Assign these before the pitch begins. During the pitch, at minimum: one person facilitates questions, one person takes notes. Everyone listens.

The note-taker captures everything. Everyone else listens and jots their own observations. After the pitch, you'll compare notes. Focus on these five areas:

Once the business owner finishes, you have a chance to ask questions. The best questions are specific, not generic. They show you were listening. Ask one or two from each team member — don't pepper them with ten questions all at once.

• You mentioned [specific thing they said] — can you tell us more about what that looks like day-to-day?
• When a new client finds you, how does that typically happen right now?
• What have you already tried? What happened?
• Who is your ideal client — the customer you wish you could clone?
• What does a typical week look like for you in terms of time spent on [the problem area]?
• If we came back Friday with one idea you could implement this month, what would make it a success?
• Is there anything you've ruled out that we should know about before we start researching?
• What do your best clients say about why they chose you?

Capture everything here during or immediately after the pitch. Don't edit — just get it all down. You'll organize this in the next step.

Everyone heard the same pitch, but not everyone heard the same things. Take 10 minutes to go around the room: what did each person capture that others might have missed? What stood out? What felt important?

• Everyone shared their key takeaways from the pitch
• Agreed on the single most important thing the business owner said
• Identified the one or two open questions we still need to answer through research

The problem a client describes and the problem they actually have are often different. "We need more bookings" might really be "we need better visibility," or "we need to convert inquiries faster," or "we need a stronger referral network." Reframing the problem opens up better solutions.

Use the How Might We (HMW) format: write the problem as a question that starts with "How might we..." It should be specific enough to give direction, but open enough to allow creative solutions.

Before you can generate good ideas, you need to understand the territory. Divide research responsibilities now so everyone shows up Wednesday with something to contribute.

Send a brief thank-you email to the business owner before the end of the day. It should thank them, confirm the Friday presentation time, and show that you were listening. This is a real professional move — most people don't do it, and it stands out every time.

Each person shares their findings with the team. Capture the most important insights here — the things that will actually influence your ideas.

Use your reframed problem from Monday as the anchor. Then run through these HMW variations to push your thinking in different directions. Spend 2–3 minutes on each prompt. Write every idea that surfaces.

• How might we make it effortless for past clients to send us new clients?
• How might we show up before a customer is actively searching?
• How might we make the decision to hire us feel like the obvious choice?
• How might we automate the part of the business that takes the most time?
• How might we create more touchpoints with potential clients before they book?
• How might we turn one client into three?
• How might we make our online presence do the selling for us?
• How might we reach clients who don't know they're looking for us yet?

Generate at least 20 ideas before you stop. Write them all here — big, small, obvious, weird, expensive, free. Don't filter yet.

After generating, look for patterns. Most ideas cluster around a few themes. Name those themes — they'll become your presentation sections.

Plot each idea against two axes: how hard it is to implement (effort) and how much difference it would make (impact). Present your best ideas from the top-left quadrant first.

For each idea you'll present, answer four questions. This is the work that separates a vague suggestion from a real recommendation. If you can't answer all four, the idea isn't ready to present.

Keep it to 8–12 slides total. The business owner knows their business — you don't need to re-explain it to them. Get to the ideas quickly.

1. Title slide — Business name, your team name, the date. Clean. No clutter.
2. What We Heard — One slide. Summarize the problem in your own words using your HMW reframe. This shows you listened and understood. If you got it wrong, they'll tell you now rather than at the end.
3. What We Found — One or two slides. The most important insight from your research. Not a list of everything you Googled — just the one or two things that shaped your thinking.
4. Our Recommendations — One slide per idea (3–5 slides total). Each slide: the idea name, a one-line explanation, and why it's right for this business. You fill in the detail verbally.
5. Where to Start — One slide. If they could only do one thing this month, what would you tell them? Give them a clear, confident first step.
6. Questions — A simple closing slide. Open the floor.

• No slide has more than 3 bullet points — if it does, split it or cut it
• Every recommendation has a "why this business" — not just a generic idea
• Someone read it aloud — does each slide make sense when spoken, not just when read?
• Visual design is clean and consistent — not five different fonts and three color schemes
• You practiced at least once out loud, all the way through, before the dry run
• You know which team member presents which section
• You have a response ready for "we already tried that" for at least two of your ideas

Business owners push back. It's not an attack — it's them pressure-testing whether you've actually thought this through. The wrong response is to get defensive or cave immediately. The right response is to acknowledge what they said and explain your reasoning.

The first 60 seconds set the tone for the whole presentation. Don't open with "Um, so, basically we looked at your business and..." Open like you own the room.

• One person is the designated note-taker for Q&A — their job is to capture every piece of feedback, not to present
• When the business owner reacts — positively or negatively — note it. Their instinct is data.
• If they say "we tried that" — don't panic. Ask what happened, then explain what's different about your approach.
• If you don't know the answer to a question — say "that's a great question, we'd want to look into that further" and move on. Don't make things up.
• Close with a clear next step: "If you were going to start with just one of these ideas this week, which resonates most?"

Go around the room one more time. Each person answers two questions: What did we do well? And what would we do differently if we had this week again? Don't skip this.

• Every team member shared one thing we did well
• Every team member shared one thing they'd change next time
• Agreed on what our strongest idea was — and why the business owner responded to it
• Identified the one place in the week where we lost the most time or momentum