1. Pitching Projects and Products to ExecutivesPreparing for a pitch| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:02 | Dane Howard: I have had a great many years
learning and failing and learning valuable
| | 00:06 | lessons about how to prepare ideas to be heard.
| | 00:10 | I've found that some of the greatest
work that goes into moving ideas through an
| | 00:14 | organization is being mindful of the
people, environment, and context that
| | 00:20 | surrounds all of your hard work.
| | 00:23 | Preparing for a pitch has a lot
to do about knowing your audience,
| | 00:27 | understanding your collaborators, and
listening to key stakeholders on where
| | 00:32 | their passion lies.
| | 00:34 | Before a pitch is where
some of your real work begins.
| | 00:37 | Diana Williams: The one
thing to know is your audience.
| | 00:40 | Who is going to be in that room?
| | 00:41 | Whether or not you are presenting to
an executive or a colleague or someone
| | 00:46 | else in the company,
| | 00:47 | who are they, and what do they care about?
| | 00:50 | What do they own?
| | 00:51 | Where they are interested in?
| | 00:52 | What questions are they going to pose?
| | 00:53 | Ryan Tandy: As far as taking stuff to the
higher-ups, taking your ideas up, that's--you
| | 01:01 | have to have your stuff ready.
| | 01:03 | Around my office we call them hero shots,
because they are the glimmering heroes
| | 01:07 | of the product that you are trying to build.
| | 01:10 | Diana: What I think is important, if you
actually want to get buy- in on any project: you
| | 01:14 | need to do your homework;
you can't just go in and wing it.
| | 01:16 | You need to understand
what competitors are doing.
| | 01:19 | You need any type of metrics or analytics.
| | 01:21 | You need any additional insight
that makes your idea believable.
| | 01:26 | Rob Girling: If you really believe it,
there is some infectious quality to that
| | 01:30 | that will permeate a room quicker than
sort of data points or sort of really
| | 01:37 | dialed-up kind of beautiful
PowerPoint or whatever you are pitching.
| | 01:42 | It's that belief in why you are doing it,
and that sort of conviction that you
| | 01:48 | have that's "We have to do this."
| | 01:52 | It never ceases to amaze how
effective that is at sort of wining the hearts
| | 01:57 | and minds in the room.
| | 01:58 | Diana: For me, I know one
boss is super interested in data.
| | 02:01 | So when you are going to have that
meeting on one topic, it's all going to be
| | 02:04 | about the data and what potential
return on investment you are going to have.
| | 02:08 | Another person I meet with is all going
to about the user need, and where is this
| | 02:11 | stemming from, from the customer basis.
| | 02:14 | Another person who might be,
"Exactly how does it interact?
| | 02:16 | I want to be a little play with it."
| | 02:18 | Then someone else might want just a
tidbit of everything in very high level.
| | 02:22 | So I think it's important to know
who you are meeting with and who
| | 02:25 | those customers are.
| | 02:26 | Michael Gough: When you are presenting ideas
in a way that the person you are presenting to,
| | 02:33 | or the people you are presenting to,
will understand, and you are focused on the
| | 02:38 | things that they care about,
look for where their passions lie.
| | 02:43 | Look for the things that they
start to really tunnel into.
| | 02:47 | It's so critical to get you out
of the picture and go with them.
| | 02:52 | Go on that journey.
| | 02:53 | If they are suddenly obsessed by
something that you either think is ridiculous
| | 02:57 | or just beyond consideration, go there.
Work with them on it. Think it through.
| | 03:04 | Then you are going to see
it from their perspective.
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| Learning what executives want| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:03 | Dane Howard: A great skill you'll continue
to hone, over and over, has less to do about the
| | 00:08 | creative execution itself,
but more about reading people.
| | 00:12 | I once had an executive that
couldn't resist the temptation of just a
| | 00:16 | simple phrase:
| | 00:17 | "Hey, you want to see something cool?"
| | 00:20 | I knew I had his attention.
| | 00:22 | If you listen to your audience, you
begin to understand what they care about.
| | 00:26 | Leaning what executives want has a
lot to do about understanding their
| | 00:31 | perspective and listening
to what they care about.
| | 00:34 | Michael Gough: What is the person
you're talking to interested in?
| | 00:38 | What drives them?
| | 00:40 | It turns out it's probably not
pixel-perfect control or a beautiful drop shadow.
| | 00:48 | In the case of walking into the CEO's office,
they're probably a lot more interested
| | 00:53 | in business performance.
| | 00:55 | You have to speak their language, or at
least you have to understand what it is.
| | 00:59 | What do they care about?
| | 01:00 | What makes them to tick?
| | 01:02 | What are they looking at?
| | 01:04 | Because it's not the same
thing you're looking at.
