The Elevator Pitch is a short sentence answer to describe the what, who the what is for, and how the what is achieved. The what can be a product, an activity, a course, or just about anything.
You may ask how can this be possibly achieved in one short sentence. Seems impossible.
It can be achieved if you gather all the information about the what the who and the how into a MECE structure. The structure will have many layers, of course, to capture all the complexity, details, and subtleties of each of the who, the what, and the how. The Elevator Pitch describes only the first layer and sometimes the most important part of the second layer, especially the how. The Power of the EP is that it provides the person asking the question with a quick but easily understandable and clear answer to their question. It also provides them with the opportunity to delve deeper into any one of these three elements and because it has all been prestructured by you, you can rapidly mentally drill down any one of these elements into the many sub-layers of the MECE structure. EP is not just for providing succinct and easy-to-understand answers to questions but can be applied to any communication since all communication is answering an implicit question. If you think this is an exaggeration, post a counterexample in the comments section.
Since you did all the hard work of structuring the answer into a what who and how MECE structure beforehand, the person you are communicating with has the time to focus on what is being said rather than trying to figure out what is being said. That is what makes this EP style communication so easy to remember. Unfortunately, most communication is a garbled data dump leaving the person being communicated too confused and concluding that you don't know what you are talking about.
EP communication is at first difficult but like anything else it becomes easier with each deliberate practice (practice, performance feedback, and repeat until the desired proficiency is achieved)
Here is an EP for this course
The course is for aspiring analysts who want to become proficient operational risk managers at the associate level through learning by doing which includes Agile problem-solving operational risk case studies, design workshops, active in-class deliberate practices, and receiving timely feedback through online Q&A.
Note:
the who - aspiring analysts
the what - proficient op risk managers at the associate level
the how - through learning by doing.....
Now try yourself by asking a question and yes do a data dump of all the elements of the answer then structure it into a MECE. Then create an EP by including only the first layer and possibly some of the important elements of the second layer. For example, in the EP for this course, I could have stopped the "How" at the first layer, namely learning by doing. But I decided to include some important second layer features of learning by doing.
Experience its power when you communicate it to a colleague, friend or even an adversary!
What strategies can we use to ensure that our EP remains engaging and doesn’t sound too rehearsed?
How can the Elevator Pitch method be effectively used for complex projects that have multiple stakeholders with diverse interests and needs?
Are there any specific steps recommended for refining an EP after receiving feedback from an audience?
What are the criteria for choosing the important parts of the second layer elements? And similarly when do we decide not to include some of them?
Hi Professor, for assignment 1(b), asking about how to manage regulatory risk (assigned topic), we wrote an elevator pitch, e.g. Risk Manager utilizing the MECE structure to develop a detailed ECRG framework for managing regulatory risk, do u think it is a good EP? if not, how to improve?