Run Demo Meetings

Demo meetings can become long and ineffective without clear goals or structure. Fine-tune your demo meetings to make these sessions more focused and impactful.

PREP TIME

10m

Run TIME

60m

Persons

2-10

5-second summary

Give team members the time and space to discuss how to make demo meetings more effective.
Prioritize the most critical goals for demo meetings.
Create an action plan to meet key demo goals.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

Video conferencing with screen sharing or meeting space
Digital collaboration tool (see templates)
Whiteboard
Markers
Sticky notes
Timer

PLAY resources

Confluence whiteboard

How to Run Demo Meetings

Fine-tune your demo meetings to make these sessions more focused and impactful.

What is a demo meeting?

A demo meeting is a session where team members present their idea, product, or progress to others. Agile teams commonly use demo meetings, especially at the end of a sprint or project milestone, to show what’s been accomplished, discuss feedback and alignment with project goals, and discuss next steps. These sessions encourage transparency and collaboration, while minimizing rework later.

Demo meetings typically involve:

Presenting new features, updates, or completed work
Allowing stakeholders to see tangible progress
Gathering feedback and answering questions
Aligning the team and stakeholders on goals and expectations
Identifying areas for improvement or further development

Why run this Play?

Like other types of meetings, demo meetings can become long and ineffective unless they have clear goals and structure. Use this Play to:

Clarify and prioritize the goals of your demo meetings
Ensure demo meetings are high-value collaboration time
Give everyone a voice in shaping meeting success

When should you use the Run Demo Meetings Play?

You can run this Play anytime. It’s especially helpful at the end of a sprint or project milestone, or whenever it feels like your team’s demo meetings haven’t been as productive as they could be.

Benefits of outlining demo meeting goals

Here are three benefits of running demo meetings:

Improve team reflexivity: Well-run demo meetings encourage teams to reflect. Reflexivity helps teams become more effective and paves the way for innovation.
Reduce meeting overload: Meetings are the #1 barrier to productivity. 78% of workers say they attend so many meetings, it’s hard to get their work done. Auditing demo sessions can ensure meeting time is well spent.
Ensure meetings accomplish goals: 62% of workers frequently attend meetings without a stated goal. Audit your demo meetings to ensure goals are clear and impactful.

1. Prep the Play

Est. time: 5 MIN

Start by copying this Demo Meeting Goals Audit Confluence whiteboard or creating your own version. Make sure all participants have access to the whiteboard. Then, customize the board based on your team’s needs, and review the instructions so you feel confident facilitating the session.

2. Pick a format and schedule your session

Est. time: 5 MIN

Decide whether you want to run the full Play live or use a hybrid approach, where parts of the activity happen asynchronously before and after your team connects live.

Option A is for running the whole exercise all together in a longer, live session. For this option, schedule a 60-minute session with your team.
Option B adds async work before and after a shorter, live session. For this option, schedule a 45-minute session with your team.

Tip: Maximize meeting impact with AI notes

Set up an AI notetaker for your meeting so participants can stay focused and reference notes afterward.

3. List goals and group by theme

Est. time: 10 min

Option A: Longer, live session all together
Use the whiteboard as your guide, and start with Steps 1 and 2: brainstorming goals of the demo meetings, and grouping goals by theme.

Option B: Shorter, live session with async work
If you chose a hybrid approach, ask your team to add meeting goals under Step 1 in the whiteboard before the meeting. Once the team is done, complete Step 2 on your own as the facilitator to group the responses into themes.

tip: Encourage open sharing

Run the Inclusive Meetings Play to create a safe environment where all team members feel comfortable sharing their ideas and feedback.

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4. Vote

Est. time: 5 min

For Step 3, ask the team to vote on the top goals of your demo meetings. You can use the voting features in your Confluence whiteboard or stickers or initials on a physical whiteboard.

Tip: Prioritize what matters most

When you’re trying to accomplish too many goals in one meeting, it often becomes overwhelming, unfocused, and too long. Ruthlessly prioritize the most critical goals to keep your demo meetings as effective as possible.

5. Resolve differences

Est. time: 15 min

For Step 4, review the votes as a team, and decide which goals should be addressed during demo meetings and which ones should be addressed in other ways.

6. Ways to meet goals

Est. time: 15 min

For Step 5, brainstorm ways the team could accomplish each goal during demo meetings. Then, create an action plan by listing actions the team will take and assigning owners and deadlines.

Tip: Create next steps for all goals

Ensure all key demo goals are addressed, whether in the meeting or in another forum.

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7. Optional bonus: Ways to meet other goals

Est. time: 15 min

If you have time, complete Step 6, where you’ll brainstorm ways the team could accomplish each of the goals they decided to address in other ways besides demo meetings.

Then, create an action plan by listing actions the team will take and assigning owners and deadlines.