| | 01:06 | You might be looking at a really
beautiful rendering and be very proud of
| | 01:09 | the rendering.
| | 01:10 | They may not care about that at all.
| | 01:12 | They might be trying to look
through to the business implications.
| | 01:16 | They might be looking through to how
it would have to be operationalized,
| | 01:20 | what the costs are associated with it.
| | 01:22 | They might be looking at
legal challenges to your idea.
| | 01:25 | You need to consider all of
those things to be successful.
| | 01:28 | Diana Williams: For me, I think it's
always important to share the
| | 01:31 | executive's perspective.
| | 01:32 | Hopefully you know enough about them,
and if you don't, you should find out
| | 01:35 | from someone else what their viewpoint is.
| | 01:37 | What do they care about?
| | 01:38 | What do they want to hear about in the meeting?
| | 01:40 | Tim Barber: We're never too shy about asking for
the money to do the project that we pitched.
| | 01:45 | Especially as the project gets
larger and larger, you can't just make a
| | 01:50 | creative argument for it.
| | 01:52 | You actually have to put on your MBA
hat and make a business argument for it.
| | 01:56 | Even if it's in the simplest terms,
you have to kind of speak that language.
| | 02:02 | You have to articulate, for lack of a
better term, like the return on investment,
| | 02:07 | which is kind of an annoying thing for
most creatives to even consider. But yeah,
| | 02:13 | you have to be able to articulate
the business benefit and the results.
| | 02:17 | Rob Girling: In a business environment
you've got be able to hold your own against the
| | 02:22 | numbers guy and the practical guy in
the room who has got that slightly more--
| | 02:28 | slightly better-sounding kind of sound bite.
| | 02:32 | You've got the emotional position,
which is always a different one to argue in
| | 02:35 | a business environment, right? You've
got the qualitative versus the quantitative.
| | 02:38 | There are all these difficult things,
so just what I said earlier about
| | 02:44 | conviction and sort of believing in it,
and not losing it, emotionally, when
| | 02:51 | you're trying to express yourself,
| | 02:53 | I think that's a very powerful thing;
sort of having the conviction, but not
| | 02:57 | getting so--not taking the bait,
| | 03:00 | it will get you a long way.
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| Socializing an idea| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:02 | Dane Howard: I once had a mentor tell me
that stories build in strength with retelling.
| | 00:07 | I never forgot this.
| | 00:09 | Every time you plant an important
idea into someone's head, you invite the
| | 00:13 | opportunity for that
story to be told and retold.
| | 00:18 | When you design for a broad context, you
allow that story to build as you move it
| | 00:22 | through an organization,
and allow that idea to grow.
| | 00:25 | Whether you walk the hallways or
listen to your colleagues, the idea is that
| | 00:30 | it's never your idea.
| | 00:32 | Stories build in strength with retelling.
| | 00:35 | Stories build in strength with retelling.
| | 00:40 | Michael Gough: Good designers are
naturally quite convincing, because all they are
| | 00:45 | really doing is bringing consensus
to things, bringing consensus to the
| | 00:50 | creation of things.
| | 00:52 | And that's not as simple as asking
everybody what they want and then making it.
| | 00:57 | You have to understand what that context is.
| | 00:59 | That context could be things that
are completely outside of the room that you're in.
| | 01:04 | It's the broader context of
who is going to use the thing,
| | 01:08 | what culture it's being designed in.
| | 01:09 | What other things are
being designed at that time?
| | 01:12 | It's that broad context.
| | 01:14 | If you solve for the broad context,
usually you get the right design.
| | 01:19 | Albert Tan: I think one of the most
important things with any designer is to realize that
| | 01:22 | they don't exist in a bubble.
| | 01:24 | One of the most important skills that
I've learned is to really socialize.
| | 01:31 | Tim Barber: I think the most important
thing for selling a creative idea is having
| | 01:36 | a great story.
| | 01:37 | I mean storytelling is really valuable
for communicating in general, but when
| | 01:40 | you're selling an idea, it's great to
have a story that has kind of air of
| | 01:45 | inevitability about it.
| | 01:46 | It's the kind of thing that other
people can take away from your meetings and
| | 01:51 | use to sell other people.
| | 01:52 | Diana Williams: When it comes to socializing
an idea, I think it's very rare that I am
| | 01:56 | ever doing it in a larger audience.
| | 01:58 | I usually try to hit smaller
audiences in a smaller group of people first,
| | 02:03 | because then you can kind of gauge what
the temperature is, how interested
| | 02:08 | people are in a specific idea.
| | 02:09 | Ryan Tandy: Face time, spending time with
people is probably the most important thing you
| | 02:15 | can do--is being right with somebody
at their desk or out in the world.
| | 02:21 | Albert Tan: Take out and go to the lunch
with the engineer. Go to lunch with the PM. Get to
| | 02:26 | know people personally.
