I was recently asked if I could outline a pitch deck for an intrapreneur to sell a new technical idea to his senior management team. I’ve been fortunate to have been on both sides of the table and both written and listened to a lot of technical pitches. As a rule of thumb, the more complex the subject the simpler the presentation has to be. This makes writing technical pitches a challenging yet rewarding experience when they go well.

Before diving into the details of the idea it can be worth considering two important points. The first is to test your own understanding of the idea. Before you try and ‘sell’ it to others you need to check that you really understand it. Richard Feynman had a simple way of doing this. He recommended you go first try to explain your idea to an 8 year-old. He argued that if you can’t explain it to a child then you don’t fully understand it yourself!

The second point is to try and avoid making any sweeping assumptions about the audience and their backgrounds. Everyone brings with them a unique set of skills, experience and knowledge. Don’t miss things out or skip an important detail. If people already understand something they’ll be patient enough to let you explain it to those who don’t.

With these in mind you can start to build a presentation for your idea. A useful framework to help you build a logical technical presentation is as follows:

Introduce yourself

Establish credibility with the audience as to why you’re qualified to make this pitch.

Existing solution

Explain, as simply as you can, the existing solution. It can help to draw a simple high level diagram or overview of the existing tech/process/method.

Limitations

Discuss the major limitations of the existing solution. Give real examples of the dangers / risks / issues of those limitations and their affect in measurable terms on users and buyers.

Call to action

Show why NOW is the time to make this change. What technological or social changes have happened recently that enable a different approach and the urgency to do this now.

Proposed solution

High level overview of the idea and solution; what it will accomplish, fix and/or avoid for users and owners; again keep it super simple.

Quantify the new benefits

List the new benefits from the users / owners’ perspective and in tangible terms that matter most to them, e.g. money / time / efficiency / safety / reputation.

Implementation

Basic plan of action for making it happen with key milestones for value creation and estimated timescales. Keep it realistic!

Risk and issues

Outline the obvious risks and objections that your audience are probably already thinking of. Get ahead of them with possible mitigations and solutions.

Resources and costs

Detail what resources you think you will need (people, contractors, materials etc.) and the estimated costs to make this happen.

The ask

What do you need from your audience to move this on, e.g. support / funding / introductions / approval / people etc.

 

Sections can be re-ordered and adjusted depending on your preference and the audience. This is your pitch and it needs to be delivered in your style so that it is delivered confidently and naturally.

Footnote: most of these ideas are not mine. Credit must go to Oren Klaff (author of ‘Pitch Anything’ an incredible resource) and the late and great Andy Grove (Intel).

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