How to Pitch and Present Ideas Using Prototypes to Clients and Stakeholders

You’ve got an idea for a new feature, app or website, you’re ready to pitch it to stakeholders but you don’t know how to put together a compelling message.

One of the most common use-cases for the millions of Marvel prototypes created each year is to present ideas both to internal stakeholders or external clients.

Whether that’s on a big screen in a meeting room or remote via Zoom or Hangouts, it’s a brilliant way to communicate ideas, get rapid sign-off and move projects forward.

Knowing your audience, delivering on a clear mission and customer problem, all while backed up with an interactive prototype can help bring your stakeholders onboard and achieve your goals.

Whether you’re trying to get alignment, approval or even funding, we’ve put together some guidance on how you can present your ideas effectively using Marvel.

Be relevant to your audience

Keep in mind the roles and background of who you’re going to be presenting to. You wouldn’t discuss the fonts used with a client or the financials of a product launch with a designer.

Whether it be a client, an investor, a designer or a marketer, providing the relevant content for your audience will ensure you maintain their engagement and achieve the goals you’re after.

Start by asking yourself what’s their level of knowledge on your subject, how will you be working with them and what are their expectations? Taking the time to think through this beforehand will save time having to follow up afterward.

Start with a clear mission

Your mission should be your dream state, the long-term goal that you’re striving for and defines what you’re achieving for your customers.

Here’s some example of other companies’ mission statements

• Citymapper: Make cities easier to use
• Monzo: We’re here to make money work for everyone
• Intercom: Make internet business personal
• The best mission statements are concise like an elevator pitch but aren’t set it stone. So although you shouldn’t change it frequently, you can revise in the future to be clearer. But don’t forget about it once it’s written. Everyone in your team and company should know and understand the mission that they’re working towards.
  

  Break down the problem you’re solving

  You should be solving a customer problem that relates to your mission. Not only will it help align your team on what you’re creating but it will provide valuable context during your presentation on the value to your idea.

  

  
  

  Speaking to customers will help you build empathy towards the problem. Chat to those with different backgrounds, roles, using different tools, and start to understand the problems your product can solve.

  Here’s how to position the problem during your presentation:

  1. Describe the customer’s current situation and the problem from their perspective.
  2. Explain the impact this had to the customer. Is there a financial burden or time lost?
  3. Back this up with any evidence including research studies and customer quotes.
  4. Describe your solution and the benefits to your end-user.

Let your prototype do the talking

Demonstrate how you’re solving your customer problem by incorporating prototypes into your presentation. No need to invest in development and you’ll be able to collect valuable feedback at an early stage. With Marvel, you can quickly turn paper sketches into a prototype or sync your Sketch designs and add interactions and transitions for higher fidelity.

Once you’ve shared your prototype, put your audience in your customer’s shoes and let them interact with it on their phone or laptop. This will keep them engaged and encourage discussion.

Let’s see how you can do this in Marvel.

1. Create a project and select the device type
2. Either sync your images from Sketch or select ‘Add Images’ and upload from your computer
3. Hover over an image and select ‘Prototype’
4. Click to drag anywhere on the image to add hotspots, transitions and gestures
5. When you’re ready, hit the play button or ‘Share’ in the top right to share via message, email or the URL

Get an overview of the user journey

After your stakeholders have played around with your prototype, this may have encouraged questions around the UX flow of your app.

Userflows turns your Marvel prototypes into interactive user journeys that give you a birds-eye view of how users will move from screen to screen, helping you tell a better story to developers, stakeholders and clients.

Paste the share link of your Marvel prototype here to generate your user flow.

Capture feedback on your prototype

Throughout your presentation, you’ll be receiving feedback and comments from your stakeholders. Capture them directly within Marvel through annotations on your designs so your team can follow up with changes needed as quickly as possible.

Once comments have been left on your prototype, you can treat them like tasks. Each comment can be resolved as you solve feedback!

As you’re playing your prototype:

1. Select ‘No comments’ on the bottom right of the screen to open the comments panel.
2. Select ‘Click to add an annotation’.
3. Choose the area where you’d like to drop your annotation and add your comment
4. Add the comment as private to only those in your workspace by selecting ‘Public’ under the send button and changing to ‘Private’

Get started today and create your first prototype and share your updates with us on Twitter.

Further reading:

• Get Any UX Job With A Stellar Portfolio Presentation
• UX Design Deliverables
• UX Facilitation Methods
• How to Run Your First Design Thinking Workshop Using Marvel
• The Ultimate Guide to Prototyping