When demonstrating code, there is only one goal – people buy into what you have bought. With that, they should leave the room excited, pumped and dying to use your code.
I used to work with a company where every time someone was about to give a demo someone would shout out – “Wow Us”.
This isn’t about flash, pizzazz, smoke machines, art of the possible or any of that, this is about code that does what it’s supposed to do and leaves your users with a feeling of – “yes, we are on the right track, I have confidence in what you’re building, now I can stop worrying.”
If you have prepared a 10 slide powerpoint deck, chuck it, your code must stand on its own. It must exist in all its glory and users need to be able to “get it” from what they are seeing on your screen to what you are talking about.
If you need a PowerPoint to back up your words and code then either you don’t understand the problem you are working on OR code doesn’t handle it properly.
The more demos you give, the better you will get at it. But one thing should never change, before, during and after, your hands should be sweaty, you should be a little nervous with a dash of excitement, this is what the demo is, this is why you are doing it. You are showing off something that you have built that only a few people in this world get to do and you are looking for a thumbs up or down on it.
This is the Art of the Demo, and it’s not for everyone.
