Month: April 2017

Sprint demos can be tricky. So much gets done in a sprint, but you have to condense it down into a consumable package for a mixed audience of different roles. Or maybe not much gets done, but you or your Team have to demo anyways. Or you might find yourself demoing for a customer on a moment’s notice. Much can be said for the technical preparation and structure of the demos, yet I think there’s a simple ingredient that makes a good demo into a great one: passion.

Bringing passion to a demo means your excitement is infectious, getting your audience on the edge of their seats to see more. And being passionate should be easy; you’ve built your product and it’s your baby. It’s great to get to show it off! So what makes it tough to be excited?

• Our expectations can be too high, and we know all the times we had to say “no” while building, making it hard to see the awesomeness that remains.
• The Team’s velocity was poor, and only a sliver of what was committed got delivered. Again, we know what might have been and yearn for it.
• We have to build our product on the decisions of others, that we don’t agree with. It’s hard to get excited about showing product that’s hindered by others.

So what can we do to get past these blocks?

• Celebrate what is, not miss what might have been. If you made your stories well, there should still be value delivered, which no matter how small will still impact your customers.
• Personify your audience and think about demoing to someone who you know would be excited about your product, be it a key customer or peer. Demo as if it was just for them, and think about the smiles they’d have to see what you’ve built.
• Understand why former decisions were made, even if you don’t agree, so you can frame your work on the foundation you were given and feel great about the progress you’re making.

And if all else fails, hype yourself up with some motivational music before you demo!

Passion in a demo is so important, as it celebrate’s your Team’s successes, gets your stakeholders excited, and engages your audience. If you’re making a demo or giving feedback on another Product Manager’s, try to make yourself bored (like your audience may be when they come to your demo through no fault of your own) and ensure your passion comes through in your voice, words, and body language.

If you have any tips for bringing passion to a demo, I’d love to hear them in the comments!

Metaphors are an extremely potent tool for both communication as well as self-discovery. I’ve begun reading Your Brain at Work by David Rock, which gives the basis for an overall metaphor of how our brains work. Rock proposes we use the metaphor of a stage, with ideas coming, going, and vying for attention while we navigate our day. So far he’s doing a nice job relating several complex topics in cognitive science back to this metaphor to help readers heighten their understanding of themselves, and thus succeed.

In the first “Act” of the book, most of Rock’s tips have been codifying and justifying practices I’ve already done, like taking a walk over lunch to clear my head, but it’s helped me think differently about why these practices work (plus help me convince others to join me.) Going back to the metaphor of a stage, taking a walk basically gives actors a time to rest and your subconscious can have a breakthrough as other actors are allowed to mingle on the stage. There have also been several new tips and tricks that I can’t wait to explore:

• Treat prioritizing my day as one of the most energy-intensive activities. Do prioritization of todos early and avoid trying to reprioritize late in the day.
• Improve your mental braking system (not getting distracted) by practicing any braking, even physical braking.
• Think of your alertness level as an inverted U, where too little or too much alertness is an issue. Move your alertness level lower or higher through taking a break or visualizing a fear.

If you’re looking for a book to inspire you to think about your work approach differently, or help a Product Manager form their own best mental practices by laying a foundational metaphor, you should check it out. I’ll be making a couple more follow-up posts on the book as I read more of it so stay tuned for the final review.