| | 02:27 | The reason why I think that's important
for a designer who is trying to push
| | 02:31 | an idea forward is you start to
learn their personal interests and passions.
| | 02:37 | Once you understand that, you can
communicate in a way that they might be
| | 02:42 | more open to your ideas.
| | 02:44 | Ryan: While you spend some time at
somebody's desk outside of a meeting, even in
| | 02:47 | the hallway, or at the water cooler, so
to speak, I feel like that's where you
| | 02:53 | can really start like hearing people's
objections to things so you can have
| | 02:56 | an exchange.
| | 02:58 | Albert: Once you have sort of a
collective knowledge of the different personalities
| | 03:03 | and the people around you, when you
have something where you're kind of
| | 03:06 | questioning, they become allies in many
ways, because you are able to approach
| | 03:12 | them very early on in some of the
foundational thinking, and not only do they
| | 03:15 | field that you respect them in and
admire them for their opinions, but they
| | 03:19 | will in turn help you.
| | 03:21 | Tim: The idea needs to
have some kind of probable outcome.
| | 03:24 | Like, you need to be able to
project reasonably what will happen if you
| | 03:30 | execute well on the idea.
| | 03:32 | So in this way it's like you can make
the thing in inherently viral by giving
| | 03:37 | people the story by which to talk about it.
| | 03:41 | Michael: Never make it your idea.
| | 03:43 | That might apply to absolutely everybody.
| | 03:46 | Everything you're doing around
building consensus for an idea or building
| | 03:50 | enthusiasm around the idea is never
reinforce the point that it was your idea.
| | 03:56 | Ryan: Whenever you get to a point
where some kind of conversation there's conflict or
| | 04:01 | people have different ideas about a
project, or where it needs to go, we'll
| | 04:05 | break it out.
| | 04:07 | We will say, "Okay, let's table that one thing."
| | 04:09 | Let's only get the people that are
really important for that decision to be made
| | 04:13 | and go have that separate.
| | 04:15 | We can really bring it
later once we have a decision.
| | 04:18 | Michael: One of the biggest traps is
you find yourself defending your idea, or you
| | 04:23 | find yourself in a room full
of people defending their ideas.
| | 04:27 | They want so bad to be the one that
thought it, and it's just such a barrier to
| | 04:33 | accomplishing anything.
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| Dealing with naysayers| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:04 | Dane Howard: There are many obstacles to
getting an idea or project off the ground.
| | 00:09 | Naysayers may feel like an
obstacle--don't take the bait.
| | 00:13 | Your emotional control and ability to
bring them along will give you insight to
| | 00:18 | build better arguments and plan to
move the idea effectively forward.
| | 00:22 | Rob Girling: Yeah, the bane of our lives
are the people who--status quo is great.
| | 00:31 | The naysayers are sort of the
like very much the bait for me.
| | 00:35 | So I have to really control myself
sometimes, emotionally, to not take the bait.
| | 00:41 | Ryan Tandy: More than anything, anybody
who has an objection to your idea, you
| | 00:45 | should listen to him.
| | 00:46 | You should always hear to what they
have to say because probably you are
| | 00:49 | going to learn something.
| | 00:50 | Diana Williams: A lot of times naysayers
actually have a perspective and a point of view,
| | 00:54 | and it's really important to
understand what that perspective is, where are
| | 00:57 | they coming from, trying to address to
that need. A lot of times I try to get
| | 01:01 | that feedback ahead of time, even
before meeting with them, talking to their
| | 01:04 | friends, their acquaintances, their
colleagues, to understand what is the crust
| | 01:08 | of the issue.
| | 01:09 | So then you can formulate your
point of view and your perspective.
| | 01:12 | Charles Warren: Ask questions, like "I am not
sure I have the whole picture here, and I know
| | 01:16 | you know about this--like, does this make sense?"
| | 01:18 | Bring them into the design process.
| | 01:20 | Ryan: It's weird because it can be political.
| | 01:23 | It can be driven by marketing, by
cost, performance; there are all these
| | 01:27 | variables that may get in
the way of a good design.
| | 01:33 | So you may have to sacrifice for
one of those many, many things.
| | 01:40 | This past year I have
learned that over and over and over.
| | 01:44 | There are so many times where I have
something presented or something ready, and
| | 01:50 | we go to look at it, talking
about how it can it be built.
| | 01:52 | "You can't build that."
| | 01:54 | I said, "Really?" It's like, okay.
