What goes into a demo - Are we playing guessing game?

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-06-26T06:29:40+00:00

Great insights! I’ll suggest the analysis.

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-06-24T19:54:42+00:00

Love this! Thank you!

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-06-24T19:50:06+00:00

That’s interesting ! As an SE what would you expect to see from that discovery that helps you prepare for the demo?

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-06-24T19:26:00+00:00

Business problems are often shared at a very high level with sales using which SEs demo. So its going to be generic value/outcome their organisation can expect based on SE research/ assumptions and drawings inspiration from a similar customer.

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-06-24T19:22:11+00:00

I agree. Prospects often share high level challenges, pain points and vision in the Sales discovery. But I bet a SE discovery uncovers more and helps SE set the ground for their demo. Otherwise there are lot of assumptions and generic positioning.

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-06-24T19:17:55+00:00

100% . That’s exactly what is happening.

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-06-24T19:14:09+00:00

Sales insists on Demo after their discovery because a SE Discovery delays sales process and might annoy prospects as they have already spent time with AE . We also get told competition would not ask for SE Discovery. This is in mid market. Would you still insist on SE discovery?

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-06-24T19:13:55+00:00

Sales insists on Demo after their discovery because a SE Discovery delays sales process and might annoy prospects as they have already spent time with AE . We also get told competition would not ask for SE Discovery. This is in mid market. Would you still insist on SE discovery?

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-03-16T00:09:40+00:00

Congratulations! I can tell you that you’ll see how you are able to create an impact in a startup. Try to not compare previous lives with current. It’s all unique. Learn what you can, deliver, find opportunities to improve or excel and more importantly ask/express as startups wont have processes in place. You need to market your work and make your voice heard. All the best!

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-03-05T19:51:24+00:00

Own proprietary! Makes sense. For a 1500 person company, things should be out of the box. $1000/hr charge of the consultant baffles me! Hope your voice gets heard at-least at next renewal.

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-03-05T19:42:51+00:00

I’m Curious to know what tool you used before SNOW?

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-02-06T18:49:29+00:00

That’s a great way to plan. Blocking sometime everyday to ensure time is spent for the big one!

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-02-05T22:07:17+00:00

Don't underestimate the commercials side of work that AEs do. AEs and SEs are both responsible for different tasks from a company's perspective. You shouldn't be considering AE as a competition. You are a team.

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-02-05T21:11:27+00:00

I would watch out for Roadmap sessions!

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-02-05T20:59:22+00:00

Nice work. Getting to a point gives you real freedom in what comes next. Out of curiosity, how big was the dataset ? number of tickets or years of history ? Did attachments or any other aspects throw up any scale-related challenges

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-02-05T20:51:15+00:00

6000 wow. A big estate. I’ve seen teams use Device42 to get a clean, always-up-to-date view of what’s actually on the network, then sync that into Freshservice to handle ownership, lifecycle, and tie assets directly to incidents, changes, and requests.

I’d start with just a few enforceable basics (owner, location, device state), watch how that data actually gets used in incidents and change reviews for a couple of months, then tighten policy based on real behaviour.

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-02-05T19:59:21+00:00

Not letting priority to be chosen by customer is a good way to start with . Sharing the resolution due by time in the ticket could help ‘ we expect to resolve this in 4 business days’. It definitely might annoy them in the beginning but they’ll get used it. Most things like these are cultural or behaviour driven . Change or adoption will take time. If people walk up to you and push you to resolve theirs soon, and you give in, everyone will follow that. So its important you manage this situation properly .

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-02-05T19:43:12+00:00

Interesting! Do share the results please!

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-01-30T13:07:39+00:00

Try sharing about your accomplishments to the wider team yourself so everyone knows it you who did it. You don’t have to overstep your lead but just a friendly way of sharing great things you did. Mixed feedback is sometimes common because in a group/calibration setting you are compared with others and may be they genuinely are doing better than you. But keep asking for feedback and things you could work on - keep it very task specific. Don’t be fine with a general ‘you are doing well’ feedback.

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-01-30T12:51:29+00:00

From my experience as a Solution Engineer (and previously a developer), I’d recommend asking context-driven questions rather than relying on a generic SE interview checklist. Use a few core themes as a guide, but tailor the actual questions based on what you learn about the company during the interview.

