No More Awkward Silence: The Tiny Change That Transformed Our Demos
It's Friday, and you've finally finished a feature that you’re proud of. You feel pretty good about it. You join the demo call, share your screen, and the demo gods, for once, are on your side. No lag, no bugs. You wrap up, ready for the comments, the questions, the feedback.
Silence.
You're staring at a gallery of black rectangles and mute icons. The only movement is a single thumbs-up emoji in the chat. Then, before you know it, the next person is presenting. This is how so many demos die—with a polite silence.
For a long time, this was my team. Our demos were a scheduled hour every two weeks, filled with polite applause and an awkward silence only broken by questions from me and other leaders. I decided I couldn’t sit through another moment of hoping someone would jump in. The silence had to end.
The Why Behind the Change
Why do we demo? Because setting a goal is only the first step. To make real progress, a team needs to check in constantly. Demos are the bridge that connects Agile delivery and discovery. They aren't just for showing off. They’re a way to celebrate wins, share learnings, and, most importantly, get the feedback that lets us learn and grow. That was the struggle with our old format: it was easy to see what people were doing, but impossible to get the feedback that mattered.
The New Demo Format: A Four-Part Framework
This framework gives your demos a clear, simple structure that encourages conversation and makes every minute count. And it’s as simple as answering 4 questions. Here's how it works:
Context - What problem are you solving?
This is where you set the stage. Instead of just jumping into the details of your work, start by reminding everyone of the larger problem you're tackling and the customer you're solving it for. This reorients the entire group, helping them understand the why behind your work before they get into the what. Use a simple, concise statement. For example, "We're trying to solve the problem of customers getting lost in our checkout flow"
Progress - What progress have you made?
This section is all about the show. This is where you actually demo the feature you've been working on. Walk your team through the solution you've built and the work you've completed since the last demo. Keep it brief and focused. Your audience already knows the context, so this is about showing them the tangible results of your efforts.
Learning - What did you learn?
This is the most critical part of the demo, and it's what elevates it from a simple show-and-tell to a valuable learning session. No project is a straight line, and every team has to overcome challenges. Use this time to share your insights. What did you discover that you didn't know before? Did you run into a technical challenge? Did you learn something new about your users? This is an opportunity to share knowledge and prevent other teams from making the same mistakes. For example, "We learned that our initial approach to the database query was too slow, so we had to re-architect it."
Ask - What specific thing do you want feedback on?
End your demo with a clear, direct call to action for the group. This single change turns a passive audience into active participants. Instead of a vague "Any questions?" which often leads to silence, give them something specific to respond to. This makes it easy for your team to engage and provide useful feedback. Your question could be about a specific design choice, a potential edge case you've been thinking about, or a technical decision. For example, "What do you think about the user flow for this new feature?"
My teams have been using this format for the past year and a half. After we adopted this new framework, our demos transformed from awkward, one-way presentations into deeper discussions. Team members started proactively engaging, offering insightful feedback, and asking questions. The new format made our meetings more efficient, but more importantly, it helped our team connect. It took a few tries to get right, but now we have some discussion on almost every item.
Would your demo meetings benefit from more discussion? Give this a try!