You learn, over time, how to pick your battles.
| | 02:01 | Albert Tan: The other thing also
is just to confront people directly.
| | 02:05 | If they say, "Oh, I don't like your idea,"
just kind of make a mental note of that
| | 02:08 | and then rather than in a public
situation sort of challenge them, take them out
| | 02:13 | to lunch or meet them afterwards
for dinner or for drinks or something.
| | 02:16 | You may find that they turn
out to be your biggest ally.
| | 02:20 | Diana: Now there are times where
a naysayer doesn't change their mind. But if you have
| | 02:24 | enough consensus with other team
members, sometimes that naysayer will actually
| | 02:28 | go, "You might agree to disagree,"
but still move forward anyway.
| | 02:32 | Other times, they will just go along
for the ride, and hopefully it will be
| | 02:34 | the right decision.
| | 02:35 | There have been probably several
projects and a naysayer actually came up and
| | 02:44 | said, "If we actually broaden it out or
took a different perspective, we could
| | 02:48 | actually hit a larger
group and a larger audience."
| | 02:50 | So just going back and then
reinvestigating that, we actually expanded out
| | 02:54 | the project, and it wasn't that they
were trying to actually fully crush the
| | 02:57 | initiative; they are just trying to say "take a
different angle, so we can actually even get
| | 03:01 | more return on that investment."
| | 03:02 | Albert: There was a time when one of our
executives had first purchased an iPhone and
| | 03:09 | was very enamored by the
packaging and how it was presented.
| | 03:13 | At the same time, we were also
starting to think about, what is the
| | 03:18 | impression that we want our
product to have on consumers?
| | 03:22 | For a long time, they didn't quite
understand that importance because, as a
| | 03:27 | company, we were very technology
focused than engineering focused.
| | 03:31 | So, at the moment though, he was not in
his engineering moment; he was very much
| | 03:37 | in a consumer moment.
| | 03:39 | So, taking advantage of that time and
going in while he was in that moment
| | 03:43 | made him much more open.
| | 03:45 | Diana: Sometimes if you know people
have very different opinions, you might actually
| | 03:48 | choose to have two different meetings
rather than bringing everyone into one.
| | 03:52 | If it's going to be a highly
controversial topic, sometimes if it's a very big
| | 03:57 | project, I might have ten different
meetings independently with individual
| | 04:02 | people to kind of talk about their
issues, kind of get them bought in on the
| | 04:07 | idea, and the concept, make sure that I
can lead them down kind of on a certain
| | 04:11 | path, that I can enter their key
questions before getting into the larger group.
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| Prototyping effectively| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:02 | Dane Howard: The most valuable asset of
innovation is the interplay between individuals
| | 00:07 | and the expression of their ideas.
| | 00:09 | Michael Schrage wrote this
in his book, "Serious Play".
| | 00:13 | It's about effective prototypes.
| | 00:15 | They give you a tangible dialog
that's needed to move the next business
| | 00:19 | decision forward.
| | 00:21 | By choosing the right fidelity of the
prototype, you have help guide a decision
| | 00:25 | to answer the most important
questions executives are looking for.
| | 00:29 | Charles Warren: Rehearse. It's really helpful.
| | 00:32 | I think it's a very good thing to not
have your first pitch be the crucial one.
| | 00:36 | Prototype your prototype kind of thing.
| | 00:38 | Rob Girling: Working an idea, the
golden rule of prototyping was prototype to
| | 00:44 | answer questions.
| | 00:45 | What's the question you are trying to answer?
| | 00:48 | The fidelity is directly related to,
what is it you're trying to find out?
| | 00:57 | Ryan Tandy: I think prototyping
as philosophy is super important.
| | 01:00 | You need to know what something feels like.
| | 01:03 | If you don't have the feel of an actual product,
| | 01:08 | you won't really know what you are making.
| | 01:10 | Guthrie Dolin: Failing quickly with limited
resources and quickly adjusting and iterating
| | 01:15 | is actually success.
| | 01:17 | So sometimes we call them sacrificial ideas.
| | 01:22 | They are ideas to test the
boundaries or edges of something.
| | 01:26 | So we may have one hypothesis, but we
actually need to put something else forward to
| | 01:31 | help prove that other
hypothesis, or that original hypothesis.
| | 01:35 | So a prototype can be actually built to
fail, so that you can learn how to create
| | 01:43 | something successful.
| | 01:44 | Michael Gough: So I have a very strong
belief that the higher fidelity, the better off you are.
| | 01:47 | Let's say you are going to make a
million of them, and you are going to make the first one.
| | 01:51 | You might want to call that
prototyping. But what I want to do, or I want
| | 01:55 | to push for, is as high a resolution
and as high as--a prototype that is impacted by as
| | 02:04 | many things as possible,
| | 02:06 | the things that are going to--the final
objects are going to be impacted by.
| | 02:09 | So if you are doing high-fidelity
prototyping, the fidelity includes things like
| | 02:15 | the structure of the materials,
| | 02:17 | what can actually be made, the
manufacturing process, everything.
