Women in Product DC: How to Craft the Perfect Elevator Pitch Workshop

Stephanie J. Neill
Women In Product Blogs
3 min readOct 2, 2018

Huge thank you to Blackstone Technology Group for hosting yet another memorable Women in Product DC event! On Tuesday, September 20, a group of about 20 women working in Product roles around the DC-VA-MD region gathered to hone one specific skill: How to strengthen their elevator pitch & learn a repeatable framework to develop a compelling one every time.

We welcome you with LaCroix & pizza & snazzy whiteboard art.

Since we’re a generous sort, we want you to still be able to benefit from the night’s work, even if you weren’t able to join us. So here’s our secret sauce:

You can use this process to hone your elevator pitch about yourself, your product, your company, your resume, whatever you want. It essentially helps you improve your storytelling technique by forcing you to consider what information is vital and interesting enough to share with a potential investor/employer/boyfriend/etc.

You can replicate this for yourself in your own home, or you can run your own workshop — it works any size group, though if it’s a group half as ambitious and high energy as the one we had on Tuesday, you’ll also need an airhorn to call time ;) To do this right, you need the following tools:

  • Post-its
  • Some 11x17 paper
  • Sharpies
  • Airhorn (optional)

NOTE: Using Sharpies are an absolute must in order to force brevity per post-it.

There are three sections to this exercise, and the whole thing takes roughly an hour to complete.

  1. a) Create your story in exactly 20 post-its; lay it out on the piece of paper. (15 minutes total)
    b) Find a partner who does not know you & present your story. (15 minutes total — 7.5 mins per person)
  2. a) Pare down the same story into exactly 5 post-its; consider what information truly moves your story forward, and what can be tossed. (10 minutes total)
    b) Find a NEW partner who does not know you & present your story. (10 minutes total — 5 mins per person)
  3. a) You know what’s next! Pare down your story to the barebones essential using ONLY ONE POST-IT. (5 minutes total)
    b) Find yet another partner who does not know you & present your single post-it story. (1 minute total — 30 seconds each)
Step 1: Lay it all out there.
Step 2: Talk it out.
Step 3: Present IN THIRTY SECONDS OR LESS!!@#1

Now that was easy, wasn’t it? ;)

The so-called Wall of Women did not disappoint.

We’re thrilled that so many new people came out to do this workshop with us, and to network with other product managers, product designers, and all the different types of folks responsible for product development. We look forward to our October event at NPR in DC and hope to see you all there! In the mean time, stay in touch via the main Women in Product Facebook group and the Women in Product DC Facebook group.

Keep on shipping!
- Stephanie & Julie

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Stephanie J. Neill
Women In Product Blogs

Currently VP, Product at Twitch. Previously Executive Director @usds; Director, Product @IAC; & founder @womenpm DC chapter, @UXNYMeetup, & @PCampSF.