Assignment B: Idea Brief + Pitch
It’s time to start thinking innovatively! Based on our discussions throughout the semester on the changing social and digital media landscape, opportunity spaces, and strategic responses, your job is to come up with an idea for a potential media innovation. Your idea does not have to be a multibillion dollar solution to all of the media industry’s problems; instead, I am asking you to start applying the tools discussed in class and think creatively. Specifically, this assignment is twofold:
Write a brief about your idea. The brief should be approximately 750 words and can include images and links. In general, the brief should be an overview of your idea and should provide answers to the following questions:
What is the problem you are trying to solve?
Why is it (the problem) important? Who does it affect?
What other sites or apps are trying to solve this problem or related problems? What other sites or apps are providing inspiration?
Describe your design thinking process for how you came up with this idea.
Pitch your idea to “potential investors” (in reality, your classmates who will be ranking pitch choices in an effort to determine which will be the basis for the course project). To pitch a media product is to make the case for your idea to an individual or group, typically in exchange for financial or some other kind of support. Your pitch must demonstrate that you have a great idea, have done preliminary market and competition research, and are willing to iterate based on feedback from users if necessary. This is an important skill as every job involves pitching to some extent, from pitching yourself and your skills on the job market to story ideas to new clients and campaigns. In terms of this assignment, your pitch will be a short presentation of your idea brief (2-3 minutes) and can include a visual component (e.g., powerpoint slides). In general, you want to make sure you include the following in a 2-3 minute, compelling narrative: the actual idea, the problem it solves, target market, and a very high-level business model (no specifics are necessary here, but a general overview of how it will work).