| | 02:22 | The closer you can get to actually
making the thing, the closer you are to
| | 02:25 | really apprehending all of the challenges.
| | 02:28 | So the best work happens when
there is no distinction between design and making.
| | 02:33 | Tim Barber: If you are going to ever
convince anyone to spend a lot of money on an idea,
| | 02:39 | especially the later stages of an idea
when it's going from the early stage of
| | 02:44 | concepts and you are about to pull
the trigger on actual development where a
| | 02:49 | much greater volume of resources
is going to be applied to the idea,
| | 02:54 | in that situation a prototype is a given.
| | 02:58 | Albert Tan: I think a lot
of people think they get it.
| | 03:00 | They say, "Oh, yeah, I understand. I understand."
| | 03:03 | But put in an object in front of them
that really communicates, and is tangible,
| | 03:08 | that they can get--it
suddenly becomes very real.
| | 03:12 | Ryan: Back when we were doing
Musikfest work, we wanted to build an elaborate video
| | 03:17 | wall or some kind of walkthrough experience.
| | 03:21 | We just basically had to write it, write it
out, and just get people up to speed on
| | 03:27 | trying to imagine what it's going to feel like.
| | 03:29 | It was one of the funny times when I feel like words
actually did a really good job of always
| | 03:36 | getting somebody in the ballpark for
what an experience is going to be like.
| | 03:42 | You don't have to have it figured out
how or what, but you just need to talk
| | 03:46 | about what it's going to feel like.
| | 03:49 | That was really important in this context.
| | 03:52 | Guthrie: Some people love high-fidelity,
full-interaction, looks-and-functions-like-
| | 03:58 | the-real-thing-type prototypes.
| | 04:00 | Some people are fans of
quick sketches, paper prototypes.
| | 04:04 | They all have their role,
and they are all important.
| | 04:08 | I think the key thing is understanding
what you are trying to learn from the
| | 04:11 | prototype, the audience that
you are putting in front of.
| | 04:13 | Charles: Put a pen, or give the person you
are pitching some way of marking up whatever it is, so
| | 04:22 | that you are showing them it's not
precious, and this isn't the thing that's
| | 04:25 | going to make her break your career--I
think is incredibly important, because
| | 04:30 | you are not going to get honest
feedback if you are stressed out and sending
| | 04:34 | signals that here is my big
opportunity and if I don't make it today, I am
| | 04:38 | going to be really depressed.
You don't want that.
| | 04:41 | Guthrie: I think though the role of
the prototype is really to get as a real as you
| | 04:47 | can as quickly as you can.
| | 04:49 | You have time and resources, and
you have fidelity and resolution.
| | 04:54 | So you're always playing with those things.
| | 04:56 | A prototype may be dictated by money,
| | 04:59 | it may be dictated by time, or may
it be dictated by other limitations.
| | 05:04 | So I think it's important to strike
the right balance, but I think you are
| | 05:07 | trying to get as real, as clear, as
concise with the idea within the
| | 05:12 | constraints that you have.
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| Creating the right environment| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:03 | Dane Howard: There was a point in my career
that I realized how vital it is to create the
| | 00:07 | right environment for an idea to be received.
| | 00:10 | A distraction-free environment
allows for a story to unfold.
| | 00:15 | Your shift of thinking from the
creative execution to also balance out the
| | 00:19 | environment it's communicated in will
help you set up your ideas for the best
| | 00:24 | success that they can.
| | 00:25 | Guthrie Dolin: When it comes to an effective
environment for a pitch, I actually think of it
| | 00:31 | more about conditions than environment per se.
| | 00:37 | Are they comfortable? Do they
have everything that they need?
| | 00:40 | Have we removed distractions from the room?
| | 00:43 | Is it a place that they feel like they
can be candid, that they can be open?
| | 00:47 | Sometimes I think that removing
distractions is one of the most important things
| | 00:51 | because our clients tend to
be very, very busy people.
| | 00:55 | And so I think getting them out of
the office is a great way to do that.
| | 00:59 | If at all possible, I love to get them
out in a more relaxed social environment.
| | 01:04 | Sometimes that is as simple as taking a
break for the meeting, and saying, "Hey!
| | 01:08 | Let's walk down the
street and get a cup of coffee."
| | 01:12 | That extends the conversation.
| | 01:14 | They can fill in the detail and the
minutia in some maybe broad statement
| | 01:18 | that they said.
| | 01:19 | You can get a little bit more clarity.
| | 01:22 | Then I think that that's even more
prevalent if you get them out to a
| | 01:27 | commitment like dinner.
| | 01:29 | You can really have a conversation.
| | 01:30 | You can get more personal,
but you keep it business.
| | 01:33 | You can keep talking about it.
| | 01:35 | You can get more insights about the way
that they think about things, the things
| | 01:38 | that concern them, and you can start
to adjust the conversations around the
| | 01:44 | specifics of their point of view.
