Project Manaverse

How to create an elevator pitch for your project 

What is an elevator pitch?  An elevator pitch is a short ‘speech’ used to spark someone’s interest.  That interest could be in anything. For example, it could be in you, your company, a product or an idea.  As a project manager, you should be ready to spark interest in your project. 

Elevator pitches should be concise and last no longer than thirty seconds.  You can use an elevator pitch during unplanned encounters, for example, finding yourself in a lift with the company CEO (hence the thirty seconds).  Coffee shop queues can also afford occasions for an elevator pitch!  These situations provide a golden opportunity to introduce yourself and explain your project.

Why does a project manager need an elevator pitch? 

A good project manager always has a sound understanding of his or her project.  They understand the scope, the driver, the stakeholders, the key dates, the risks and the issues.  They should be able to communicate these things confidently, articulately and without hesitation.  If you want to progress in your project management career, things like this are important.  

If you find yourself face to face with someone senior in your organisation, you need to be ready.   You won’t impress anyone by being silent, but you might impress someone by confidently starting a conversation.  Show them that you are not phased by the gap in seniority.  The dialogue will usually turn to what you are currently working on, and that’s when you transition into your project elevator pitch.  If you don’t have one ready, you might bumble through or even draw a complete blank, not necessarily because you don’t know your project well, but because you were completely unprepared and a little nervous!  That wouldn’t look good and that wouldn’t help your career progression.  

What should you include in your elevator pitch? 

Remember, we only have thirty seconds for this, so we are only going to cover the key points.  

Here they are – 

The overarching goal of your project.  

What is it you are actually delivering? 

The project driver.  

Why are you doing your project?  Cost reduction?  Other benefits?  Is it a legal thing?

The delivery approach.  

Are you using classic waterfall?  Is it an Agile delivery? 

The implementation approach.  

Is it a phased delivery, or will it be Big Bang?

The implementation date.  

When are you going Live?

The business areas your project will impact.  

Who are the key stakeholders? 

The project status.  

How is the project progressing?  If it isn’t going well, maybe they can help!

The key successes so far.  

Is the team working well together?  Have you hit any key milestone?

An example of a project elevator pitch

To bring this to life, I’m going to give you an example.  As Project Manaverse is focused on IT projects, this will be an IT project example.

So, I’m managing the Genesis Upgrade project. Genesis is our strategic Finance Ledger and it’s due to go out of support at the end of the year. I’m managing this waterfall style with a phased implementation, starting with a database upgrade in June, and ending with the application upgrade in November. This will impact the Finance Ops guys the most but they’re comfortable with it. I had a few hurdles to get over the Design approval, but now that’s all done and dusted I’m back to Green and we’re full stream ahead with the build.

Key ‘back pocket’ things you should know

So, you’ve delivered your elevator pitch and made a good impression…..but it’s not over yet!  Your audience will likely have one or two questions for you, so you don’t want to mess it up by not knowing the answers!  Here are some back pocket project facts you should know ‘by heart’,

• The project start date
• The project cost
• The top five key project milestones and their dates
• What would happen if you didn’t do the project
• If your project is regarding a system, a high level description of what the system does 
• The key project risks, issues, assumptions and dependencies 

Final tips 

To end this article, I am going to give you some final tips for delivering your elevator pitch. 

Take your time.  

Make a conscious effort to speak more slowly than you usually would, as you will likely speak faster without realising it.

Don’t lie.  

If you are asked something you don’t know, just be honest and say you’ll have to check on it and let them know.  Try not to sound embarrassed, just be casual and say something like ‘sorry that’s not something I know off the top of my head, there is so much going on!  I’ll find out today and let you know’.

Stick to the project.

Don’t talk about yourself, career history or background unless the conversation naturally goes there.  Stick to business.

And that’s it!  You should prepare your elevator pitch as soon as possible and even practice it a few times so you are ready to use it whenever the opportunity may arise!  Thanks for visiting my site, if you have any questions or comments about the elevator pitch or project management in general, please leave them below, I’d love to read them.  Until the next time!