A Never Stop Learning! Article\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Have you ever said or heard:<\/p>\n \u201cSorry, I don\u2019t have an example like that in our demo system\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, we can\u2019t show that workflow \u2013 this is a demo database\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur demo environment isn\u2019t up-to-date \u2013 that\u2019s why this feature isn\u2019t working\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I don\u2019t have good data to show in this report \u2013 no data, in fact \u2013 sorry\u2026!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat report hasn\u2019t been built for our demo system \u2013 but trust me, it\u2019s terrific!\u201d<\/p>\n In your demos, how often do you find you are apologizing for an inability to demonstrate capabilities, complete workflows, or present compelling results and reports? Far too often, in many cases!<\/p>\n A perfect demo environment enables you to show what you need to show, clearly and convincingly. No apologies, no excuses. Accordingly, here are some recommendations for demo environments to make your demos as crisp, compelling and successful as possible.<\/p>\n What\u2019s in this article for you? A lot!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n One of our objectives in a software demo is to \u201csuspend disbelief.\u201d Anything that looks real helps our cause; anything that appears fake hurts us.<\/p>\n Even though our prospects have asked<\/i> for a demo (and that we teach demo skills in our Great Demo! Workshops), I recommend avoiding the use of the word \u201cdemo\u201d in, well, demos. And in demo environments in particular!<\/p>\n Why? Because customers unconsciously translate \u201cdemo\u201d as \u201cfake.\u201d<\/p>\n If it is a demo<\/i> environment, then it is not real from your prospects\u2019 perspective. Anything done in such an environment is suspect, accordingly!<\/p>\n So don\u2019t call it your demo system, your demo environment, or a similar demo name. Instead, give it the name of a fictional but plausible customer or other realistic-sounding option. (\u201cApex\u201d is an example we used previously.)<\/p>\n What about using \u201cdemo\u201d in other parts of your demo environment?<\/p>\n Anything labeled \u201cdemo\u201d in your (ahem) environment causes the same result. Demo = fake.<\/p>\n File names, module labels, login names, forms, dashboards:\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen all these emblazoned with \u201cdemo\u201d in one form or another. All these scream \u201cfake!\u201d to our prospects and customers.<\/p>\n Again, use a neutral name or naming convention that looks like a real customer. Much better!<\/p>\n When your prospect sees the names of famous characters in your demo environment, it\u2019s another declaration that \u201cThis is fake!\u201d<\/p>\n I recently saw a vendor who used the actors\u2019 names from the full Oceans series of movies, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts (the original cast), plus Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, and Anne Hathaway. All these names were in the vendor demo database.\u00a0 I\u2019ve also seen sports figures, important scientists, authors, and more.<\/p>\n Perhaps it\u2019s easy to remember the names, but they all shout, \u201cThis is fake!\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, use realistic names, addresses, and other data. Some demo environments use the names of your organization\u2019s team. That\u2019s a bit better, but it doesn\u2019t take long for a prospect to realize that you and your colleague appear to be responsible for most of the records in your system! (Many startups suffer from this unconscious form of narcissism.)<\/p>\n The strongest approach is to use realistic data that is independent of your company.<\/p>\n A great source for convincing data is to use the data sources created and used by your own organization\u2019s QC team. After all, your QC folks need realistic data sufficient to explore a broad range of testing scenarios. (Hmmm \u2013 these should be very similar scenarios to what you need to demonstrate!). A couple of example sources are SQL Data Generator<\/a> and Mockaroo<\/a>.<\/p>\n Status quo<\/i> is boring.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve seen countless demos that present a dashboard or report that shows everything \u201clooking good.\u201d Everything is \u201cin the green\u201d without any problems or concerns. This is pointless!<\/p>\n You need to show that your tools can find<\/i> your prospects\u2019 problems and that your software can directly address those problems and enable solutions.<\/p>\n The most compelling demos show examples of how customers can solve their business problems, address outliers and exceptions, and surface and exploit opportunities. This means that your demo environment needs to include good instances of these with good example data:<\/p>\n The more realistic, the better!<\/p>\n When I was banished overseas (to Switzerland, tough duty), I realized that our demo environment was entirely U.S. focused. This can be a big \u201cfail\u201d for prospects located elsewhere.<\/p>\n U.S.-based companies often use demo environments that show U.S. maps, list U.S. cities and addresses, U.S. telephone numbers, U.S. currency, U.S. ZIP codes (even the use of the term \u201cZIP Code\u201d is an example!), U.S. product names, and more. This can be semi-insulting to non-U.S. audiences, and it won\u2019t help your cause.<\/p>\n If you want to sell in Europe, make sure you have Euros, European addresses and postal codes, telephone country codes, and all of the other units and measures that are used in your target countries and markets. (Furlongs per fortnight is one of my favorite arcane units!)