Proposal Scope (Was Re: [Sigia-l] Smackdown: Edward Tufte vs. Don Norman

[Andrew Boyd]

Listera wrote:

>You put in 12-hour days for months in hopes of getting a startup off the
>ground. Comes time to solicit external funding. You approach venture
>capitalists. What they want from you is a one-paragraph description of your
>venture. Because they have to parse through hundreds of these pitches, they
>just don't have the time. If they like that then comes a 5-minute
>presentation. Your hopes and the livelihood of your entire team ride in
>those 5 short minutes and 5 short PowerPoint slides. If that fails, often
>there's no tomorrow, there's no second chance to "explain" finer details.
>  
>
Hi Ziya,

another "me too" agreement/anecdote post from me... One place I worked 
in was run by some very busy men and women - they were famed for the 
number of appointments they bumped to make room for more important 
meetings. The only time available to pitch something to them was when 
they were quite literally rushing from one meeting to the next - right 
or wrong, that was just the way it was. A couple of hours preparation 
might be put into one thirty second "squirt pitch" - if this was 
successful, and they could see the benefit to their people and 
themselves, then they would make time to listen to the rest.

To answer Karl's concerns about his team needing more detail: I think 
that everyone needs to be able to distill out an effective 30 
second/five minute "executive summary" of any concept, no matter how 
complex, concentrating on the key points, key benefits, and costs, for 
the benefit of the decision makers. AND there should be a detailed 
document available for in-depth DD and the benefit of the design team. 
Adjust the scope to the needs of the audience. This is the part of IA 
that comes from technical writing and marketing.

Cheers, Andrew

-- 
___________________________________________
Andrew Boyd	andrew at friendlymanual.com
http://www.friendlymanual.com
"Do not ask me why I follow my heart,
ask yourself why you do not follow yours."
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