Asg3: The perfect pitch

Your task is to generate several ideas for your Final Year Project (for exchange students: a forthcoming project of similar scope).

The strategy is “breadth first, depth later” and the point is to crank up your creative juices in developing ideas quickly (albeit necessarily shallowly at first) and your discerning skills in project judgement (i.e. assessment, spotting problems, going straight to the point). Through training in presenting and critique, where you are obliged to adjust and re-invent ideas, but also eventually to scrap most of your ideas, you will gain skills in idea generation, development and project planning.

At least two project ideas should be team or pair works, with different constellations (entirely different people). In each, you are the project manager and you may thus call on the resources of others. Make sure you communicate with the people you wish to engage in your team.

Phase 1: Your projects pitches should span the full range between an entirely realistic, feasible and a totally wild, ‘dream’ project. Each project must be something that you would genuinely be keen on devoting one year of your life to making real. You will present several ‘quick pitches’ in class. Each project pitch should be (minimally) defined by:

  • title;
  • scope;
  • central concept (20 words);
  • planning overview (may include a budget);
  • team members (1…3 people) with job scope /specialisation;
  • Exciting ‘pros’ with the project (innovation, novelty, big drama, audience guaranteed…);
  • Foreseeable ‘cons’ with the project (challenges, hurdles, boring, expensive…);

Phase 2: Gradually, you will narrow down to a smaller number of projects (at least two) for which you will develop the above, plus (at least):

  • WBS (graphic or list)
  • network diagram (graphic)
  • milestones
  • budget
  • timeline of tasks (for example, a Gantt chart);
  • background to your project idea (i.e. previous works that have inspired you);
  • reflections on your vision, reason-to-be, and social implications of your project idea.

Phase 3: Prepare two of your project ideas for presentation to an ad hoc panel including IM faculty. Date is Thursday 14/4 (week 13). You will get maximum five minutes, and will be asked to pitch both or either one (if the panel chooses one).

This assignment will be assessed according to an evaluation of your:

  • preparatory classroom exercises;
  • OSS activity e.g. posts and comments
  • final project pitch (written and presented) detail;
  • final project pitch (written and presented) clarity.

In all, it carries a weight of 30% or less of the total grade.