for the presentation. Or use a software for writing that can be controlled with other means than hand gestures.

Move

If participants can not move or control movements, make sure to have a partner to spar with that can do the writing down and creation of visuals. This could be a helper, documenter, facilitator or other group members.

Touch

If participants are unable to touch make sure to have a partner to spar with that can note down and do the visuals for the presentation. Or use a software for writing that can be controlled with other means than hand gestures.

Overview

Input

Concept proposals or ideas that can be pitched.

Output

Voting between concepts

Complexity

Moderate to complex

Time

15-20 minutes

Participants

15+

Activity

  • prepare a pitch 
  • communicate a concept to others 
  • think somewhat complex

Step by step:

  1. Divide your participants in groups of 2 or 3.

  2. Each group is given a concept proposal if they do not already have one.

  3. Ask each group to prepare a 2 min pitch of the solution. The pitch should include:

    • Problem it is solving
    • Key features
    • The value it creates

  4. Give the participants 15 minutes to prepare their pitches. Let them know that they are welcome to use powerpoint, storyboard etc. The format is free as long as they stick to the three bullets they have to address.

  5. Ask the participants to pitch for 2 minutes and ask them to be open for questions.

  6. Ask the participants not pitching to ask questions.

  7. Once all questions have been answered we recommend you to follow up with a voting method where the participants should vote for their e.g favorite, the most intuitive etc.

When doing this method you should consider:

There is a risk that the participants will vote for the concept they pitched basically because that is the one they might have worked the most with. This will make them biased and therefore more prone to voting for that concept. If you want to avoid that you could determine that the participants are not allowed to vote for the concept they pitched.

The method does not include time for the participants to get familiar with the concept proposal why it would be beneficial to have a method prior that familiarizes the participants with all concept proposals.

If there are many concept proposals e.g. 50 but there are only 15 participants (5 groups) it could be a good idea to narrow down the concepts to 5 before pitching and voting.

When you move on to the voting part you could either use voting with stickers, ranking through group discussion, spiderweb, blind voting or through matrix sorting.

 

Materials needed:

stickers, voting box or template depending on the type of voting you want to proceed with.