Let Proud Tina Show you How
When I joined a small startup as product manager, the head of development came to me and said "Great, now that you’re here, I never have to do a demo again." And the exciting job of doing demos of a product that was still under development fell to me.
Back then, doing a demo required flying out to see a prospect, crawling under the table in a conference room to find a phone jack, dialing out and connecting to the same server on which my new best friend in development was doing his coding, and hoping the line would stay live and the code would stay stable. I always enjoyed that moment of surprise, when I would emerge out from underneath a conference table and start matching the faces to the shoes I had been able to study as I tried to find a phone jack.
These days I can do demos via the web and have no idea who in the audience has mismatched shoelaces or is wearing loafers without socks. But at least I can count on the line staying live.
As the technology becomes more reliable and everyone in the audience is used to seeing data move from one machine to another and one state to another in real time … it becomes more important for a demo to tell a real story and illustrate the benefits that the customer will gain from using the product.
How Disappointing
It is disappointing to me how many demo’s, screenshots, or pages of documentation I see in which testuser1 logs in using password1, and retrieves a report that shows 14 records that almost identical, were it not for the clever way of reusing words like foo, bar, and asdf. Unfortunately testuser1 is not a decision maker, and foo, bar, and asdf never signed a license agreement. They may be of great help to you if you need to create a batch of test data, but they do not belong in a demo.
Create a Story
I enjoy creating stories that form the basis for a demo. When I show financial applications, the user is often Carmen Greene, whose password is sop1cam2. Carmen manages the family finances via the web. She has setup automatic transfers to the college savings accounts for Sophie and Cameron. She receives and pays utility and insurance bills. She also makes a contribution to a local sports team, and pays a vet bill for Fluffy the dog. Her husband Richard uses his mobile phone to receive financial alerts, and refinances the mortgage.
The Greenes probably look like one of those mythical families you see in minivan commercials or on brochures for life insurance. They look a little more glamorous and well dressed than ordinary people with the same income and lifestyle. They mysteriously combine features of various ethnic groups. Even their name implies that they are heading for a greener future where green dollar bills abound. It’s no wonder that every Bank or Brokerage or Insurance VP I have ever demo’d to would love to have them for a customer.
Every field has its mythical users. In healthcare demos the glamorous and supremely efficient Dr Sinha saves lives and complies with privacy regulations. In accounting applications Katherine Wong effortlessly prepares the firm’s records for an audit while setting up an overseas division in Shanghai.
The mythical users represent an idealized picture of how effective the application is. But in a way, they are just like you and me and the customer. The Greenes’ dog has fleas. Dr Sinha frequently runs down the battery on his blackberry and misses text messages. And Katherine Wong’s has lost her luggage in Singapore.
How Long is the Story?
The length of your actual demo depends on the setting
5 minutes is the limit for a tradeshow. Your demo should quickly work up to a punch line which clearly states the key benefits of the product. "Carmen can access her accounts anytime, from anywhere, and never ever pay a late fee. The savings monitor helps her plan for the future, making her a long-term profitable and loyal customer." If the prospect stays around after the punch line, you can always show reports, customizable alerts, or other capabilities, but you’ve made your main point.
30 minutes is the limit for an executive briefing. Plan the sequence of what you show very carefully and use clear transitions. "We’ve just seen how the back office staff can search for any record and give the medical staff permission to share a record. Now let’s see how Dr Sinha can quickly access information from multiple shared records as he researches a case." Hopefully you have the flexibility to adapt the story just a little bit to bring in some details that appeal to the customer, or point out features that competitors don’t have.
Anything longer than 30 minutes becomes a detailed technical discussion or use case analysis. In this setting it’s OK to do the Julia Child trick where she puts a raw chicken in one oven and produces a roasted chicken from under the counter: "Some of you mentioned you wanted to see how to customize the monthly reports. So let’s save the current order, and load the rest of the month’s data from a file…. OK, we have processed 200 more orders. Now let’s look at the reports." Oh, and by the way, if you frequently have to open files, put those files in a folder on the desktop. I once attended a presentation in which the presenter wanted to open a file and the first folder we all saw was called "Job Search" I hope he managed to find a job in which he didn’t have to do too many demos.
Delivering the Story
When you’re using a projector, test the Control F7 (or F5 or F4) feature, so that you can easily switch off the projector and search for a file.
When you’re doing web-delivered demo’s, make sure your desktop is not cluttered, and turn off your email. You don’t want emails about lost deals or high severity bugs popping up while you do your demo. And please remember that others can see your screen. If have certain keyboard and mouse tics (such as jiggling your mouse or Alt Tabbing between windows) please keep your hands away from the mouse and keyboard as you tell your story.
More Tips
And remember – it’s the story that will stick with the audience. Here are some other ways to make the story you tell in your demo relevant
Use dates in the recent past or near future. Don’t show 3 year old data when you are demoing a brand new release of your application.
Keep the data concise. Try and come up with just enough data so you can show key features and illustrate the main benefits – but don’t overwhelm the audience with reports that go on for pages, or screens that require so much scrolling everyone gets seasick.
Avoid using real names or copyrighted graphics. Demonstrate to the prospect that you respect data privacy, information security, and intellectual property.
Check your numbers. If your demo shows Carmen paying an $8,000 cable bill, the prospect may never ask you for a proposal for fear your fees will be equally wild.
This may not be everyone’s style, but I make an effort to be politically correct. I will make the female user the supervisor, and make the male user the support user. I try to show a diverse user base of an application; I believe it encourages the prospect to think about wide markets for their products or services. The first time I ever used email, I learned to use the features of the email program by reading a tutorial in which Jonathan and his grandmother exchange emails. Grandmother uses the cc feature to copy the ladies in her church. A big footnote appeared at the bottom of the page stating that "Grandmothers don’t actually use email." Whoever wrote the tutorial knew a lot about POP and sendmail and SMTP, but lacked vision when it came to the benefits of email.
What Tina can Teach Us
The fabulous Tina Turner can teach all of us a thing or two when it comes to demos. She can do her demo slowly, with lots of details. And she can do it lightning fast without losing a beat.
Listen to Tina, as she tells her story:
I left a good job in engineering
Working for the man every night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleeping
Worrying bout the way things might have been
Big deal in the pipeline
Demo better work right this time
Because my demo, demo
Demo tells the story
Worked a lot of booths in Vegas
Hours with my laptop down in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of the city
Always kept my eyes on the big flat screen
Big deal in the pipeline
Demo better work right this time
Because my demo, demo
Demo tells a story
If you come and see my demo
I bet you gonna like the story you hear
You don’t have to worry about the competition
The story of my demo speaks loud and clear
Big deal in the pipeline
Demo better work right this time
Because my demo, demo
Demo tells the story
