Demo Hack: New vs Save As

“Execute all pathways with the fewest number of clicks.”

 – Cohan’s Law of Simplicity

 

“Choose pathways that can be executed with the fewest number of clicks.”

 – Cohan’s Law of Simplicity Corollary

 

In demos, how many times have you seen someone build a new dashboard or execute a process from scratch, step by step?

 

I’m always amazed to see three sets of mistakes:

 

1.     Showing all the options and possibilities, which makes the process look complicated, confusing, and only suitable for experts

2.     These extended pathways make the effort take much LONGER than necessary

3.     The presenter often never FINISHES the project, leaving you without a vision of the deliverable or its value!

 

These unproductive demo pathways are presented frighteningly frequently. Amazingly, thy are often HIGHLIGHTED by vendors in their demos!

 

In day-to-day life, most of us RARELY start from scratch, particularly if good examples already exist. For instance, how often do you open an existing document, spreadsheet, or other entity, and choose “Save As”? Your next steps are often simple edits to the EXISTING entity. 

 

Doing this in your demos makes your software appear MUCH easier to use than if you started with a blank page. “Save As” is a terrific strategy!

 

There are DOZENS more hacks, tips, ideas, and VALIDATED best practices in Great Demo!

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