How you pitch your project

I bet you'd be rich if you got a dollar for every time someone asked for your project’s status.

And while it’s the question you get asked most, it’s also one you constantly ask others.

Funny how that works.

But how do you answer it? Think about it: you probably answer it more often than you tie your shoelaces or make yourself a coffee. But instead of answering it on auto-pilot, you’re coming up with a new kind of answer every time.

And the answer you come up with is probably not the one that your stakeholder is looking for…

It makes me think back to one of my first projects in my early 20s.

Picture a typical team room with empty coffee cups, whiteboards, and people hammering away at their laptops. The smell of a 10-hour workday in July.

Out of nowhere, the partner walks in, looks around, and asks me “Hey Jasper, how’s it going?”.

Pretty standard question, right?

So I do what everyone does that’s hot out of school. I started to explain how busy we were, how hard we worked, what we’d tried, the struggles we had along the way… A heroic fiction tale about a spreadsheet.

He was clearly in a good mood, so he let me ramble.

At the end of my lengthy story, as I concluded with “So, we currently think XYZ is most likely, and we’re on track to have an answer by tomorrow evening” - he raised his hand.

“That was great, thank you. Quick tip for next time: start with that last sentence. That’s all I needed.”

Now don’t get me wrong, this guy was the absolute nicest person I ever worked with. This was not rude or making me look stupid in front of the team.

In that quick comment, he taught us a key principle of effective communication and one we’d revisit later in internal training.

He taught us to lead with the answer.

It’s a core principle of effective communication, and it’s everywhere once you start noticing it.

So instead of fumbling your way through the next time a stakeholder asks about your project, here’s how you build your 30-second “elevator pitch”.

Two quick notes

As with all communication, context is everything. This is a quick & effective way to answer the status question from all kinds of stakeholders.

From a sponsor to a client, and from a colleague on a different team to your significant other. There’s one thing they all have in common: they know what you’re working on.

If someone is unfamiliar with the project, giving them the current status tells them nothing. In that case, you’ll need to provide them with the context first.

And secondly - always remember the golden rule of stakeholder management: no surprises.

If you have to surprise someone in your pitch by the water cooler with a 3-week delay, you’ve messed up. You have to be ahead of that.

Now, back to our pitch…

First, lead with the answer.

Everyone is busy, so you might only have time for two sentences. That’s why you always give them what they came for right away.

That means that I always start with “We’re on track, and currently working on deliverable/milestone X which is due in 2 weeks.”

With that, you’ve answered the “So what?” question right away, and made sure that they know whether to ask more or not.

If you’re on track and they don’t need more information about the next step, that might be the end of the conversation.

If you have 30 more seconds, there are four things that I always include in a line or two each.

1. What’s the latest achievement? Whether it’s a milestone hit on time or a big risk eliminated, always show some form of positive traction. This forces everyone to see and celebrate the achievements and gives the team credit wherever possible.

2. What did you learn? What’s a recent struggle or mistake that you identified, and how did the team solve it? Showing some vulnerability and demonstrating that you’re learning from those builds trust with your stakeholders.

3. How’s your team doing? This is the moment to share a concern about workload or put someone in the spotlight.

4. The call to action. Like any great elevator pitch, you close with a call to action. You have someone’s attention, they’re up-to-date, so there’s never a better moment to make a request. Whether it is that one deliverable they’re working on or that approval you’ve been waiting for, this is your cue.

In a nutshell: don’t start by explaining what the goal was and all the hard work you’ve gone through over the past week. People know that, and telling them doesn’t pass the “So what?” test.

Instead, give them what they came for and use the 30 seconds to highlight what’s going on to minimize the need for follow-up questions.

So, What’s the status?

1. This is the status vs plan, and this is up next

2. Here’s the latest thing we delivered or achieved

3. We struggled some with X, but here’s how we fixed it

4. Pressure is high but so is morale, and we’re happy Jeff joined

5. While I have you here, can you spare a minute and help us with X?

In under a minute, you’ve just accomplished a few different things.

First, you answered their question.

Second, you showed that you have your act together by knowing the status and having a cohesive answer ready.

Third, you took the moment to share your highlight or struggle, give the team some credit, and make that overdue request.

And you did all of that without saying “Yeah, we’re busy…”

Happy pitching,
Jasper

PS: this works great in writing too!