How to create an elevator pitch for your project or idea
Create an overview of your project so concise that it can be communicated in the time it takes to ride an elevator.
PREP TIME
5m
Run TIME
60m
Persons
3-11
How to run an Elevator Pitch play
Create an overview of your project so concise that it can be communicated in the time it takes to ride an elevator.
What is an elevator pitch?
An elevator pitch is a brief overview of your project that you can communicate in the time it takes to ride an elevator, usually about 30 seconds to one minute. It gives listeners the information they need to understand who you are, what problem you solve, and why they should care. In simple terms, this Play helps your team turn a big, sometimes messy idea into a short, clear explanation that people can quickly understand.
Why run the Elevator Pitch Play?
Teams often struggle to explain a project clearly, especially early on. One person talks about features, another talks about timelines, and leadership hears something else entirely.
A lack of clarity in team messaging:
- Slows decisions
- Weakens buy-in
Makes good ideas harder to support
An elevator pitch play helps teams create a short, shared explanation of what they do and why it matters.
It’s an important step because unclear work creates real costs. Atlassian’s 2025 State of Teams report found that leaders and teams waste 25% of their time searching for answers, pointing to a broader clarity problem across modern work. The same report notes that teams aligned to goals are 6.4x more likely to produce high-quality work, 2.2x more likely to focus on what matters most, and 4.9x more likely to meet deadlines.
This Play is especially useful when teams start executing before they agree on how to describe the work. That often leads to mixed expectations, repeated explanations, and lost momentum when the value is unclear.
When should you use an elevator pitch
Use an elevator pitch when your team needs a simple, repeatable way to explain what you’re working on and why it matters.
Typical occasions when it proves helpful include:
- The start of a new initiative
- Before a leadership review
- When you need cross-functional support
- During a rollout
When people are struggling to explain what the team is actually building and why it matters
For example, run the Play before presenting a new project to executives, before asking another team to contribute time or resources, or before launching a process change. Atlassian’s Team Playbook positions Plays as workshops that help teams get projects off to the right start and improve how they work together.
5 key benefits of elevator pitches
- Creates message clarity: A good elevator pitch forces the team to explain the work in plain language, which makes the core value easier to understand and repeat.
- Improves stakeholder alignment: When everyone uses the same short explanation, leadership, partners, and adjacent teams are more likely to hear the same story. Teams aligned on goals are more likely to focus, meet deadlines, and produce high-quality work.
- Makes ideas easier to share: A concise pitch gives people a version they can actually remember and pass on. That matters in workplaces where teams are already overwhelmed by too much information and too much “work about work.”
- Helps teams focus on value: This Play pushes teams to define who the work is for, what needs it addresses, and why it matters. That keeps the conversation centered on value rather than features, activities, or internal jargon. Atlassian also notes that work needs a clear “why” to keep purpose visible.
- Builds confidence before presentations or reviews: Once a team has agreed on a clear message, people are more confident explaining the work in meetings, updates, and approvals. Asana reports that employees who understand how their work connects to organizational goals are 2x more motivated.
1. Prep the play and align on what you’re pitching
Est. time: 5 MIN
Start by setting up a shared space where the team can build the pitch together.
- For remote teams, that could be a shared doc, whiteboard, or collaboration page.
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For in-person teams, use a whiteboard or a large sheet of paper with sticky notes and markers so everyone can contribute ideas quickly.
Use this space to present background information at the start, including customer interviews and research, audience insights, interview notes, feedback, and market context.
Before anyone starts drafting, make sure the team is aligned on exactly what they are pitching. It could be a project, feature, service, initiative, or idea, but it should be specific enough that everyone is working toward the same message.
This step works best when you clarify the audience up front. A pitch for leadership, for example, may sound different from one meant for cross-functional partners or stakeholders closer to execution.
Set up a simple framework that the team can fill in together. For example:
| Pitch component | What to include |
| Target audience | Who this is for |
| Audience need | What they want, need, or are trying to solve |
| Product, feature, service, or idea | What you’re pitching |
| Category | What kind of solution is it |
| Key benefit | The main value or outcome it provides |
2. Identify the problem and why it matters
Est. time: 10 MIN
Next, have the team define the problem, opportunity, or need that the pitch addresses. Keep this discussion focused on the customer journey or audience pain points, not just the features of the work. The goal here is to ensure the team is clear on why this idea matters before explaining what it is.
Encourage everyone to keep their input short and specific. This stage works best when the team adds concise ideas rather than long explanations. If needed, remind the group that there are no wrong starting points at this stage. You are brainstorming to gather possibilities that can be refined together.
Watch out for common issues that often derail the discussion, such as:
- Teams using vague wording
- Too much internal jargon
- Excessive focus on features
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A single message dealing with multiple audiences and problems
If these issues arise, pause and bring the discussion back to a single clear need and a single clear audience.
Once ideas are on the table, ask the team to identify which best represent the work's purpose. You can have the group vote on the options that most clearly capture the problem and why it matters, using one vote per area if needed. Keeping this part private can also reduce groupthink and make it easier to surface the strongest ideas.
