How to Survive a Pitch (and Love It)
For some reason, I’ve never gone into a pitch fearing it. I always see it as an opportunity to forget about the mundane details of long term projects and whatever guidelines a client has for their precious “About Us” page. Pitches provide a chance to design the shit out of something. For me, getting briefed on a pitch feels a lot like getting that pep talk before a big Friday night game under the lights. It feels like you’ve been practicing for it forever, everybody’s watching, and now it’s time to show what you’re made of. Two weeks later, the dust settles and the better team walks away champions.
In saying that though, I can see where fears, or nerves, or questions arise. What if it’s your first pitch? What if the horror stories you hear the senior people on your team joking about are true? What does it feel like to not only stay awake for 36 hours but to be producing work for 36 hours? Well readers, that’s where I come in. Over the 9 years I’ve been pitching clients, I’ve kept tabs on what worked, what didn’t, and most importantly what won. So whether you’re heading into your first pitch, or just wrapped up your fiftieth, gather ‘round…
Get out. Seriously.
Every one knows how to browse awwwards and read co.design (which you should be doing). But far too often people think that counts as inspiration or even research. Inspiration is finding something new that triggers your brain to think about a problem in a different way. And research requires gathering experiences and information beyond your own. The best way to do both is to close your laptop, throw a pad of paper and pen into your bag, and get outside.
As soon as you know who you’re pitching, download their app, go to their store, or get hands-on with their product, and use it. Put yourself in the mind of a user and go through some key flows or try to complete certain goals. Come up with at least 5 of these, then find a way to test those flows or gather information about them. If all else fails, go to a busy coffee shop and ask people if they’ve heard of the product and what they think about it. Do that for half a day and you’ll know what you need to focus your energy on (pro tip: If you break up into teams of two for this, you’ll get at least twice the research done in the same amount of time).
Next, get inspired. Go to a museum or art gallery, watch a documentary, pick a random chapter from Creativity Inc. and read it. It doesn’t even have to be related to the work, and probably shouldn’t be. If you just do something you don’t normally do that requires you to think a little and like magic (or hard work and practice), inspiration will come.
Now it’s time to get shit done. Once you’ve done your research and gathered some inspiration, it’s time to focus. Get your team together, get a stack of Post-Its and Sharpies, set a timer for 15 minutes, and then go off into your own corner. Ask everyone to write something they heard today that stuck with them on one sticky note. Repeat until the timer runs out. Then regroup and share and post them to the wall, stacking duplicates along the way (spoiler alert: the more duplicates there are, the more important that thing is). After that’s done, set the timer again, and on your own write as many ideas as you can for each thing on the board. Only put 1 idea on each sticky. When the timer rings, regroup with the team, post up your ideas, and take turns walking through what you wrote.
Now you have an entire wall of problems and probably have a few large groupings of similar stickies. That’s what you need to focus on. Those are your “big ideas”.
Work in 24 hour cycles.
Time can, and will, run away from you on a pitch. It’s easy to get distracted by your other responsibilities or coffee breaks or office chatter. And when even short deadlines seem far away, like delivering something in two weeks, it’s easy to procrastinate. That’s where daily check-ins help out. Whether you’re doing this for you team or for yourself, start with setting a clear goal that is obtainable but not without effort. Then set a clear time for when the goal needs to be completed by every day and will be reviewed with the team. It should be the same time every day — I recommend the morning, around 10am. It gives people a moment to come into the office, get their coffee or breakfast and settle in before the day begins. The same time every day also helps create a pattern, which then becomes habit.
The other key part of the 24 hour work cycle is to make time for the work you need to do. This isn’t something your manager or team leader can do for you (though they can help in other ways). It’s something you need to do on your own, and stick to it with vigilance. That something, is booking time on your calendar that is heads down, no distractions, no excuses work time. If someone tries to book a meeting during that time decline with extreme prejudice. Close email, close your browser, close Slack, put your phone on do not disturb, remove all distractions from your immediate area. If you need, to vacate your desk or office and go somewhere where people can’t find you. Do whatever you can do to have nothing in your field of vision other than Sketch, Principle, a stack of paper, and a Sharpie (pro tip: at the very beginning of your heads-down time, sketch out on paper as many solutions as you can in 30 minutes at the very beginning of your heads down time, don’t throw away any sketches, and use that to start designing in Sketch).
Make the work distractingly awesome.
There is something I learned early on in my career with clients during pitches. Most of the time, if the work you put in front of the client is distractingly gorgeous, the client will forget about the details, points to the work, and say, “I want that”. At that point, you can pat yourself on the back, have a beer after the presentation, and feel good for a few weeks. In order to do this, you’ll need to do two things.
