The Pitch Deck Model: 10 Simple Steps for Advancement and Alignment

Intrapreneurs are those who take a proactive approach to their work and career progression. They are not passively waiting for opporuntities to come their way. Even from within the framework of an organization they use methods traditionally utilized by entrepreneurs to advance their moonshot goals. A tool underutilized by intrapreneurs is a pitch deck.

Startups entrepreneurs use pitch decks to quickly summarize their vision for success for potential investors. Effective pitch decks are designed to demonstrate value, align risk strategies, gather investments and return mutual gains.

I recently read a Twitter thread by Alex Banks (@thealexbanks) sharing the pitch deck framework which is used by Sequoia Capital who has funded over $3.3 trillion dollars in market value. It’s not rocket science, but so many people get them wrong. He outlines that a successful pitch is one that tells a powerful story using the following 10 elements:

1. Purpose – What is your mission condensed into one powerful sentence
2. Problem- What challenges do you address and solve?
3. Solution – Why is your value proposition unique and compelling?
4. Why now – What industry trends make this the perfect time to act?
5. Market size – Can this be a really big opportunity?
6. Competition – What is your plan to win & differentiate?
7. Product – Bring your solution alive through demos and data
8. Business model – How do you make money?
9. Team – People recruit talent, garner attention and win deals
10. Financials – Highlight key metrics and growth charts

As I read this, it hit me that this can be a powerful model for personal career empowerment for intrapreneurs as well. You simply have to flip the script a bit to move from telling a startup’s story to that of an individual contributor.

1. Purpose – What is your individual role’s mission condensed into one powerful sentence, and how does that directly affect the mission of the organization?
2. Problem- What specific challenges were you hired to address and solve?
3. Solution – What about your talents, contributions and efforts are unique and compelling?
4. Why now – What current and future needs of the organization make your role essential?
5. Market size – How valuable is your unique skill set? How are you consistently increasing this value?
6. Competition – What is your personal plan to win for your team & differentiate yourself from your peers?
7. Product – What do you produce in your role? How is your offering unique? In what ways is it collaborative?
8. Business model – How does the organization make money through your efforts? How are you directly tied to the bottom line?
9. Team – How do you contribute to increasing the talent, productivity, culture and reputation of your team internally and externally?
10. Financials – Which key metrics highlight and summarize your personal contributions? (Make them specific, measurable and time-bound.)

This script can be a powerful tool for individual contributors and managers alike. I challenge you to try it out! I think you will discover that this Pitch Deck Model could expose misalignments in project goals, risk tolerance, success metrics, growth strategies and more to allow you to formulate more streamlined progress.

This Pitch Deck Model can also help managers write better job descriptions, articulate culture, formulate more effective performance evaluations, identify opportunities for streamlined progress and avoid pitfalls of misalignment. This will allow you to create a culture with a bias for action and allow rising stars to not only shine but permeate the organization.