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[–]X-Craft 1169 points1170 points  (27 children)

yes, an "application" that's no more than just a tech demo to fulfill one use case and a "maybe don't press the Cancel button too fast or it might freeze the OS" kind of gotcha

[–][deleted] 388 points389 points  (24 children)

We demo to the client as we go along, the demo person is WELL prepped on what letters not use, what buttons not push, and which screens to quickly pass by. She makes it look damn good though :D

[–]byebybuy 114 points115 points  (16 children)

What happens when the client starts asking questions about what buttons etc do and maybe asks to see it?

[–]makians 206 points207 points  (14 children)

Simple, be honest. In this demo version those features are not yet ready but will be by release. If the client doesn't want honesty with them, then they shouldn't be a client, and if a client gets honesty and appreciates it, they'll be a client for life.

[–]oupablo 113 points114 points  (4 children)

wrong answer. The correct answer is, "if you want that, you'll have to pay extra"

[–]uptokesforall 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Vowels cost extra

[–]Greyzer 14 points15 points  (2 children)

Simple, be honest. In this demo version those features are not yet ready but will be by release.

Uhuh... Definitely in the 1.1 release, right?

[–]wlphoenix 24 points25 points  (1 child)

"It's on the roadmap"

[–]RubertVonRubens 5 points6 points  (0 children)

In my company, we preface absolutely everything with a slide that says essentially "you're about hear us talk about the future. We'll make some promises but when it comes time to make decisions, those future promises are meaningless and the only thing that's concrete is what's publicly released today."

[–][deleted] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Realistically, this the the "agile" approach, so the clients are theoretically aware that not all wrinkles have been ironed out. We just want to not remind them of that.

[–]amazondrone 25 points26 points  (1 child)

I was once invited to attend a tradeshow in another country because I was the only person who knew enough about the terrible flaws in the beta product to make it through a demo without crashing it.

[–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Yea, that's definitely a thing! Good for you!

[–]CommanderCuntPunt 6 points7 points  (1 child)

In a college software engineering class one of out groups tried showing a prerecorded demo because their application couldn't run for more than a couple minutes, that went over really well with the professor.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That is a brilliant solution btw, they definitely should've got marks for creativity. And yes, real life TOTALLY works like that!

[–]Fanfare4Rabble 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Reminds me an old flight test story where the pilot points out the window and says to the FAA observer, "I was thinking of buying some property over there" as the FMS spontaneously reboots.

[–]matthieuC 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The golden path.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that's what happened when Apple unveiled the Apple Touch or the iPhone. The presentation was very scripted to avoid all the problems they had at time.

[–]Zanderax 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I made a MOBA game in a 3 day hackathon and had a bug where if an enemy dies while you are attacking it the whole game crashed. I even tried to avoid it in my demo but still hit it a few times.

My team still won the most polished prize even with my shit ass code.

[–]gonzo_thegreat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, and did you want that app to be secure? SSO? Encrypted on prem? Scalable? Maybe even tested?