MIS4596 CAPSTONE COURSE

Presentation

7 Tips For Nailing Your Pitch

With our presentations coming up, I thought I would post an article that discussed tips that may help your team improve there pitch.  Your idea is only as good as your pitch.  Even with a great idea, if you can’t clearly explain it or paint a picture for your audience, your idea is worthless.  Here are some tips to look over before finalizing your pitch.

Nail your pitch!

1. Start with an overview of what your company does – Explain the problem you are solving and describe how you will be doing this.  You want to very clear when describing your application.

2. Keep it simple – You do not want to confuse your audience.  You want the audience to be able to follow your entire presentation without many questions.

3. Involve your whole team in the presentation – It helps to have the whole team up there and presenting some sort of information.  It helps show that your team is well rounded and on the same pa

4. Be ready to answer questions – We were lucky enough to do a trial run in front of class.  We got to see what questions people may have following our presentations.  Based off those questions, focus on what other questions people may have and how to answer the questions that were already asked.

5. End with a summary – Recap with the main points you want the audience to leave remembering.

6. Don’t be discouraged by negative feedback – Just because the pitch or presentation does not go according to planned does not mean that you have a bad idea.

7. If you don’t understand the feedback, ask for clarification – You will gain valuable information and see where your team can improve.

Do you guys find these tips helpful?

What other tips do you have for the class to prepare for their pitch?

 

 

Presentation Tips

As our presentations draw closer, I did some research on how best to present ideas to the panel of judges who would be considered angel investors.

I found a nice Forbes article by Carmine Gallo with five tips.

1) The pitch should have a compelling story as opposed to only being data-driven as angel investors take on more of a mentor role by providing emotional as well as financial support. 2) He then suggests using pictures to tell the story as they make the presentation more memorable than words. 3) The presenters should be passionate about their product during their pitch. 4) If the product does not solve a problem, investors will likely not care about it. I found this odd as this would usually be the first thing mentioned in many of the other pitch tips I browsed through. He must have assumed a good product was envisioned or else you wouldn’t be pitching the idea. 5) And lastly, share the stage. Since everyone is required to present, this will show a cohesive group where everyone played a part.

Is this advice common knowledge? Do you think these tips will actually help your presentations?

Better Prototyping, Better Software

software photo

Given that we will soon be expected to demonstrate progress on our project prototypes, I searched online for software prototyping tips. I found an article at a site called Inc about how develop a strong prototype.

One excellent recommendation made in the article was to develop a prototype with your customer in mind. This point made me recall our prototype revisions in our business analysis class two semesters ago. Our initial prototype was functional, but after reviewing it, we decided that is was more closely aligned with our project team’s needs and wants than with the customer’s. Several more revisions were needed before our prototype became more intuitive and customer-oriented.

Another point made in the article is that “it’s nearly impossible to sell a product without an elegant design.” This became particularly apparent in viewing other groups’ prototype presentations; the groups’ prototypes that made the best impression on the audience were not only functional, but also looked professional and clean. As we all know from using countless applications at work and at school, it is a chore to use poorly designed software, and poor design can seriously impair an application’s functionality.

With these observations in mind, how do you plan to balance your MIS5496 prototype’s functionality with its design? What prototyping lessons did you learn from developing applications in your business analysis class and from overseeing your BA teams in MIS3596?

Death By PowerPoint

audience-sleeping

According to Forbes.com, the six ways to avoid “Death By PowerPoint” are:

  1. Mix up your media
  2. Send content ahead of time
  3. Intersperse content with discussion, group exercises, and reflection time
  4. Give handouts
  5. Use eye catching software
  6. Use props

These six steps are crucial for delivering a successful PowerPoint presentation because it addresses all styles of learning and promotes audience engagement. Most people retain information better when they are actively engaged rather than just listening to someone relay information. The two items that never cross my mind when it comes to delivering PowerPoint presentations are send content ahead of time and giving handouts. From the article, I learned that it is important to send content ahead of time because it allows people to come prepared to discuss your content and ask questions rather than listen to your presentation. I also learned that handouts are important because people love knowing they don’t have to take full notes and can simple listen. Do you think sending content ahead of time makes your PowerPoint presentation pointless or enhances it? Do handouts lead to information overload?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2014/11/14/six-ways-to-avoid-death-by-powerpoint/

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