And really, that happens in an environment
| | 01:49 | where it's a little bit more intimate,
and again they have the time to get into
| | 01:53 | those kind of details that
they gloss over in the office.
| | 01:57 | Tim Barber: One of the things that we do
when we're establishing kind of the setting for
| | 02:02 | a pitch is oftentimes we configure
the room to support the story, fill the
| | 02:07 | room with all of our work product,
and it allows us to tell kind of a
| | 02:12 | non-linear story about how we got to
where we did, because oftentimes people,
| | 02:17 | especially senior executives, they
have questions about well, did you pursue
| | 02:21 | that, did you pursue this?
| | 02:22 | And when you flood the room with your
work product, you can tell a very dynamic,
| | 02:26 | non-linear story about how
you arrived at your destination.
| | 02:30 | You can point across the room and say,
| | 02:31 | "Oh yeah, we explored that over here, and
because of what we discovered, we chose to
| | 02:35 | go in this direction."
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| Pitching effectively| 00:00 | Dane Howard: I have watched incredible
communicators captivate a room on the premise
| | 00:04 | of only an idea.
| | 00:07 | I have also seen incredible ideas and
products fall flat because they were communicated poorly.
| | 00:14 | The influence of any idea lies in
the careful craft of communicating it effectively.
| | 00:20 | An effective pitch must address and
anticipate the concerns and questions of
| | 00:25 | the audience, whether that's telling a
story or putting something tangible into
| | 00:29 | someone's hands.
| | 00:30 | Charles Warren: The big mistake the younger
product managers and engineers make is
| | 00:36 | they spend a whole lot of time sort of
setting up what it is that they are going
| | 00:41 | to talk about, when,
basically you just want to show it.
| | 00:44 | But they are so proud and nervous that
they have to go through all these, like,
| | 00:48 | "And then and this and this. Blah, blah, blah."
| | 00:50 | So my thing is just put it
out there as quickly as you can.
| | 00:53 | Rob Girling: No surprises is actually a
really good rule of thumb for basically not
| | 01:00 | allowing time or distance to play a
factor in the cadence of communication.
| | 01:07 | So keep it constant, and there
will be no big surprises at the end.
| | 01:12 | Ryan Tandy: Get in a room, or get on a wall
with a bunch of people with pen, and try to
| | 01:19 | visualize what you are talking about.
Take your words and just turn them in
| | 01:24 | pictures, start showing how concepts
fit together, and how they link
| | 01:28 | together. Sometimes you can sort of
step back and the end of a meeting and look at something, and
| | 01:32 | it looks like total chaos.
| | 01:33 | It's like, I understand every element of that.
| | 01:35 | Guthrie Dolin: I think another approach that
I found is really successful is what I like
| | 01:43 | to call the "planned epiphany," and
that is kind of build a deck that
| | 01:48 | anticipates sort of the next logical
question along the process of sort of
| | 01:53 | coming to a solution.
| | 01:55 | If you're doing it just right, there
is a point in the conversation where
| | 02:02 | you'll show a slide, or you'll show a
screen, and the client will stop you and
| | 02:07 | say, "Hey Guthrie, wait!
You know, I have got a question about that.
| | 02:11 | If that's true, then how do we
handle X?" And you will say, "Funny you
| | 02:17 | should ask that. Next slide!"
| | 02:18 | Charles: I like to pick the person
who is kind of most passionate about it,
| | 02:25 | whoever the author is.
| | 02:27 | I think it's actually--sort of
anything that goes right on my team, is
| | 02:35 | whoever is on my team's fault, and
anything that goes wrong is my fault.
| | 02:39 | So if the pitch is going to go right--
and I usually make sure it does--I am not
| | 02:43 | going to deliver it.
| | 02:45 | Rob: I remember a story of trying to
pitch a game to Sony, and there was a lot of
| | 02:50 | skepticism in the company about the
company's ability to do this grander vision
| | 02:58 | of the game, and I was sort of
brought in to try to muscle that through.
| | 03:03 | One of the things that I did was
immediately wrote up this rude Q and A. So,
| | 03:08 | sort of like here's all the rude
questions that I am going to get asked right
| | 03:13 | out of the gate about what it is that
we're doing, and what's the plan. And it
| | 03:17 | sort of acted as a really good way for
me to address all the concerns that were
| | 03:24 | clearly there in the organization about
like how much scope and how much vision
| | 03:28 | was a part of this. And it just sort of got
all of the kind of rude Q and A stuff out
| | 03:33 | of the way really quickly.
| | 03:35 | Charles: So my team makes stuff that shows
up on mobile screens, and that's ephemeral, right?
| | 03:40 | It's so abstract.
