How to Create a Meaningful Product Demo

    A potential new user requests to see your product, you have a packaged demo showing all the features of said product. You, as the product manager, know each feature well. You can handle off the cuff questions and pivot as needed. This scenario should be familiar to almost any product manager. It's a product demo, we tend to approach them with the mentality of an "old pro" but I think that's wrong. I've encountered some amazing product demo's and they tend to have one thing in common.

Storytelling

The demo is a product

    We spend countless hours drafting features and building a great product! Then the time comes to start showing users. We dive into demo's showing user after user how the product can make their life better. We spend a few minutes prepping, because we know it will be easy to show the product we know so well. I know I'm generalizing and some product managers do fantastic demos. They prepare fully and really think through what the user needs to see. 

    I want to challenge us to start thinking about the demo itself as a product. It needs to be just as polished as your products core features. The demo serves as the initial experience a user will have with your product. We need to make sure it's concise, relevant, and engaging. In order to do that we can turn to the art of storytelling. All good stories answer "why" only after they have enticed you to start asking questions.

Product demos are universally unique

    Yes it's an oxymoron, but it works, trust me, or don't. Each demo needs to be a curated story. Start by researching who you're giving the demo to. Know your audience, even if it's a quick search. Sometimes it's worth spending more time on this, but at a minimum you should know their names, roles, and have basic understanding of their industry or domain within the organization.

    By knowing who they are, what they are trying to accomplish it allows you to curate the demo.

The features you show them, examples used, and the sequence is the unique part of the demo. This should be chosen specifically based on who they are and what their goals are.

    How each of those parts are presented is universal. Each portion within your demo needs to relate to the broader story. You are the storyteller weaving a tapestry of experiences in front of your user, it all needs to come back to the broader message. This message should be universal and aligning to your products strategic value, the why.

Here are 3 simple ways to improve your next demo

Let them choose

    You should have a list of features ready to demonstrate to the potential users. They should be able to choose any of the features from your list in any order. Often times we try to make sure the experience is logical, but people aren't logical. They will learn how they like to learn. Go where they want to go first. I've shown a set of features in a perfectly logical sequence, only to be dragged back and forth to other features in chaotic patterns for the next 30 minutes for the user to learn in their own way. Just let them lead if they come with questions. It helps to create guardrails, which is why you should be giving them a curated list to chose from. Controlled chaos creates opportunity.

Explain why

    Why? But why? This is probably the most commonly missed point in demos. We as product teams get really excited when we show all the cool features our product has. We often forget to answer the most simple question. Why? Any demo leaving out the why behind the what is less likely to create adoption. Any feature we create has a why behind it, explain it! Tell the user why this feature is important and why you as a product team decided to spend precious development time making it available to them. If you do this well it can lead to revealing moments for the user. It can also be telling if you're on track for a great user product fit! 

Let them ask questions

    It's easy to forget during demos to let the audience ask questions. We think we should be talking and showing them the tool, but really a demo is intended to make sure the user understands how the product can help them. If they see all the features but leave with more questions or even worse, a miss understanding on how your product is valuable, the demo failed. Show less, move slower, listen more, and create space for questions. Keep them engaged from the start to the finish with the art of storytelling. 

Now go create more impactful demos!

 

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