Why I talk about elevator pitch in DevOps Training
By: Steve Zheng
Tags: Product Design, Devops Training, Elevator Pitch, C Pop, Agile Methodology

The first section in my DevOps training workshop is always “Elevator Pitch.” Some young entrepreneurs often get confused about whether this is a technical workshop or a product design workshop.

I make it clear in this article.

DevOps is “HOW”; Product Vision is “WHAT”

DevOps is the methodology and practice to make the product go faster, but DevOps cannot help you find the right direction

Have you ever lost your way? I did it many times. Due to my business, many cities I travelled to are my first-time visit. I have these experiences:

- If I walk, I’ll take 15 ~ 20 minutes to find a way back;

- If I cycle, I’ll take 30 ~ 40 minutes;

- If I drive, I always use more than 1 hour to find the direction;

Means, the more powerful tool I use, the more time I get back to the original point. The same reason when implementing DevOps in your organization. DevOps can only help you go fast. if your direction is wrong, it helps you go wrong further.

Why elevator pitch is important

Warren Buffett said, “Never invest in a business you cannot understand.” Everyone invests in life, with money or time. All successful entrepreneurs have the capability of persuading people to join and contribute their time or money. If entrepreneurs cannot express the idea in 2 minutes, every second he spends result in losing people or investment. However, not all entrepreneurs know how to present ideas efficiently.

What is the elevator pitch in IT product design?

Elevator pitch is a 30-second, memorable description of what you do. The goal is to earn a second conversation. The 100 words conversation should include Target customers, Product value, Major, main features and Competitors and our advantages.

Elevator pitch has many formats for different purposes. In IT product design, we usually use the following format:

- To [Target User]

- Our [Product Name]

- Is a [Product Type]

- It offers [Value]

- Unlike [Competitors]

- Our product [Advantages]

Here are some examples:

To the traveller, our Airbnb website and APP is an online rental service with online transactions. It can help travellers save money and give them unique experiences of the local culture. Unlike [booking.com](http://booking.com/), our product is affordable.

Or,

To the traveller, our Uber Cab App is a fast & efficient, on-demand car service. it lets you book trips from your pre-specified locations to transport you to your destination. Unlike yellow cabs and limos, our product can guarantee pickups, safer and cleaner than cabs, faster and cheaper than limos.

How to generate a good elevator pitch

The Elevator pitch is not as easy as it looks. There are some rules you need to care about.

As…

Here mentions the target customer segments. If you own a start-up, you should have only one customer segment. No product can benefit all people in the world. If you can not target only one segment, please re-think.

Our…

You need to give the product a name which easy to recall. You don’t want the investor to forget the product after he steps out of the elevator, do you?

Is a…

Here we need to stress two factors, product value and type. This is very important if you want to find the investment because it holds 80% information that the investor wants to know. When I invest in some start-ups, some entrepreneurs may “forget” to mention the product value. When I ask them, they might come up with some keywords, like “cheap”, “cutting edge”, “good user experience”. No. These are not production values.

The product type is also important. When an investor is looking for good start-ups, he has the product type in his mind, like “an online education service”, “a C2C online skills exchange service”. It doesn’t matter you match the keywords exactly but giving the product a type will save time to describe the context.

It offers…

This is the statement of the product’s main features or benefits to the target user. There are two things worth noting:

- The features or benefits should match the customer segments you mentioned in the “As” section.

- Don’t give many features. Remember, too many means nothing at all.

Unlike…

Here we need competitors. Some entrepreneurs say their product does not have competitors at the interview. I do not trust them. Even rocket science has competitors, not to say your product!

We should mention the exact company or product name here. Do not use “Other products”, “some of the product”, “the industry” as the competitor statement.

Our product…

Here is the advantages statement. We need to state the advantages which the competitors don’t have. The benefits also should accurate. “Good user experience” and “strong investor support” are not accepted.

Conclusion

A good start is half the battle.

Anytime you have an idea, you can generate an elevator pitch to identify whether it is a good idea. Try to practise in 3 months, then you will find one good news and one bad news.

- Bad news: 90% of your “good” ideas are not good；

- Good news: You got the 10% good ideas and focus on!

Don’t invest in DevOps until you have a good elevator pitch for the product vision.