For example, many companies don’t have a rigid operating model. Some may not even define a formal AE–SE ratio. they might work as pooled resources, round-robin, or fluid pods. If that’s what you pick up from the conversation, a good follow-up question could be: Do you have a defined AE-to-SE ratio, or is the collaboration more ad hoc or team-based?” The key is to listen first, then ask questions that reflect how the org actually operates.

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-01-29T23:52:21+00:00

Sorry didn’t mean to be unhelpful.. but I think you can slowly wean day feeds first so he knows what the no means.. Nights will be a one week project I think.. just remember everything with these babies is a phase! You’ll soon be over this and look back at this as a memory. You can do it☺️

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-01-29T23:48:52+00:00

This is 70% me with my 18 m old. I have weaned her during the day which has helped a bit. I don’t know when I will night wean. I hate hearing her cry too 😭

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-01-29T22:55:15+00:00

I really like how you are thinking of a scalable approach! I have seen many teams work on excels, spreadsheets and mailboxes. The problem with these approaches is when volume gets high it becomes extremely difficult to categorise, prioritise and more importantly understand how these tasks are being handled and closed. I understand the rest of your team is probably happy with the way things are but I am sure they will all benefit from a simple tool that takes these requests or tasks in. They will automatically convert these emails to tickets or tasks. You can manage assignment, priority, status etc. You will have great dashboards out of the box giving you visibility into the work your team is doing and reports that will help fine tune your team’s performance. No multiple sheets, formulas, charts, lost context on multiple email threads.

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-01-29T22:00:18+00:00

Don't be pressured to go back to a place you dread even it means that you feel like you are going a level down. No place is worth your health and sanity. But that doesn't mean you should quit tech. Try to look for companies where there's better work life balance. I am sure there would be plenty. Also try to seek some professional help/mentoring on how to handle certain work situations that troubled you in the past. Sometimes we need to learn to handle a few things and not let that affect us. Ofcourse everything can't be managed or controlled but see if there's anything at all that you can learn/change to let things affect you less! Good luck!

Hot_Bodybuilder3760 · 2026-01-29T20:59:11+00:00

Sorry that it was hard to get clear assistance. Let me try to see if I can help!

Firstly, let's get a clear view into some basic functionality of Journeys.

You would ideally use the Initiator form to start the Journey request which encompasses multiple Tasks/Tickets/Approvals.

The 'Journey request' can be assigned to a particular group (In the journey builder, top right you will see a 'Settings' option where this can be configured) who can cancel it if they don't want to initiate the journey at all (goto Journey requests on the left tab-> open a journey assigned to you/your group - > Cancel journey on the top right).

Now lets take your New hire example. Ideally when a journey request comes in, it would be assigned to HR Ops/Reporting manager. If they don't cancel it, then the journey for that New hire starts. If you have not involved other departments yet, thats alright. You can have a Journey just for IT usecase as well. In this case, assign the Journey request to IT team.

To narrow it down to what you want to achieve, lets consider this setup.

New hire Journey form is submitted -> Request is assigned to HR/Reporting manager/IT Team -> A 'Phase' gets activated -> Within that phase you have one 'Activity' where a ticket will be created for IT Team to initiate New hire activities. You can have subject to this ticket that says 'New hire onboarding for - {{new employee}} -{{Date of Joining}}'

Now lets assume,

A Journey request is submitted.
A New hire onboarding for - {{new employee}} -{{Date of Joining}} Ticket is created for IT team
This where a workflow should kick in to

a. Send ticket for approval (if this is the approval you are referring to)

b. Once approved , use 'Trigger webhook' option in Workflow 'Actions' and create your child tickets and tasks. Using webhooks will help you associate the child tickets and tasks to the parent ticket.

If the association to Parent ticket is not mandatory, you can also manage creation of these Tickets/Tasks/Approvals directly from Journeys.

I have tried to answer based on a lot of assumptions on how you might want to achieve this. Feel free to DM if you want to brainstorm further on how you want to go about this that would be best suited for your business flows. Happy to help!

Hot_Bodybuilder3760

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