Pressures of the First Pitch
Published by Justin Wylie
Pitching an idea of any kind always has its own pressures, the anxiety that comes with it being accepted or rejected can be at an all time high the day of. During this product development class, we focused mainly on the process of getting to the dreaded day. Centering your thoughts on the process of any task, can ease the build up of any major event. In this class, we learned how to brainstorm an idea, interview subjects, gather feedback, and then create a business model which in turn leads to our final pitch.
In the final class in this product development course, my classmates and I pitched our products to our classmates and then staff who had the ability to collect our ideas and continue the development process to make the product a reality. All the products had a great cause and a targeted audience that would greatly benefit from the making of it, but at the same time there are more logistics that go in to developing a product.
Clearly communicating the problem of your audience is important for any “judge” to be able to gauge the interest others would have in a product. Along with that, explaining how it is you got there can answer some other questions about the future the product may have. In this class session, I noticed all of my classmates conveyed their audience’s problems well, then went on to give support on why their product could impact the lives of their users.
I am no expert, but the presentations that were most memorable to me were the ones that were graphically appealing, was relevance in the product to my life, and the pitch in general had a great pace and tone to it. One thing that comes with a first pitch is definitely nerves, and for us college students having this potentially be one of our first pitches, it was noticeable. But, the tone of your voice, the posture of body, and the confidence you give off can also be a factor that staff members or “judges” take into account.
As an overall experience, the product development class opened my eyes to the business side of journalism. Gave insight in how to start a business model or create a potential product; this class is one that I will take into the real world and base some of the concepts we learned into my profession in the long run.
