How to Run a "Demo" (...Step 1: Call it the right name)

Guest post by Dan Greenberg

Are you scrambling to get ready for your big demo? Ask yourself these three questions:

• Are you about to "present" your product to a big group of people, some of whom are really important bigwigs that you want to impress?


• Are you nervous?


• Have you rehearsed?

If you answered yes to any of the above, you and your organization have got a problem.

The first question I'd ask is - who told us we had to hold this ceremony? Certainly not the Scrum Guide, where a CTRL-F (or command-F for you mac users) of "demo" only turns up one result, a small bullet point (one of 8) underneath the heading of a ceremony that is actually called a "Sprint Review", where it reads that the development team "demonstrates the work that has been done and answers any questions about the product increment." How did we decide that one bullet point out of eight was now the title and purpose of the entire ceremony, especially when that bullet point's intent seems to me to be a conversation, not a Broadway production?

Let's refocus and first and foremost, retitle this ceremony to be Sprint Review. Let's also take a look at what the Scrum Guide does have to say about this ceremony:

"A Sprint Review is held at the end of the Sprint to inspect the Increment and adapt the Product Backlog if needed. During the Sprint Review, the Scrum Team and stakeholders collaborate about what was done in the Sprint. Based on that and any changes to the Product Backlog during the Sprint, attendees collaborate on the next things that could be done to optimize value. This is an informal meeting, not a status meeting, and the presentation of the Increment is intended to elicit feedback and foster collaboration."

This is an informal meeting. Does informal describe yours?

A demo should follow this basic pattern:

It should be a small group of people - a few people from the Scrum team in a room with the people who asked for whatever it is you did in the last sprint. The team shows those people what they did and says "you asked for this two weeks ago, here it is - is this what you wanted?" Maybe the people who asked for it even get to play around with the product for a bit, take it for a test drive. Then the people who ASKED for the thing can say "yes - this is what I wanted" or "no - not quite" or "no - not at all" or "yes, but can I also now have this other thing?"

There is no need for a big presentation with lots of explaining, because those people literally just asked for this two weeks ago so they KNOW what it is you're showing them. That part's quick. Then you spend a little bit of time figuring out what you should do next sprint. Again, they will ask for something, the team will go do it for the next two weeks, and in two weeks another review will take place where the process will be repeated.

When you order a burger at McDonald's, do you want them to give a PowerPoint presentation to the manager of McDonald's explaining how they spent the past 5 minutes of their day or would you rather just get the burger so you can eat it? Should we be "demo-ing" or should we just give the customer the product?