<\/p>\n Want to sell into the UK or other English-speaking (but non-U.S.) countries? You may also need to use their local version of English spellings and vocabulary. Now that<\/i> box is ticked!<\/p>\n Launching into Asia-Pacific? Same guidelines.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t support local languages in these regions? You may want to rethink your strategy!<\/p>\n Very simply, you need to have region-specific data (as appropriate) if you want to build a vision for your prospects of using your tools in the region(s) in which they<\/i> operate. And, correspondingly, if you are a non-U.S. software company seeking to enter the U.S. market, the same guidelines apply to you as well!<\/p>\n Have you ever seen a demo presented to a large construction firm that used example data from the banking industry? I did, and the demo utterly failed. The closer you align your demo data to your target markets and verticals, the better:<\/p>\n One successful approach I\u2019ve seen is to have a fairly neutral set of data but also<\/i> have the ability to configure or customize the screen labels, dashboards, forms, and field names to map to specific markets.\u202fThere are now products that offer this capability that you should explore (e.g., Saleo<\/a>). Otherwise, achieving this may require some level of configuration or programming, but the payoff can be high.<\/p>\n An additional note to consider: Customer Success experiences suggest that the further your prospective customers are from your current, successful target markets, the worse the fit and likely represent the highest risk of failed or unhappy implementations. Yes, inappropriate demo data may be a leading indicator of churn!<\/p>\n Interestingly, prospects at different stages on the Technology Adoption Curve will likely react very differently to demo data.\u202f\u201cTechnology Adopters\u201d and \u201cEarly Adopters\u201d are often very forgiving of the data that is used.<\/p>\n \u201cEarly Majority\u201d prospects may be reasonably forgiving, but the further you move to the right, towards and into the \u201cLate Majority,\u201d the more they need to see truly representative data.<\/p>\n Logging in as \u201cAdmin\u201d is another approach that yells \u201cFake!\u201d to your audience. Many vendors use an Admin logon to enable access to their full range of capabilities.<\/p>\n The only people who log in as \u201cAdmin\u201d in real life are, well, the system administrators! This is even more of an issue when vendors start talking about Setup Mode<\/a> items, such as how \u201cthe system can be configured by role for end-users, managers, executives,\u201d etc.<\/p>\n Along similar lines, try to avoid obviously fake names, such as:<\/p>\n I\u2019ve seen all four and many more in demos! Do these names look real? Nope. Avoid these and successfully suspend disbelief!<\/p>\n Seriously.<\/p>\n Some of the best demo environments are \u201ccustomer\u201d instances, created and maintained exactly<\/i> the same way as real customers\u2019 environments.<\/p>\n For SaaS organizations, this can be hugely advantageous. Your demo \u201ccustomer\u201d is treated the same as all the other customers, getting updates, improvements, etc. on exactly the same timeline.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll know your demo environment will be up-to-date and consistent with what all your other customers are using. No surprises\u2026! (Or fewer surprises, at least\u2026!)<\/p>\n I recently saw a workflow \u201calert\u201d in a demo that showed a missed task that was 5 years old<\/i>! Holy old cow! Some manager is going to be very<\/i> angry if this was real life.<\/p>\n Workflow dates need to appear to be current (or reasonably so). The older the information, the less believable it is.<\/p>\n In many systems, this presents challenges; there needs to be a way to \u201crefresh\u201d demo environments quickly and easily. Again, tools like Saleo may offer automated solutions.<\/p>\n Perhaps one of the hardest tasks for those who maintain demo environments is to keep them current and up to date (and avoid embarrassing problems like that above!). There are several strategies that can be employed:<\/p>\n In some organizations, demo environments need to be reserved ahead of time (for a range of reasons). In some cases, these reservations may need a day or more in advance.<\/p>\n This can make things challenging for any demos that need to be done in a shorter timeframe or on an ad hoc<\/i> basis. I\u2019ve heard these environments referred to as having been implemented by the \u201cSales Prevention Team\u2026!\u201d<\/p>\n In other cases, it may take time to \u201cspin up\u201d a demo environment. This may be unavoidable but troublesome, and you\u2019ll need to plan accordingly.<\/p>\n And, of course, have you ever tried to access your demo environment only to find it \u201cdown\u201d or simply unavailable? Not good, particularly if you flew across the country (or ocean) for your most important demo of the year\u2026!<\/p>\n In a demo that I saw recently, the software announced, \u201cNot Enabled for This Demo Account\u201d when the presenter tried to show a specific use case. Even worse, the use case was introduced by the vendor<\/i> as \u201chere\u2019s something really cool\u2026,\u201d not in response to a prospect question!<\/p>\n Fundamentally, your demo environment needs to be consistently available: You need to be able to count on it to suspend disbelief successfully.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026The demo system is slow today because\u2026\u201d Have you ever heard these words in a demo meeting? Have you ever spoken them yourself?<\/p>\n Your prospects will only remember one<\/i> word: \u201cslow!\u201d<\/p>\n Prospects assume that whatever environment you are using for your demo is going to be better than theirs, often much<\/i> better. I\u2019ve never heard a prospect say, \u201cOur network is blisteringly fast\u2026!