First, keep your designs simple. When you’re designing real sites, apps, and products every day, you’re taught to pay attention to the details. To make sure every micro interaction is in place and that colors and spacing are in perfect harmony, and that no piece of copy has been over looked. In pitch design, it’s the exact opposite. You care about the macro. You want to make certain elements almost stupidly large and purposely leave out copy or even interactions in some areas in the name of story flow and simplicity.
If a day-to-day project is like a movie, then think of a pitch like a trailer. If you tried to tell the same story and show the nuance of characters, you’d either have a pretty boring trailer or a shitty 3-hour trailer. And like a trailer, you just want to hit on the highlights of the experience and leave the rest to the client’s imagination. When in moderation, the mystery of a question is almost always better than the answer.
Second, become a Principle pro. If you haven’t downloaded a program called Principle yet, and go download it. Check out the tutorials they have on the site. They do a great job of getting you dangerously good with Principle in no time. Now that you’re back, the next part is easy. Animate the shit out of everything you design. Don’t wait to get asked to do this, and in fact don’t even wait until the design is done. Animations can sometimes help solve the problem. An animation makes you think through work differently to make sure that everything makes sense beyond just the page or screen you have in front of you.
When you animate something, think of it as adding Lego connectors to your designs. Animation ensures that everything lines up, snapping together and turning into an awesome rocket ship. But animation can also reveal where your flow falls apart, and where the client will get lost when transitioning from one idea to the next. The more you get used to animating your work, the sooner you’ll start thinking about how things animate, the better your work will get.
How to survive an all-nighter.
Don’t pull an all-nighter. It’s bad for your health (seriously) and you’ll be less productive the next day. But if it’s currently 6pm and you have 12 hours of designing in front of you, here’s how to do it.
First, stay active. Set a timer to go off every 90–120 mins. When it goes off, do 10 push ups and 10 jumping jacks. Getting your pulse up and blood pumping periodically will help you push through bouts of sleepiness. Taking breaks will also help keep you out of work tunnel vision, which can set in in the early morning hours.
Second, eat and drink a lot of water. When you don’t sleep your body needs to take in more food and water than usual. So, keeping your body satiated with the proper nutrition is important to help keep you focused on the work at hand. I generally drink a large glass of water between breaks. For food, I eat a smaller dinner than normal but one that is high in protein and low in simple carbs and sugar. Then I’ll have one or two protein shakes throughout the night, followed by a yogurt for breakfast. Foods high in protein help to boost our levels of serotonin and dopamine, both of which our brains need in order to boost energy, mental clarity, and basically make you feel happy.
Lastly, a little bit of common sense. Turn on every light around you and get in as much of that blue light as you can. Tricking your brain into thinking it’s light out goes a long way. I also take a shower around 5am. Taking a shower at this time helps wake me up and tricks my mind into thinking it’s time to get ready for the day. Because it’s often a sprint in the early morning to wrap up the work, double check everything, and get it out before heading back into the office.
Present with confidence.
Before working for DigitasLBi, I had the opportunity to be trained by GE for a few years in their IMLP program. During this time they provided us with private, 1-on-1 presentation training for when we presented our work to upper level management. Here is what they taught me.
Practice. No matter how well you know your work, practice your presentation at least once in front of someone. Be honest with yourself afterwards, and you’ll realize where you were confident and where you were nervous. Go over those nervous spots and review. Don’t try and memorize every line or word, just the one highlight of each slide. Rinse and repeat until you’re confident everywhere.
Don’t lock your knees. Bend your knees slightly when in front of the room. This will keep you from rocking back and forth, pacing around the room, and keep you from passing out (I’ve seen that happen before).
Find your catch word. For many people it’s “um”. For other it’s “ah” or “soo”. In order to find yours either record yourself giving your presentation or find a close group of friends you trust and give it to them. Have them tell you your catch word and also count how many times you say it in the presentation. Take a quick break, and present again, this time being hyper aware of the word. If you find yourself about to say it, pause, think about what you are going to say after it, and continue to that. Do this over time and you’ll erase the catch word from your speech.
Not your first rodeo.
Above all else, don’t make the next pitch your first rodeo. Put what you just learned into action. Go practice Principle, film your next internal presentation, find your catch word, or go donate time to a charity like Child’s Play and pull your first all nighter. All of it will make you better at and more confident in your next pitch.
I’d also love to hear your best tips, tricks, and stories for and about pitching in the comments.
The views expressed in this post are that of the author and may not reflect the views of the agency or company.
