This Monday started with recapping the prototyping that happened during the previous week. Each of the groups had prepared a “prototype” of their solution, ranging from visualizations to verbalized ideas, and asked around from relevant stakeholders as well as from friends and family, what they thought about the prototype. Every group presented their prototype-shenanigans shortly and after this we moved onto solidifying the solution.
We were supposed to make some final (though not penultimate) touches on our solution and then prepare a pitch for it. Time was running fast, maybe a bit too fast, while we tried to gather up all relevant stuff concerning our solution and cram it into a 5-minute-long pitch. Pitching was something that basically all of us had heard of but not all of us done ourselves. One of the instructors described the purpose of the pitch well by saying that it is a sort of an appetizer that is meant to awaken the interest of the listener. It is meant to act as a “hook”, something that pulls the audience member into wanting to know more details about the solution.
When the time for pitching training came, we had been able to put together a pitch that would hopefully be coherent, even though the time for practice was at this point scarce. We joined another group and a couple of instructors in a separate room and fired away with our presentation. As we expected, our pitch was not perfect (though not a train wreck either :D) but at this point that was a good thing as we got some good feedback from our listeners. Most of the feedback focused on at what level of specificity we should present our solution. This feedback was tightly related to our homework of the day: To finalize the solution and to develop the final pitch. Being our organized selves (or as we would at least hope to be), we divided some final tasks between us and agreed on a final deadline-panic-aaah-meeting for the next week before the final pitch training is happening. Now the end is already on the horizon, onwards we go!