Category Archives: Tech Life

Pitch. Presentation. Proposal.

Getting people to say they’re interested in an idea is easy.
Getting people to commit to an idea is hard.

Let’s talk about the difference between a Pitch, a Presentation, and a Proposal.

First, some definitions:

So, let’s say you have the core of an idea. You haven’t really looked at it all that hard yet, but you really want to tell someone about it. You corner them in their cube or the elevator, and you fling the idea at them to see if it sticks. That’s a pitch. You’re effectively throwing the idea at them to get a basic reading on whether it’s worthwhile at all.

Next, suppose you’ve looked harder at your idea, understand a bunch of its shortcomings (and have come up with irresistibly clever answers for all of them), and you have some thoughts about what you’d need to make it a reality. You write up a small document (e.g. slides, a two-pager, etc.) and ask for 15-30 minutes with someone higher up to get a reading on it. That’s a presentation. You are placing an interesting idea out there in the world and showing people how it works, in the hopes of getting things moving.

Time passes and you’re even further into your idea. You’ve committed time to understanding the problem better, and you probably even revised it a few times when you realized you were violating the laws of physics. You write up a detailed document of some kind, have a bunch of backing data available on command, and are able to answer some pretty deep questions around the material, including why other people should care (i.e. give you resources to do something). That’s a proposal. You’ve refined your idea, understand what you’re actually asking for, and are quite literally proposing that they take action and commit resources to your idea.

With that in mind, what makes each of those unique?

The pitch requires the least commitment from you or your audience. You’ll get instant feedback, especially if you’re a decent listener. It’s quick and effective… just make sure you know what it’s effective for.

The presentation is the way you bootstrap yourself into getting the attention of interesting people. It’s where you’ll show you have just enough understanding of the idea to get a further conversation. It’s also where you’ll start to get the hard questions, which may or may not deal a mortal blow to your idea, no matter how well you cared for it.

The proposal is the only time you’re asking someone to take real action that could cost them money, time and/or their reputation, because you’ve shown them that you’ve spent your own time/money/reputation figuring out enough of it that you’re committed to its success. The other two might get interesting nods, but the proposal is where you can get legitimate answers about getting other people involved.

There are times and places for each of pitch/presentation/proposal.
The heartburn comes when you do one, and expect the results of another.
Here are a couple of examples:

Doing a proposal and expecting instant meaningful feedback. You’ve just dumped a ton of information in the lap of someone who’s probably used to seeing great ideas on a regular basis. You’re asking for something big. Getting someone to commit resources takes time; respect that.

Doing a presentation and expecting people to commit anything more than some extra time. You’ve worked on your idea a bit, but it hasn’t hit any really rough waves if you haven’t previously given people the forum to ask the hard questions. Having your friend say “I don’t see anything wrong with it” over a couple of beers is a pretty low bar to clear.

Doing a pitch, hearing a favorable grunt, and assuming that’s a green light. Everyone loves feeling accepted. Having someone approve the idea you thought of in the shower that morning is a great little feeling, but talk is cheap. Anyone can say something is a good idea if it’s not objectively horrible, and they won’t be affected by it. A nod of appreciation is not a commitment.

So, to review:

  • The pitch: Low development, quick turnaround, no commitment.
  • The presentation: Medium development, medium turnaround, nearly no commitment.
  • The proposal: High development, slow turnaround, possible commitment.

A note of caution: If you have good ideas on a regular basis and just keep pitching them without developing them, you’ll get known as having “the idea of the week”, and people will lose interest. If you don’t give your ideas any attention, why should they? A little bit of development goes a long way.

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Full Resolution

This is a story about a plumber and a photographer.

First, the plumber.

My wife relates the following story about dealing with The Joys Of Home Ownership ™:

Not too long ago, we had a plumber come to work on the house because a toilet was only mostly working. I’ll spare you the specifics of the problem.

One of the first things he did was flush the toilet and listen. A few seconds later, he said “Aw, man. Yeah. Cheap and cheaply made. You heard that gurgling sound about 5 seconds in? Here’s what’s happening…”

So we talked more, I learned more, and now I know about The Gurgle. I also now know more about how toilets are put together, and will know what I’m hearing when I hear it…. every single time.

Put another way, she now has a higher-resolution perception of her world.

This happens for anyone who has invested the time in learning something; the world becomes a little more detailed and vivid because you know what to look for and why it’s important.


An archivist looks at a book and can tell you about the binding, how it was stored, and how long it’s likely to last.

A wedding photographer looks at a function hall and can tell you the optimal lanes they’ll want to use for taking shots during the ceremony.

I can look at a waterfall chart for a website and make some educated guesses about the org chart of the group that put it together.


Higher resolution also kicks in when you interact with objects in that way that typically gets you called a “[noun] whisperer”. You know, the kind where inanimate objects just seem to work/bend/move correctly when you’re working with them.

Which brings me to the story about the photographer.

A few years back I had a photo exhibition, and was working with a couple of friends to hang the photos. This involved a 15-foot-high ceiling, a picture rail, wires, hooks, and other fiddly things. The fiddliest thing of the bunch was getting a semi-flexible wire to hook around the picture rail, and we were short a ladder. This was by turns annoying, frustrating, and a general pain. After much mumbling and swearing, I realized that wanting the wire to go someplace by sheer force of will wasn’t going to work; it had no sentience, and I had no psychic powers.

So I stopped and just sat with the wire for a few minutes. I figured out how it behaved. How far could it be guided upward before gravity took its toll? How much flexibility did it have? Could it be guided in some other way, etc. That is, gradually increasing my resolution of that little bit of my world.

Fortified with this knowledge, we hung the pictures in record time. To someone on the outside, it would look like the wire was just magically behaving for me; maybe I had a better piece of wire, or the picture rail was just easier to deal with where I was.

The reality was that I needed to change myself in order to make the wire do the right thing. As a bonus, the “There is no spoon” scene in The Matrix made a lot more sense.

The world is always out there at full resolution. It’s upon us to learn enough to experience it.


Query: What have you done over the past year to increase the resolution of your world?

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Filed under Tech Life