McKinsey's important rule: Elevator Test

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Elevator Test

 

To fully understand your solutions (or products or companies), you can clearly and accurately reach your customers (or customers or investors) within 30 seconds) clearly explained. If you cannot do this, you can understand the work you are doing and then promote your solution. Imagine that there is a grand briefing after the project is over. You and your team have been sorting out your blue book from a.m. (Note: McKinsey's situation document is called because it was bound with a blue cover ), to ensure that each letter I has a point on the head, and each letter T has a bar on the head. You are all dressed in your most beautiful suit. It feels like you are attending a grand dance. Senior executives of Fortune's top 50 customers are eager to hear from McKinsey's philosopher Ruiyu. They are already sitting in the conference room on the top of the company's skyscraper. Then the Chief Executive stepped into the meeting room and said, "Sorry, guys. I cannot stay here anymore. We are facing a crisis. I must meet our lawyers ." Then he turned around and asked you, "Why didn't you take the elevator with me and tell me your findings ?" It takes about 30 seconds to take the elevator. Can you tell the CEO about your solution in such a short period of time? Can you sell your solutions to him? This is the elevator test. Many companies use elevator quizzes (or something similar) because it is an excellent way to ensure that their supervisor's time is used effectively. P & G requires its management personnel to write a memo on one page. When talking about a new script, a Hollywood producer will tell a drama Author "Give me bullets ". If the producer liked what he heard 30 seconds later, the author would have a further chance to discuss the matter and maybe make a business. Jason Klein made the elevator test systematic when taking over as the Editor-in-Chief of the Field and Stream magazine: My sales team could not explain this magazine to customers. At that time, our advertising space was shrinking. So I trained my entire sales team on the elevator test. I forced them to introduce this magazine to me within 30 seconds. This has become a valuable tool for them, and our advertisement is still expanding every year. How to concentrate 6 months of work to 30 seconds? Start with the issues that your team should address. The customer wants to know the suggestions and profitability for each problem. If you have a lot of suggestions, keep an eye on the three most important suggestions-the content with the highest profit. Don't worry about supporting materials. Wait until you have time to talk about them. For example, your analysis shows that a manufacturer's customer fails to sell enough accessories because the sales team is organized by region and should be organized by buyer. You have a lot of explanatory information about this: analysis of sales personnel by buyer type, access to buyers, field surveys of retailers and wholesalers, etc. When you stand in the elevator, just tell the CEO one thing: "We believe that if you reorganize the sales team by buyer, sales of ornaments can increase by 50% within three years. We can discuss the details later. I wish you a pleasant discussion with your lawyers ." The elevator test originated from McKinsey's training methodology for its consultants. (From McKinsey's method 34th page) In the "elevator test" elevator test manual in software project management, that is, explain the project sentence to others within two minutes, in the following format:

• For (target customers );
• WHO (need or have a chance );
• (Product Name) belongs to (product category );
• It (main advantages and compelling reasons for purchase );
• Different from (major competitive products );
• Our products (major differences) (Moore 1991)

An example of software product positioning description:

For	Financial institutions and vendors of paper-based and other virtual goods
Who	Own or manage automatic teller Networks
The	Acme super ATM is an automatic teller machine
That	Provides lowered cost of ownership and flexible definition of new transaction types, virtual products, and dispensable paper goods
Unlike	Conventional ATM devices and ticket machines
Our product	Utilizes standard computing platforms and component technology to provide a flexible, generic, and extensible but low-cost platform for managing customer transactions and dispensing goods

The software development team should use the elevator test manual to write a brief statement about product positioning-a few words that indicate the target customers, major benefits and competitive advantages: for the distribution warehouses of medium-sized companies that require advanced carton handling, the "supply robot" uses robots to control the lifting and transmission systems and provides dynamic storage distribution; it uses trucks to transport cartons of various sizes, reducing distribution costs and shipping time. Unlike other similar products, our products are highly automated and cost-effective. (From Agile Project Management)