The Idea Funeral

We have all been there. A big idea found its way into your mind, and now you’re trying to make the idea into a reality.?

Maybe your job is to have big ideas. Maybe you work at a creative shop, an ad agency - maybe you’re a designer - and you work for clients. Maybe you’re in charge of a big project at your company, and you want to approach things differently - you have a bold new idea, maybe. Or maybe you’re trying to start your own thing and you’re pitching investors for funding.?

OK, did we cover everyone? No? Well, this will just have to be for us, for now. Getting big ideas and caring for them is very difficult - as big ideas tend to require change. If an idea is big enough, you really have to rearrange the room, if you get my drift. Change is hard for everyone. Big ideas are disruptive.?

Big ideas are wonderful and amazing, too. Big ideas can create massive leaps forward. Anyone who has had a big idea knows what it’s like to be in love. It’s like that.?

Most of my career to date has been spent trying to communicate ideas of a certain size, far before any of us knew how we would make the idea happen, or just what exactly we would do when the rubber was to hit the road. Me and my friends pitched crazy advertising campaigns, world-shifting brand strategies, never-done-before product innovations, and cultural movements.?

Some of these big ideas happened. Some of the ideas were funded and are businesses, today. Some even worked - as in, they did what they were supposed to do. But, many of the biggest and best ideas died. Right there. In the room. When we were pitching. Somewhere along the way, we missed some critical clues about the mission, and in a blaze of spectacularly animated Keynote files, we went down swinging.?

I think most of us know this feeling. It’s like sneaking out into the living room on Christmas morning as a materialistic American kid, and seeing that Santa did not bring that one, special thing you were hoping for.?

Gut punch.?

Whiff.?

You know the signs. The avoidant eyes. The incessant checking of the phone or laptop. The confused looks. Apathetic countenances. Folded arms. Tented, fiddling fingers. Audible sighing. “No questions?”?

Yikes. Gutted.?

That’s an idea funeral.?

Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about pitching. I have been in a lot of Rooms - you know, The Room. I’ve created many many presentation decks. I’ve waved my hands. I’ve littered thousands of whiteboards in fits of improvised (and not so improvised) pitch theater. I’ve cited scripture. I’ve quoted ancient rituals. I’ve intimated lore from the Wookiepedia (didn’t win that one, but to this day, I have a certain love for Ugnaughts.) Because when we make a pitch, we are becoming experts.?And we're giving an information-rich tour of the expertise. Sounds simple enough, right?

One of the biggest challenges in these rooms is one of time and attention. We may become an expert in our idea, but like we talked about earlier, big ideas are…well, big. We can’t and shouldn’t expect people in The Room to also become experts in our idea during one meeting. It’s too much.?

What can we do? The big idea is big. There’s a lot to it. And yet we are expected to somehow fold time and space to make our precious massive concept fit into a regular old pitch meeting? What is the best way to present an idea? Why do so many ideas die in meetings?

These questions became the substance of my entire career. If you know me, chances are that you know me for:

• UX Deliverable Design
• Vision Presentations
• Pitch Decks
• Whiteboarding
• Unholy Infinite Canvas Usage
• Meeting/Workshop Facilitation

I’ve wrestled with the best way to present big ideas for the better part of 20 years. For the past 5-10 years, I’ve been threatening to design a product to tackle the difficulties of collaborative idea development and write a book. Today, I’m a little closer to both of those, I suppose.

A few months ago, a group of researchers and designers at JPL/NASA reached out to me asking me to teach how to improve presentation skills in the form of a few workshops. They had seen a video of me doing a sort of brown bag talk a few years back. I had an amazing time working with these teams who, like all of us, struggle with presenting as knowledge workers in diversely matrixed organizations. The workshops were a blast - for me at least.?

I’ve spend the past few months’ nights and weekends remastering this content - and in a few weeks, I’ll be launching a masterclass on big idea pitches. It’s 54 Modules with about 20 Exercises - about 300 pages of material in all, delivered in what will probably be about 6-7 hours of material.?

If you’re into that sort of thing, it’d be great to have you along for the ride. As we get a bit closer to that release, I’ll be posting more. I’ll set up an email subscription and a waitlist as I start building an initial cohort of interested parties, and get the kinks worked out. Follow me here to stay tuned.

It’s been a strange and wonderful process and I look forward to sharing more with you. For now, I’ll offer a couple of possibly surprising insights that have come up during the development of this content:

1. Always Be Presenting The sooner you can start workshopping your ideas - or even sharing your process with others, the better. A quick “Show and Tell” when we’re just starting is a GREAT way way to identify weak spots in your thinking. I’ve done the whole “I’ll just be in the war room for 2 weeks - don’t talk to me” thing, I promise you that it seldom performs well. If you’re always presenting, you’ll need some sort of materials to “show” while you tell. Your incessant sharing will facilitate better content development than pumping a lot of production value into slides before you have the story down.?

2. Every Room Has Secrets I think I am borrowing this notion - probably word for word - from Ryan David Mullins . Unless we can get into sharing our work early, we’ll never know what others know. Grab some friendlies, and ask them to be curious about your presentation - and you’ll undoubtedly come out with a new insight, new facts, new sources - and probably an evolution of your idea for the better. Engage the room with the questions you used to develop your idea - share your work and process, and ask them to pick at it. Become very curious about what The Room feels about what you’re presenting, and how you’re presenting it, and you will be a little better every time you’re present. What's more, your idea will get better along the way. After all, the idea isn't for you - big ideas need room to run around and change the world. If this idea is going to work, you're going to need to find a supportive ecosystem - and the idea will change if it is to live.

3. Your Strategy is Your Storyline Every great story leaves the safe and known world and finds mystery, disaster, and even death along the way. A key element of idea development relies on your ability to understand the problem you’re setting out to solve with your idea, as well as your vision for the post-idea world. The trick is to break pace and drive conversation each and every time you present. Remember, you’re always presenting. The beauty of this approach is that you’ll put a lot of very valuable mileage on developing clarity around the problem and the insights that point to your idea as a solution. Even if your idea isn’t baked yet, you will build support for your effort because there’s clarity in the problem and vision.?

More to come. And may all your presentations be conversations. Until next time, you can mess around with Midjourney with me.?