6 Ideas
Background
The 6-ideas presentation is a critical step in the process of choosing a direction for your team's project. The milestone, with 45 second pitches for each idea, takes place during lecture time, as indicated in the syllabus. Each team is allocated 6 minutes. This milestone is intended to help you learn how to prepare a 'clean' poster and describe a product idea in a very short amount of time—roughly the amount of time you might have to pitch a new idea to an executive when you see her while riding in an elevator. Hence, this type of presentation is called an "elevator pitch". If you are not completely at ease in this type of presentation, it is a great chance to practice. During the presentation you will also be able to see other ideas that classmates are considering.Requirements
Your section will prepare 6 posters illustrating your team's six best ideas for a project. These should include both ideas derived from your own brainstorming and inspired by the idea fair. Each idea poster should include a simple sketch and key talking points, such as potential customers, market, and technical feasibility assessment— all readable from 50-80 feet away. At a glance, a viewer should 'get the idea.' We recommend using Adobe Illustrator to design your poster, or a similar vector-based program! Every MIT student has full access to Adobe Creative Suite through MIT. The license requests are processed once daily, so be sure to apply for your license early! You may also want to review the sketching tutorials and/or practice sketching. You can also view posters from other years in past project side menu to the left. Remember that clean, simple posters work well. Since the ideas are quite unformed at this time, using gestural sketch-like representations is more appropriate that realistic renderings or models. In your presentation, you must also identify at least one person/expert that is representative of your potential customer and be confident that they can serve as a resource during the term. Each poster should include Team Name, Date, Concept # and Name, the Problem Statement, Key Features, Consumer Profile, Market Overview, Key Challenges.Grading
This presentation counts for a portion of your team-specific grade. After class, the posters team instructors will meet to discuss the 6 ideas presented by your entire team. Based upon your work, the instructors will choose a product sub-theme and this will become the entire team's focus for the rest of the term. When making the selection instructors will consider: technical and educational interest; customer needs; project scope; and the product portfolio formed by all 8 teams in the class.Preparation Logistics
The 6-ideas presentations are scheduled during class. Each section will need to turn-in the following deliverables by Monday, September 26 9:00am. Posters will be presented in class at 1:00pm Each poster must be:- Either a .jpg or a .png file (no animated GIFs)
- In Adobe Illustrator, set up your document to be 24 inches by 36 inches with a PPI of 300). Portrait only (taller than wide.) If you're not using Illustrator, your poster must be at least 2400px by 3600px, with that aspect ratio.
- Name your files with the team name and order the idea will be presented: Red1.png, Red2.png, Red3.png, Red4.png… (note the capitalization)
- You must also upload one pdf page (8.5x11) for each of the posters with supporting estimations, calculations, and data sources/citations for any quantitative information that is on the poster. These should be named Red1Appendix.pdf, Red2Appendix.pdf, etc.
- Each poster should have a roughly 45-second pitch for each idea. Teams will need a presenter for each idea. Over the term, everyone on your team should present at least once. The 6-ideas presentation is a good opportunity for students who are unsure about public speaking.
- Each poster should include Team Name, Date, Concept # and Name, the Problem Statement, Key Features, Consumer Profile, Market Overview, Key Challenges.
Pitch Practice Sessions
Each section should also sign up for a 45-minute pitch practice session on Sunday afternoon. All idea presenters must attend. Additional teammates are welcome (and encouraged to!) The communication instructors will be present to give you feedback on your pitches and pitch delivery. Practice sessions are in Rm 3-370.| Time | Slot 1 | Slot 2 |
| 2:10pm | Pink | Red |
| 3:00pm | Purple | Orange |
| 3:50pm | Yellow | |
| 4:40pm | Green |
Upload Instructions
There is a folder in all teams Google Drive called 'submissions' with a subfolder called “6 ideas” where we want you to upload your posters and appendices. Inside the folder there is a readme with upload instructions (also listed below). As a reminder, please name the files like so (in the order they will be presented):- Red1.jpg (or Red1.png)
- Red2.jpg
- etc…
Day-of Logistics
Please make sure your presenters arrive at 10-250 no later than 1:00 PM on Monday, September 26. This year, the posters will not be printed out, and will be physically projected on the classroom projectors. The order and timing of team presentations is listed below. For this milestone it follows the order of team meetings. We will start promptly at 1:05pm. There will be a 1 minute changeover between each team. We will need to stick to this timing to ensure we finish on time.| Order of 6 idea presentations | |
| 1:05 | Red |
| 1:12 | Orange |
| 1:19 | Yellow (gold) |
| 1:26 | Green |
| 1:33 | Pink |
| 1:40 | Purple |
| 1:47 | Blue |