How to create an elevator pitch for your project or idea

Start by setting up a shared space where the team can build the pitch together. 

• For remote teams, that could be a shared doc, whiteboard, or collaboration page. 

• For in-person teams, use a whiteboard or a large sheet of paper with sticky notes and markers so everyone can contribute ideas quickly.

Use this space to present background information at the start, including customer interviews and research, audience insights, interview notes, feedback, and market context.

Before anyone starts drafting, make sure the team is aligned on exactly what they are pitching. It could be a project, feature, service, initiative, or idea, but it should be specific enough that everyone is working toward the same message. 

This step works best when you clarify the audience up front. A pitch for leadership, for example, may sound different from one meant for cross-functional partners or stakeholders closer to execution.

Set up a simple framework that the team can fill in together. For example:

Next, have the team define the problem, opportunity, or need that the pitch addresses. Keep this discussion focused on the customer journey or audience pain points, not just the features of the work. The goal here is to ensure the team is clear on why this idea matters before explaining what it is.

Encourage everyone to keep their input short and specific. This stage works best when the team adds concise ideas rather than long explanations. If needed, remind the group that there are no wrong starting points at this stage. You are brainstorming to gather possibilities that can be refined together.

Watch out for common issues that often derail the discussion, such as: 

• Teams using vague wording

• Too much internal jargon

• Excessive focus on features

• A single message dealing with multiple audiences and problems 

If these issues arise, pause and bring the discussion back to a single clear need and a single clear audience.

Once ideas are on the table, ask the team to identify which best represent the work's purpose. You can have the group vote on the options that most clearly capture the problem and why it matters, using one vote per area if needed. Keeping this part private can also reduce groupthink and make it easier to surface the strongest ideas.

Now turn the team’s discussion into a first draft. Ask everyone to contribute ideas for the pitch, then combine the strongest ones into a short version the group can react to together. The goal at this stage is not perfect wording. It is to get to a clear, usable draft that captures: 

• The audience 

• The need

• The work itself

• The value behind it

Keep the group focused on clarity over polish. If the pitch starts getting too long, too broad, or too full of internal language, simplify it. A strong first draft should be easy to understand, easy to repeat, and specific enough that someone outside the team can quickly grasp why the work matters.

The basic pitch structure should be: 

For [target audience] who want [need], this [project/product/initiative] provides this [key benefit]. 

Once the team has a draft, read it back and check whether it sounds clear, relevant, and concise.

Once the team has a working draft, go through an iterative process to tighten it until it sounds natural and easy to repeat. The goal is to make the pitch clear enough that someone outside the team can quickly understand and repeat it. Focus less on making it sound impressive and more on making it sound simple, specific, and useful.

Cut extra detail, internal language, and jargon. If the pitch tries to explain too much at once, shorten it. A strong elevator pitch should be easy to say out loud and easy for someone else to understand the first time they hear it.

If a word only makes sense to people close to the work, replace it with something more familiar. Here are some classic examples:

Once the pitch feels clear, test it with the group as if they were the intended audience. Ask team members to react from that perspective rather than from their role on the project. This helps you see whether the message actually lands with the people it is meant for, not just with the team that wrote it.

Aim for a consensus on what is working and what still needs improvement. Ask what stands out, what feels confusing, and what still feels missing. You can also ask whether the pitch sounds relevant, clear, and believable. If people understand the words but still don't understand the value, the pitch likely needs another round of revision.

At this stage, the goal is not to rewrite everything at once. You’re just confirming whether the pitch is easy to follow, easy to trust, and easy to understand from the audience’s point of view.

Use this table to guide the discussion:

Finalize the pitch as a team and agree on the version you’ll actually use. At this stage, confirm that the pitch clearly captures the audience, the need, the value, and the request. The goal is to leave with one shared version, not a selection of slightly different ones.

Do a final check before you wrap up. Ask:

• Is it concise?

• Is it clear?

• Does it reflect the value of the work?

• Can others repeat it easily?

If the answer to any of these is no, make one more round of small edits until the pitch feels ready. Keep the team focused on clarity and usefulness rather than polishing every word.

Before ending the Play, confirm where the final pitch will be used first. That might be an upcoming leadership review, a stakeholder meeting, a kickoff, a rollout update, or supporting material for a larger presentation. End with a clear next step so the pitch gets used right away, not just documented.

Once the team has agreed on a final pitch, the next step is to put it to use. Save it somewhere easy to find, share it with the people who need it, and return to it whenever the team needs a clear, consistent way to explain the work.

Save your elevator pitch

Save your elevator pitch in a place where your team and stakeholders can easily find it, such as your knowledge base in Confluence. If you need to create more elevator pitches for future projects, save your completed elevator pitch templates as examples for next time. If you did this exercise in person, take a picture of your completed whiteboard or paper for reference.

Share your elevator pitch

If you’ve added your elevator pitch to Confluence, don’t forget to tag key team members and stakeholders in the comments. In-person teams should add them to their shared physical workspace to give anyone interested at-a-glance info on your project’s purpose.