Preparing a Killer Software Demo in Africa

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been on both the giving and receiving end of a lot of product demos. Web apps, websites, mobile apps—you name it. I’ve given some pretty poor demos, but I’ve received a lot worse. Guy Kawasaki’s got a decent article up on OpenForum on what not to do during a demo. He’s got some good advice, and I’ve got even more for those of us living in unreliable power/internet/etc. situations.

How Not to Give a Product Demo

Don’t misunderstand the customer’s needs. Take the time to research what your potential client wants and tailor your demo to this research. The “throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks” might be why your VCs gave you funding, but it will not interest a potential client. You need to know what your listeners want so that you can explain how your product will help them achieve it.

Don’t start with a corporate overview. Nobody cares about your company. Nobody cares about your CV. Nobody cares whether you’re a freelancer or corporate. Everyone cares about your product. So that’s where the accent should be!

Don’t present a linear demo from beginning to end. Software and websites aren’t used linearly. Tell a story with your product! How will it help me accomplish great things?

Don’t do a feature dump. OMG, don’t do a feature dump. Can I repeat this one more time? It’s the biggest mistake I’ve seen young West African programmers make. No one cares about features (and if someone does, she’ll ask). I want to know how your product can help me, and that means it’s story time, not feature-list time.

Don’t show the same demo to everyone and for the love of all that is good in this world, don’t turn your demo a training session. Demos should be tailored to your audience. Are you demoing your product to a potential investor? A potential client? A web development firm in hopes that they’ll trade time for equity? Each type of listener is going to be interested in different things, with different needs.

The common theme is that your demo needs to show potential clients, investors, partners, etc. how your product can help them accomplish their goals.

Demoing Software and Web Apps in Africa

Once you’ve got the story down, you need to make sure that you’re as professional as you can be. It doesn’t matter how good your product and demo are if you’re late or the presentation doesn’t go well for technical reasons. Here are some suggestions specific to an African context:

Be on time. It doesn’t matter if it’s raining, if your moto gets a flat, or if traffic is particularly bad this morning. Plan to arrive early. Worst case scenario, you get a coffee or a Coke next door while you wait for your RDV. Best case scenario, the unthinkable does happen, you don’t miss your appointment, and you don’t lose the sale and future opportunities just because you couldn’t plan ahead.

Dress appropriately. When in doubt, wear a suit. If you don’t own one, slacks and a button down shirt will get you through, but if you’ll be doing a lot of demos, a custom tailored suit is an investment that will pay itself off in a demo or two. Jeans and your favorite faux-designer t-shirt won’t make the same impression. (Caveat: this may be a francophone particularity.)

Be prepared for power outages. Make sure your laptop and equipment batteries are charged. If the power’s out, you may not be able to use the projector, but you’d better be able to at least demo using your laptop. Rescheduling the appointment is annoying and who knows if we’ll have power then either.

Prepare an off-line version of your demo. Slow internet? No internet? You should be developing locally anyway. If you need to pull information off the ‘net, make sure you have it backed up locally with a way to access it. Clients ask for demos in odd places, where a connection isn’t guaranteed. Your demo needs to work without it.

Make sure your cell phone has enough credit. Don’t show up to demo a mobile app and have to borrow a phone to send an SMS.

Make sure the back-end looks good when presenting to non-technical people. Take a few hours to polish the CSS, even if it’s just to add margins, fix type, and style form elements. Your product should look finished.

For those who have to sit through demos, and for those giving them, what other advice would you offer? What would you put into a short guide for prospective presenters?