Software Demonstrations and Training

Abstract

Software product demonstrations and product training are frequently your product’s first impression to anyone outside the product team. What’s the role of the product manager here? Usually you are not the one demonstrating your product, nor will you conduct the product training. You are the General Manager of YourProduct Inc., you are the product manager and that’s why you care that there are valuable software demos and relevant product trainings that underline the product position in relevant product trainings.

This chapter explains the Software Demonstrations and Training PYPR dimension that represents “The Showcase Part of the Software Product Manager Role.” Due to its importance and according to my experience, that there are still many issues with software demonstrations, I consider Software Demonstrations and Training as being its own dimension and not part of the Go-to-Market dimension.

We will examine in more detail the various software demonstrations and training types to improve the items of this PYPR dimension, and the essentials to be considered as well as some proven practices that worked for me in various situations over the last decade. The tools and templates provided are selected, proven practices that worked in my context.

Although the dimension weights seem relatively low, I frequently considered this dimension to be the stepchild of product management and with that the limiting factor of product success.