As a researcher you interact constantly with people who ask "so what do you do?" (Often your own family!) These people might be members of the public (who are paying the bills, in essence), potential funders or industry partners, collaborators, potential students, venture capitalists, the Dean of the university, etc. etc.
What strikes me about these conversations is that usually I get 20 seconds before someone's eyes glaze over and they start looking for someone more interesting to talk to (or the bar). I think every researcher should have a 20 second "pitch" that can answer the "what do you do" question.
More importantly, the pitch is incredibly useful for YOU! It forces you to think carefully about what you are doing in research, and why people should care. And I don't think it really matters if you are working on super abstract string theory or tool focused software networking code: the elevator pitch helps to focus and clarify your purpose. In my career I have reformatted my 'pitch' at least 4 times during my PhD, and before every job interview, and often before big conferences too.
The pitch format below is very specific to startups but I don't think it matters that much, as you can see from my (somewhat embarrassing) example from 2007.
(Neil's note: I took this off the internet in 200x and can't remember where it is from ... but in any event it seems to be cloned from Marty Neumeier)
Marty Neumeier (I had constructed a similar framework on my own, but his is way better and easier - he's the best branding/messaging author nobody speaks about, steal all his books):
- WHAT: Rocketr is the ONLY___________________
- HOW: that _______________________________
- WHO: for _________________________________
- WHERE: in __________________________________
- WHY: who ________________________________
- WHEN: in an era of __________________________.
- WHAT: Harley Davidson is the ONLY motorcycle manufacturer
- HOW: that makes big, loud motorcycles
- WHO: for macho guys (and macho "wannabees")
- WHERE: in the United States (mostly)
- WHY: who want to join a gang of cowboys
- WHEN: in an era of decreasing personal freedom.
- WHAT: The White Stripes are the ONLY pop music duo
- HOW: that records crude yet hip rock songs
- WHO: for young urbanites
- WHERE: in the United States and other first-world countries
- WHY: who long for authenticity
- WHEN: in an era of overproduced, me-too music.
I'm interested in the problem of requirements evolution. For example, if the government passes a law about protecting personal information, a company will have to update its IT systems to comply. The problem is that software is not always easy to change in this way. I've proposed a framework for using these changes to understand what we want to change in the implementation. It allows us to find solutions that are minimal. I also applied this framework to a case study of payment card requirements.