\u201d<\/p>\n In some cases, you may be able to pre-fetch, cache or otherwise out-flank areas of potential performance problems. You\u2019ll want to fully characterize and be closely familiar with your demo environment to know how to prepare.<\/p>\n Best case? Your demo environment is truly \u201cblisteringly fast\u201d and has no visible performance issues: \u201cWow \u2013 look at that! It displayed the results even before <\/i>we submitted the request!\u201d<\/p>\n Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed access to the web to run your software and found zero connectivity?<\/p>\n Or have you ever been asked to do a demo at a government organization that didn\u2019t allow access through their network?<\/p>\n [This reminds me of the Monty Python Cheese Shop sketch: \u201cSorry, fresh out\u2026\u201d]<\/p>\n You may need to have backup plans in place for these situations, which might include:<\/p>\n Whatever you use as a solution, the closer it appears to be your real software, the better you\u2019ll be able to suspend disbelief.<\/p>\n Have you ever heard a vendor say, \u201cOh, trust me, these reports are terrific\u2026!\u201d<\/p>\n Far too often, I see demos that show reports or dashboards with sketchy data or no data at all! This is even worse when the reports\/dashboards are the final screens for important use cases (fail!).<\/p>\n Workflows need to work, reports need to be well-populated, graphs need to be displayed properly, alerts need to be driven by realistic actions, and so on. Your software needs to appear to operate as it would for your prospect as a customer<\/i>, as much as possible.<\/p>\n Have you ever connected to a display or projector (or \u201cbeamer\u201d) in a face-to-face demo and been surprised at what happened to your screen? Many meeting rooms and conference facilities have older, lower-resolution projection systems that are insufficient for demos from high-resolution laptops, resulting in invisible buttons, lost portions of your screen, and unexpected scroll bars.<\/p>\n At minimum, characterize the display system you must use so that you can reduce and manage surprises. Be prepared: Practice key portions of your demo in-situ<\/i>, before the meeting starts.<\/p>\n Even better, if you do a lot of face-to-face demos, consider purchasing and carrying with you a projection device that enables your software to be shown in the best possible light (no charge for this pun!). An investment of a few hundred dollars or euros could save thousands in otherwise wasted time and travel expenses!<\/p>\n Finally, consider your mouse cursor: After all, your audience will be trying to watch its movements for an hour or longer in many demos. How visible is it?<\/p>\n You may want to consider increasing its size and\/or fill. Most of the default mouse settings on Windows and Macintosh laptops are too small<\/i> for demos. Explore the options and see what looks best with your software and typical demo scenarios.<\/p>\n This is a long article offering a lot of ideas. We\u2019ve explored some aspects of your hardware and software demo environments, but every individual\u2019s situation is unique.<\/p>\n In Great Demo! Workshops we suggest making and using an Infrastructure Checklist to reduce the risk of bad things happening to you in your demos: \u201cThe same bad thing should never happen to you more than once, if it is under your control\u2026!\u201d<\/p>\n A truly perfect demo environment probably doesn\u2019t (yet) exist, but by pursuing the guidelines above, you will certainly improve your probability of success with your demos. A few changes may yield the difference between obviously fake and successfully suspending disbelief.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2019-2025 The Second Derivative \u2013 All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n To learn more ideas, tips, and skills, consider enrolling in a Doing Discovery or Great Demo! Workshop<\/a> or explore our books<\/a>, blog, and articles on the Resources pages of our website at https:\/\/GreatDemo.com<\/a>. Join the Great Demo! & Doing Discovery LinkedIn Group<\/a> to learn from others and share your experiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Un entorno de demostraci\u00f3n perfecto \u00a1Un aprendizaje sin fin! Art\u00edculo \u00bfAlguna vez ha dicho u o\u00eddo: \"Lo siento, no tengo un ejemplo as\u00ed<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,26],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-37060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beyond_demos","category-demo-data-and-environment","tag-articles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37060"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37062,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37060\/revisions\/37062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Demo = Fake!<\/h2>\n
And Don\u2019t Label Things \u201cDemo\u201d<\/h2>\n
No Obviously Fictional Names<\/h2>\n
Include Problems, Exceptions, and Opportunities<\/h2>\n
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U.S. vs International<\/h2>\n
Market Alignment<\/h2>\n
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Market Maturity<\/h2>\n
Who Am I?<\/h2>\n
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Be a Customer<\/h2>\n
Keep It Current<\/h2>\n
Refresh or Reset<\/h2>\n
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Availability<\/h2>\n
Performance<\/h2>\n
Surprise \u2013 No Internet Access!<\/h2>\n
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\u201cTrust Me\u2026\u201d<\/h2>\n
Screen and Projection Woes<\/h2>\n
Mini Mouse<\/h2>\n
Infrastructure Checklist<\/h2>\n
A Perfect Demo Environment<\/h2>\n
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