Pitching your Idea: The Hackathon guideThe no nonsense guide to communicating

ideas with clarity and passion

Dan Ellis – Rallyteam (www.rallyteam.com)

April 29, 2015

The GoalThis is about communicating your idea and

the value of your idea

10 Guidelines forsuccessful pitching

#1 Grab attentionThere are a lot of pitches: get attention quickly

– you have 10 seconds to develop rapport

Example: Lead out with a attention grabbing fact or statistic. Or ask a leading question of the audience.

#2 Describe the problem

Your hack-idea should be trying to solve a problem.What is the problem you are trying to solve and why would I care?

#3 Get to the pointOnce you’ve framed the problem – get to your solution

Your time is short and so are attention spans

#4 Show the productGet to the demo quickly – everything else is theoretical.

In a three minute pitch – get there in 30 seconds

- Even a mockup is better than nothing

- It doesn’t need to be polished and perfect ---It is a hackathon after all!

#5 Examples are Powerful

- People relate to stories (Think how memorable movies are!)

- Ideally, create a scenario with a persona

- Walk through an example with your solution

- Paint a picture of how it will be used in the real world

#6 Tone and Pace- Don’t have so much content that you need to rush when you speak

- Speak clearly and with good pauses for effect

- Less is more

#7 Address your Audience

- Refer to but don’t talk at your slides – Face the audience

- Look at the judges and establish eye contact

#8 Be Synchronistic- If you have someone driving the demo – make sure that

the speaker matches what you’re showing!

- You must practice being in synch

#9 Don’t get technical

- For most solutions describing the underlying technologies doesn’t serve a purpose

- If it’s relevant, it will come out in the questions

#10 End Strong- Bring the audience home

- Remind them why it (your hack) matters

- It’s OK and, in fact, almost preferable to end early

-- And --Have Fun!

Thanks!

Dan Ellis

dan.ellis@rallyteam.com

@danclayellis