3. Draft the core pitch
Est. time: 15 min
Now turn the team’s discussion into a first draft. Ask everyone to contribute ideas for the pitch, then combine the strongest ones into a short version the group can react to together. The goal at this stage is not perfect wording. It is to get to a clear, usable draft that captures:
- The audience
- The need
- The work itself
The value behind it
Keep the group focused on clarity over polish. If the pitch starts getting too long, too broad, or too full of internal language, simplify it. A strong first draft should be easy to understand, easy to repeat, and specific enough that someone outside the team can quickly grasp why the work matters.
The basic pitch structure should be:
For [target audience] who want [need], this [project/product/initiative] provides this [key benefit].
Once the team has a draft, read it back and check whether it sounds clear, relevant, and concise.
| Instead of | Use |
| this solution leverages | this helps |
| optimize | improve |
| stakeholders | teams, customers, or partners |
| end users | customers or users |
| cross-functional enablement | support across teams |
| drive alignment | help everyone work from the same message |
| initiative | project, plan, or change |
| value proposition | value or benefit |
“For a hiring manager who needs to evaluate candidates faster, our interview planning toolkit is a shared hiring resource that helps teams run more consistent, efficient interviews.”
4. Refine for clarity and brevity
Est. time: 10 min
Once the team has a working draft, go through an iterative process to tighten it until it sounds natural and easy to repeat. The goal is to make the pitch clear enough that someone outside the team can quickly understand and repeat it. Focus less on making it sound impressive and more on making it sound simple, specific, and useful.
Cut extra detail, internal language, and jargon. If the pitch tries to explain too much at once, shorten it. A strong elevator pitch should be easy to say out loud and easy for someone else to understand the first time they hear it.
If a word only makes sense to people close to the work, replace it with something more familiar. Here are some classic examples:
5. Pressure-test the pitch with the group
Est. time: 10 min
Once the pitch feels clear, test it with the group as if they were the intended audience. Ask team members to react from that perspective rather than from their role on the project. This helps you see whether the message actually lands with the people it is meant for, not just with the team that wrote it.
Aim for a consensus on what is working and what still needs improvement. Ask what stands out, what feels confusing, and what still feels missing. You can also ask whether the pitch sounds relevant, clear, and believable. If people understand the words but still don't understand the value, the pitch likely needs another round of revision.
At this stage, the goal is not to rewrite everything at once. You’re just confirming whether the pitch is easy to follow, easy to trust, and easy to understand from the audience’s point of view.
Use this table to guide the discussion:
| Checkpoint | What to ask | Yes / No | Notes |
| Clear audience | Is it obvious who this pitch is for? |
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| Clear problem | Does the pitch clearly explain the problem, need, or opportunity? |
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| Relevant value | Does it explain why this matters to the audience? |
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| Believable message | Does the pitch sound credible and grounded? |
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| Easy to understand | Could someone outside the team understand it quickly? |
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| Concise wording | Is it short enough to say naturally without overexplaining? |
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| Strong takeaway | Is the main point easy to remember? |
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| Clear next step | Does the pitch make the request, goal, or desired outcome clear? |
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6. Align on the final version and confirm how you’ll use it
Est. time: 10 min
Finalize the pitch as a team and agree on the version you’ll actually use. At this stage, confirm that the pitch clearly captures the audience, the need, the value, and the request. The goal is to leave with one shared version, not a selection of slightly different ones.
Do a final check before you wrap up. Ask:
- Is it concise?
- Is it clear?
- Does it reflect the value of the work?
Can others repeat it easily?
If the answer to any of these is no, make one more round of small edits until the pitch feels ready. Keep the team focused on clarity and usefulness rather than polishing every word.
Before ending the Play, confirm where the final pitch will be used first. That might be an upcoming leadership review, a stakeholder meeting, a kickoff, a rollout update, or supporting material for a larger presentation. End with a clear next step so the pitch gets used right away, not just documented.
Follow-up
Once the team has agreed on a final pitch, the next step is to put it to use. Save it somewhere easy to find, share it with the people who need it, and return to it whenever the team needs a clear, consistent way to explain the work.
Save your elevator pitch
Save your elevator pitch in a place where your team and stakeholders can easily find it, such as your knowledge base in Confluence. If you need to create more elevator pitches for future projects, save your completed elevator pitch templates as examples for next time. If you did this exercise in person, take a picture of your completed whiteboard or paper for reference.
Share your elevator pitch
If you’ve added your elevator pitch to Confluence, don’t forget to tag key team members and stakeholders in the comments. In-person teams should add them to their shared physical workspace to give anyone interested at-a-glance info on your project’s purpose.
Variations
Team pitch
Have each team member pitch their own elevator pitch to the team, then vote for the pitch that best captures customer value.
Measurements
Instead of voting, have teammates rate each idea on criteria like customer value, risk, marketability, etc. Use ideas with the highest overall score in the elevator pitch.
Still have questions?
Start a conversation with other Atlassian Team Playbook users, get support, or provide feedback.
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