Pitching Ideas Game

How to play

1. Write your idea on a card. Give a new product a crazy name and a one-line description of what it does.
2. Throw the die. You climb a path of 30 squares toward the CEO at the top.
3. Do what each square says. Most squares are empty. The special ones are a helpful push or an obstacle, and they ask you to do something: pitch, draw, answer a committee. You say whether you managed it.
4. Reach the top. Your score is how many turns it took you.

Why it works

The How to Play chapter says that pushing an idea through an organization is full of obstacles, and most of the time it is just like a game. Like any game worth playing, it helps to know the rules. Playing it teaches you the pitfalls before you meet them: the committee that says it will never work, the colleague who dismisses an idea because they did not think of it, the research that kills it slowly.

The squares

The helpful pushes.

• Elevator pitch. You have 30 seconds to pitch your idea to the CEO’s right-hand person. To take the shortcut, say your product’s name exactly five times, say “return on investment” twice, and compliment your listener on their appearance.
• Dead PDA day. A software glitch disables everyone’s phone. You ride free up the board, as long as you draw a quick picture of your product in under 30 seconds.
• Boss went to an innovation seminar. Describe the TV commercial for your product and which celebrity will front it.
• Competition just did something clever. The CEO wants ideas, so you simply move up.

The obstacles.

• Death by committee. You have two minutes to answer the committee’s criticisms. Each starts “It’ll never work because …”, and you reply “I’m so glad you brought that up”, smiling throughout. If you cannot answer, you slide down.
• Not created here. People pooh-pooh ideas created by others. You slide down.
• Research it to death. Delegating decisions to market research gives an idea a slow, painful death. You slide down.
• “If it’s such a good idea, how come nobody’s thought of it before?” Throw a six to escape. Otherwise you drop down.
• Offsite meetings all day. You miss a turn.

Where this comes from

This is the How to Play board game from the first chapter, played on screen. The squares and their rules are the book’s. The book’s board is an irregular pyramid of bubbles with no square numbers, so this version lays the squares along a path of 30, and the places where a push or a slide lands are our choice. The timed squares cannot check what you say or draw. You tell the game whether you managed it, so be honest. The book’s game is for several players. Here you play alone. Nothing you type leaves your browser and nothing is stored.

To get better at the Elevator pitch square, see our elevator pitch examples, which include a pitch written to the game’s rules.

Questions

Can I play with other people? The book’s game is a race between players. Take turns on one device, or each player can keep their own square and card and compare how many turns it took.

How strict should I be about the rules? The book says it is up to you and the other players how strict to be about the committee protocol.

Is the idea on my card saved? No. It exists only while the page is open.