Elevator Pitch

How to create the perfect elevator pitch.

You may well have heard of elevator pitches. The idea is that if you had just 30 seconds in an elevator to pitch an investor on a new idea or proposal — what would you say?

The elevator pitch is a catchy way of focusing on the most critical components of what you propose — and creating a pitch that sums it up in a clear, compelling fashion for others.

In the thesis writing context

If you cannot summarize your research problem, your research questions, and your goals as an elevator pitch, there is likely a lack of clarity in your own mind as to what you are trying to accomplish. This lack will impact your writing downstream. Developing elevator pitches is strongly linked to clarity and focus and outlining skills help also.

1. Developing an elevator pitch creates clarity in the mind of the person formulating the proposal as to what, precisely, they are advocating for. Equally, it forces clarity on a doctoral candidate if they have to provide one. 2. Developing an elevator pitch of what your topic is may also help in developing your title if you do not have one for your thesis. One bonus of creating one? You can finally explain what you are doing to all who ask!

There is a second reason this exercise matters more than it used to. If you cannot state your own research problem in plain language in under a minute, you will reach for a machine to state it for you — and that is precisely where drift begins. The pitch you write yourself is the anchor you check every AI-assisted draft against. Without it, you have no fixed point, and no way to notice when a smooth paragraph has quietly stopped being about your actual study.

An extended discussion of what needs to be done, appears on the following page.

The internet is rife with examples for creating elevator pitches usually to either pitch yourself, or a product or, classically, a venture. Here we list some sites providing help and examples. These sites are not in any way affiliated with us nor endorsed by us, we just provide some links for your convenience.

Note that in your case the exercise is to pitch your thesis topic.

Elevator pitch links

Harvard University: How to create an elevator pitch with examples How to give a great elevator pitch with examples

Miscellaneous elevator pitch pages Product How to Create the Perfect Elevator Pitch For Your Product

Assorted topics Elevator Pitch Examples How to Give an Elevator Pitch With Examples Elevator Pitch Examples Templates Elevator Pitch Examples 2 Elevator Pitch Examples Sales

The elevator pitch: clarity, outlining and critical thinking, a real triple-header!

Remember the elevator pitch you are developing is to pitch your thesis topic and possibly research questions supporting it. It is a clarity-creating exercise. The exercise problem is to:

Tell a listener why your thesis topic is important.

While there is much advice on the sites we have provided as links — and much of it excellent — at the end of the day? A new word processor document — the point-forming and outlining functionality is already built into every word processor — waiting and ready to go now.

What you need to do is put every single point of any relevance at all in a point-form list in your favorite word processor. Order does not matter. Just get every point down. Next, rank them in order of importance. You can set the outlining to number instead of bullet all points.

Now ask yourself: how many of the highest ranked points do you need to explain what you are doing? Not to write your thesis, but to explain why you are writing it and what you intend to find out. Only include these points for your elevator pitch outline. If the points you have leave gaps — that is to say, they do not cover all of the "why" and your intended output — great. You have learned something important already. Having filled in any gaps, which may take time, you can now create the pitch.

Remind yourself once more that you are pitching your thesis to others. Why is it important? Why is it important to you? To the field? Why should they care?

Once your pitch is clear on the first presentation to a bright fifteen-year-old? By George! You have it.

Again, to reiterate — this is a clarity exercise and also reinforces outlining and critical thinking skills.

If you attempt this exercise and cannot complete it satisfactorily, it is time to get some outside perspective on your thesis. Start with what help you need — it will tell you what kind of help you actually need.