Giving a compelling project demonstration is key to getting stakeholders and your team excited about what you’ve built. Whether you’re showing a design concept, new feature, or final product to colleagues or leadership, you want the demonstration to clearly communicate the value of your work.
Follow these ten tips to help you give an impactful and successful project demonstration:
1. Know Your Audience
The first step is understanding who you’ll be presenting to. What level of familiarity do they have with the product and project background? What matters most to them – the business goals, user needs fulfilled, or technical feats accomplished? Tailor the information and style of your demo to resonate best with their priorities.
2. Tell a Story
Shape your demonstration to tell a cohesive story. Introduce the challenge or opportunity you were aiming to address, walk through how you arrived at the solution, and show how it delivers against the key objectives. Use a logical flow that makes it easy for your audience to follow along in the journey. You can use a product development template to map out the narrative arc for an impactful story.
3. Have a Clear Agenda
Create an agenda to structure your demonstration and share it with attendees ahead of time. This helps set expectations and gives them context to understand each part of the presentation. Your agenda might include reviewing project goals, methodology and constraints, demo of features and functionality, next steps, and time for Q&A.
4. Limit Scope
It can be tempting to show everything you’ve built in intricate detail. But that makes it harder for your audience to absorb the most important information. Prioritize the 2-3 key highlights you most want them to take away. Focus your demonstration there and be selective about what supporting material to include.
5. Use Visual Aids
Augment your demonstration with visuals like slides, screenshots, videos, or prototypes. Our brains process visual information 60,000 times faster than text. Visuals also hold attention better and improve information retention. But balance supplementing your talk with keeping the focus on conversing with your audience rather than just presenting slides.
6. Have a Clear Structure
Follow a simple framework to walk through your demonstration:
- Introduction: Set the stage and goals
- Overview: High-level capabilities and value
- Demo: Show key features and functionalities
- Benefits: Summarize how this solves problems for users and achieves business goals
- Next Steps: Share the implementation plan and invite questions
7. Practice Your Flow
Practice doing a complete run-through of your demo several times, refining the content and flow each time. Draft talking points to reference so your explanation comes across naturally instead of sounding scripted. Be familiar enough with the content to speak conversationally while demonstrating.
8. Prepare Backup Assets
Have backup assets readily available to keep the demo moving smoothly. This can include spare charged devices, demo accounts, hotspots for internet connection, dongles for projection, and printed handouts. Test everything in advance end-to-end.
9. Engage Your Audience
Make the presentation interactive and encourage the audience to participate. Welcome them to click around in the prototype, share feedback through polls and discussions, and ask plenty of questions. This engagement keeps people attentive and helps cement comprehension.
10. Reflect on Feedback
After presenting, take time to reflect on the audience’s reaction and any feedback shared. Note what messages and elements resonated as well as areas for improvement. Use these learnings to enhance how you shape your next project demonstration for greater impact.
Giving compelling project demonstrations takes thoughtfulness and preparation. Audiences better retain information and get excited when you craft an engaging, interactive experience. Use these tips to structure an impactful demonstration that clearly communicates the value of your work. With practice and refinement over time, your skills in presenting and demonstrating will continue to grow.
