I realized a long time ago that I was not the type of person who could create, build & polish ideas all by myself. I need collaboration with others to hone and build ideas. More than not, I’m not the one who starts the idea. I pick up something from someone else – bend it, twist it, and turn it into something different.

Like many others, I have a problem with ‘fear of rejection’, which kept me from shepherding my ideas from beginning to shipped. If I couldn’t finish the idea myself or share it within my trusted circle, the idea would likely die. I had most successes when sharing ideas with others. I have been working to increase the size of the trusted circle, but it still has limits.

Some time last year, Mozilla was doing some annual planning for 2016 and Mark Mayo suggested creating informal pitch documents for new ideas, and we’d put those into the planning process. I created a simple template and started turning ideas into pitches, sending the documents out to a large (it felt large to me) list of recipients. To people who were definitely outside my circle.

The world didn’t end. In fact, it’s been a very positive experience, thanks in large part to the quality of the people I work with. I don’t get worried about feeling the idea isn’t ready for others to see. I get to collaborate at a larger scale.

Writing the ideas into pitches also forces me to get a clear message, define objectives & outcomes. I have 1x1s with a variety of folks during the week, and we end up talking about the idea, allowing me to further build and hone the document before sending it out to a larger group.

I’m hooked! These days, I send out pitches quite often. Maybe too often?