| | 03:41 | So I get all my designers to always
put it on the screen, even if it's just a
| | 03:46 | screenshot, and then put the device in
the person's hand that we're trying to
| | 03:53 | pitch, because then they are looking at it.
| | 03:56 | It's close. So just that making it,
even if it's UI, making it make a noise when you
| | 04:03 | drop it. I think it's really important to
make whatever it is, the idea that you
| | 04:09 | have, tangible.
| | 04:11 | Build it a little ways, fake it somehow,
make a drawing, make a use case, make
| | 04:18 | a storyboard, act it out, have somebody
come along, and have the person you're
| | 04:22 | pitching, "You play the user.
| | 04:25 | You are the person in the drive
through, and I am the check-out clerk."
| | 04:29 | Act it out with them.
| | 04:30 | Anything you can do to make it
tangible. Again, put something in somebody's
| | 04:34 | hands, get them to use their body,
have them stand up from the desk--whatever it is.
| | 04:43 | Just make it as real as you can.
Make that future you want to create, real.
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| Learning from your mistakes| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:04 | Dane Howard: If you are not
failing, you are probably not learning.
| | 00:07 | Failing faster, in a humble way, will
give you strength and patience, once you
| | 00:13 | realize that you do have the skills
to move things through the process.
| | 00:17 | I once worked for an extremely
successful Fortune 100 company that pitched
| | 00:21 | their solution loudly and often,
assuming that everyone wanted to hear their version of it,
| | 00:26 | when all they really needed to do
to be effective was just to listen.
| | 00:31 | Michael Gough: Most of the good stories
are around that sense of accomplishment, where
| | 00:36 | you've come up with an idea for a
design, or your team has come up with an
| | 00:40 | idea, and you've been able to
successfully promote it and push it through all
| | 00:45 | of those obstacles.
| | 00:47 | My worst stories would be around the
times where all those exact same things
| | 00:52 | happened, but I happened to be wrong.
| | 00:55 | So one of the things to be careful about
are once you have the skills, you can be
| | 00:59 | incredibly persuasive, you can
bring your ideas to bear in the process.
| | 01:05 | Sometimes you have to watch out for
those traps where you've barreled through
| | 01:09 | the process, you've used your
persuasive skills, you've come up with some way
| | 01:14 | to make the point, land the job, or
force it through your corporation, and then
| | 01:21 | sometimes you've forced it through in
some ways where you missed something
| | 01:25 | really important.
| | 01:26 | Ryan Tandy: Well, I have been wrong a lot,
and they are the best moments, because the
| | 01:31 | sooner you learn you're wrong, the
quicker you can back onto the right thing.
| | 01:36 | Diana Williams: I think you
need to be a strong communicator.
| | 01:39 | With that, I think you are able to
articulate what's working, what's
| | 01:42 | not working. No one is a mind reader, so if you are
not happy, or if you don't think something
| | 01:48 | is going down the right path--if you
don't feel comfortable saying that, no one
| | 01:52 | ends up in a good place.
| | 01:53 | You are not happy.
The project is not in a good place.
| | 01:55 | So that communication skill is a must have.
| | 01:57 | Michael Gough: For the other 99.9% of us,
design is one disappointment after another. And if
| | 02:06 | you're not learning from those
disappointments, or if you can't have some
| | 02:09 | positive attitude about those
disappointments, you will not be successful.
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| Closing the deal| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:02 | Dane Howard: Getting through a successful
pitch and delivery will enable that idea to be heard,
| | 00:06 | but how do you close the deal?
| | 00:08 | What do you do to give it legs?
| | 00:11 | What's needed in order to extract the
value, to get the headcount, budget, or even
| | 00:15 | approval for that project?
| | 00:17 | Well, moving ideas forward has more
to do about being confident, humble, and
| | 00:22 | just ask for the work.
| | 00:24 | Listen to those that are in the room
| | 00:26 | that will ultimately partner with
you, in order to move that idea forward.
| | 00:29 | Tim Barber: The most important part of a
pitch is the end, because you've either answered
| | 00:39 | everyone's questions or you haven't.
| | 00:42 | You've either convinced them or you haven't.
| | 00:44 | It's really important to do two things:
| | 00:47 | One is to put it out there, to invite--
very bluntly--observations about where did
| | 00:54 | we either miss, or what questions you
still have, where do you think we're
| | 00:58 | wrong, to invite any of those
criticisms so that you have a chance to respond to them.
| | 01:03 | One additional thing that's really
essential to wrapping up a successful pitch
| | 01:07 | is to always ask for the project.
| | 01:10 | You always have to ask for the work.
