Blog #3: Preparation of a software demo

Today I'll talk about the learning points that relating to the preparation of a good software demo!

A funny Dilbert comic depicting a '3-step' software demo

We had our first meeting relating to the preparation of the software demo some time back. We were all new to this and had minimal ideas on how to do a good software demo. After reading OP3’s “setting” which is about presenting for a road show, we realized that OP3 will be similar to OP2. The difference with both would be,

1)      The audience

2)      The organisation of the content (Proposal vs Demo)

We slowly narrowed down on the key factors which will constitute to a good software demo. Here are 3 key factors[2].

1)      Know our audience

2)      Have an excellent and catchy opening address for the software demo

3)      Explain first, demo later.

1) Know your audience
Knowing our audience is the most important factor of them all. By knowing our audience, we are able to limit our technical jargon, the amount of detail required of the demo and show only what is needed. For example, if our audience are non-technical based, it would be appropriate to just talk and show the features rather than diving deeper and explaining the inner workings of the program. They will get bored if we do the latter.
Furthermore, to keep the audience engaged, we need to show a demo that shows them how our product solves their unique / daily problems. As we come closer to these ‘daily’ problems in our demo, the audience will be more interested and attentive.

For our OP3, our audience comes from a diverse background. Thus, it would be best for our demo to be suited to a non-technical base. We will keep the feature demonstrations short and simple. Our demo will show more of the typical tasks they need to use rather than the features that advanced users will use.

2) Have an excellent and catchy opening address for the software demo

After viewing some demo videos on YouTube, I realised that introduction is the factor that will determine whether the audience gets turned off and decides that this is going to be a boring demo. In order to catch the audience’s attention, we need a strong introduction. Some humor in it would be good as humour engages the audience really well!

For our OP3, Yu Kai (Our introduction speaker) has decided to pose 2 questions to the audience during the introduction. These 2 questions are a depiction of a real life scenario and it relates to the hassle of the current situation of event organisation. As the other speakers continue, we will answer it such as, ‘to tackle the second problem’. Eventually everything is linked and the audience doesn’t get lost too!

3) Explain first, demo later

After introduction, comes the content. Despite the program being a completed product or a work in progress, a software demo will require one to explain the features rather than diving straight into the technical workings of a demo. Thus, a mixture of slides and demo would be good. Slides can explain the theory of the practical work being done in the demo. This will ensure that the audience gets a good grasp of what is happening.

Our product is still a work in progress thus, we will have to show more slides and explain them. However, we have to take note of not dragging them to the extent that the audience gets bored. Our demo will be at the end of each feature presentation. The length would be around 1 min out of a total of 5 minutes per feature presentation. The challenge here would be to engage the audience through slides. A possible way to tackle this would be to have catchy phrases in the slides and perhaps share a joke or question along the way.
Adding on to this, we have decided to use the storyboard layout provided in OP3 handout for organisation purposes. This has greatly assist us in organizing the flow of the demo!

There are many more factors that will constitute to a good software demo. However, these are the 3 most important factors which I feel are staple for a demo. In future software demos, these 3 key factors should be adopted. Most importantly, tweaking the content to fit the audience is still the most important factor.


References:
1) http://www.geonetwork.tv/ebrim/foss4g/img/Dilbert%20Software%20Demo.jpg (Dilbert comic courtesy of Geonetwork)
2) http://www.sales-training-lead-generation.com/blog/interesting-software-demos-5-tips/ 

3) http://www.youtube.com (For videos on software demo)