Any salesman knows this is classic sales technique.
| | 01:15 | You have to ask for the green light,
because otherwise there is a lack of
| | 01:20 | focus, in particular at the end of a
meeting, and that's the one decision you want made.
| | 01:26 | You want somebody decide to
give you the work or not.
| | 01:28 | Ideally, they are going to give it you.
| | 01:30 | They are not going to give
it to you unless you ask.
| | 01:31 | You have to prompt that response,
or at least force them to consider that
| | 01:35 | decision while you have a
chance to close the deal.
| | 01:41 | Charles Warren: So, here is
what I am asking for you.
| | 01:43 | So one way you can check to see whether
you've been successful is do they react
| | 01:48 | to that, is there some negotiation that
happens about the ask, or they change
| | 01:52 | the ask? I often put the ask right
upfront, even before making it tangible.
| | 01:59 | So if this goes well, what I want
you to do is give me three engineering
| | 02:03 | resources, and I want you to sort of
release some budget, so I can have some
| | 02:09 | designers go and work on this for a few months.
| | 02:14 | Is that okay? All right.
And then do the pitch.
| | 02:17 | Just sort of say, "here is what I
am looking for," so that they know.
| | 02:20 | If it's pretty clear you've closed, stop!
| | 02:24 | No need to go any further.
| | 02:26 | I see a lot of it here at work. They're on
slide 6. The executive is convinced.
| | 02:32 | There are 14 slides left, and they are
going to go through all 14. Not necessary
| | 02:37 | if you've closed the deal.
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| Passion| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:03 | Dane Howard: There is nothing better than
witnessing someone in the room that absolutely
| | 00:06 | believes the material they are talking about.
| | 00:09 | Their sheer conviction and
enthusiasm infects those around them.
| | 00:13 | The emotional position, aligned with
some compelling arguments, always seems
| | 00:17 | to win the day.
| | 00:20 | If nothing else, your passion is going
to be that North Star, and ultimately a
| | 00:23 | blessing for those projects that come
along and strike you with that feeling
| | 00:28 | that you just have to do this.
| | 00:30 | This passion is always going to be
the lightning rod for you getting
| | 00:33 | those things done.
| | 00:34 | Michael Gough: Really, really strong
designers, and by strong, I mean ones that contribute
| | 00:40 | the most--essentially get the most
stuff built--focus mostly on just that:
| | 00:46 | getting something made.
| | 00:49 | When I am trying to decide how to choose
a designer, to hire one over another, or to
| | 00:55 | pick one project over another, I am
always going to lean towards the people that
| | 01:00 | could not stop doing that work.
| | 01:03 | They are so obsessed by that.
| | 01:05 | Let's say, here at Adobe, I say
that project is not green lighted;
| | 01:09 | it's not going forward.
| | 01:10 | They would still have to do it.
| | 01:12 | They would sneak out and do it.
| | 01:13 | They would do it on their own time.
| | 01:15 | They would conspire against me
to get other people to do it.
| | 01:18 | They just feel it in their
blood, that it has to be done.
| | 01:22 | I think that can be taught, that kind of
obsessive need to imagine and realize--
| | 01:30 | and realize is really important--
imagine and realize these things,
| | 01:34 | that's what it takes.
That's really what it takes.
| | 01:37 | Rob Girling: So I've got a story about how
prototyping was sort of, early in my career, this
| | 01:43 | great sort of way for me to
communicate all of my pent-up ambition and sort of desire
| | 01:48 | for change at Microsoft.
| | 01:50 | So in my weekends and late at night, I
pulled together a prototype of what I
| | 01:55 | thought to be the future of Office and Windows.
| | 01:59 | The prototype, I showed to my boss.
He went down the corridor and showed it to his
| | 02:02 | boss, and he went to Bill Gates and
showed it to Bill Gates, and this prototype
| | 02:07 | suddenly got this life of its own.
| | 02:09 | I was invited immediately to an off site.
I was fresh out of college and
| | 02:14 | had no idea of what was going on.
| | 02:16 | I roll up, and there is the entire
leadership of Microsoft and me, and I
| | 02:21 | had to do my demo.
| | 02:23 | The next week I was on stage at the
company meeting, presenting to the entire
| | 02:26 | company this prototype.
It just had a life of its own.
| | 02:29 | It's just sort of a--just this
ridiculous story of how just some late nights
| | 02:35 | working on a prototype sort of had
a reward that was completely
| | 02:41 | unplanned and unprecedented. And it really
became a catalyst for a lot of kind of
| | 02:48 | momentum in the next few feature releases.
| | 02:50 | So it was a very exciting time. I can
imagine a small-town designer sort of thrust
| | 02:57 | into the chaos of Microsoft. It was cool.
| | 03:00 | The output of that prototype was
really the sort of fulcrum for change in
| | 03:06 | terms of how design was perceived
at Microsoft, and it went from being
| | 03:11 | icons and palette choices to a real
sort of force for thinking big about how
| | 03:19 | the products could be.
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