Demo Day Disasters

It’s demo day. You’re feeling confident - everything is polished, shiny and ready to impress. The code works flawlessly in your local environment. You’ve even set aside time for a coffee break before demo (you know, caffeine makes everything better, right?)

But the moment you start that demo, you feel it… your application suddenly decides it doesn’t want to cooperate, and as always at a bad time.

As Murphy wisely said, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

And, guess what? It usually does. At the worst possible time.

The Usual Suspects: Common Build-Breaking Culprits

Let’s take a look at what actually causes these demo disasters. Those usual suspects - things you should’ve known would happen but hoped they wouldn’t.

Spoiler: They always do.

1. Last-Minute Code Changes

• That one “small change” you made two minutes before the demo. It always ends up breaking something.

2. Misconfigured Environments

• Your local environment? Perfect. Your demo environment? A disaster.

• “Why is it not showing up on the screen?” you ask, only to realize you forgot to switch off the "demo mode" setting in your config.

3. Dependencies Hell

• Ah, the beloved package update. You know you shouldn’t update it, but you do.

• And now your application is hanging by a thread, ready to unravel.

4. “It worked on my Machine” syndrome

• You just got all the files necessary to run a demo from a team member.

• Sounds good, except your machine doesn’t want to run it.

5. Missing or Incomplete Data

• You didn’t think about that edge case until it breaks everything right before your demo.

• Who knew that 100th row in your test dataset was so critical?

It’s Not Just Bad Luck, It’s the Nature of Software

Let’s face it. Software is inherently unpredictable. Every change you make, every update, every integration introduces variables that you just can’t control, specially when it is under development phase.

When you’re working with complex systems that rely on external factors, other code, APIs, environments, even hardware running them - it’s chaotic system. The more moving parts, the more room for disaster.

The Paradox: Embracing the Chaos

Here’s the paradox: While Murphy’s Law constantly works against you, the build breaking before a demo is a sign that you’re tackling real challenges. If things were too easy, you’d just be clicking through tutorials instead of pushing boundaries.

That is what makes you a better developer.

• Expect failure - Seriously. Get comfortable with it. That’s what makes you survivor from such failures.

• Lean into it - The more you let go of idea of perfection, the better you’ll handle the chaos.

And remember: Software doesn’t care about your stress levels.

How to Be Ready, Even When the Build Breaks

Freeze the code and dependencies early

• If you know you’ve demo coming up, commit and freeze everything the day before.

• Make sure all dependencies are locked and won’t cause last-minute surprises.

Pre-record your Demo

• Learn the lesson, if your last demo went wrong.

• Pre-record parts of demo, just in-case. (That’s what I started doing, after fiasco last time)

Have a demo-ready environment

• Create/Use a stable, isolated environment for demos.

• So, it doesn’t get infected by experimental feature by you or another developer.

Do a Dry Run

• The earlier you can catch a bug, the better.

• Do a dry run with someone who’s never seen your work before demo.

Closing Thoughts

No matter how much you prepare, things can still break. The build might fail. The demo might flop. Your well-planned, flawless presentation might unravel.

But here’s the thing: That’s okay. Every breakdown is a learning experience. If you apply those learning next time, you get better with each disaster. And what you’ll find is that the more failures you face, the more resilient you become.

Until next time, Cheers

Let’s end this on a light note—because who hasn’t had a disastrous demo, right? Share your own #DevDemoDisasters stories on LinkedIn and 𝕏 

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Thanks for reading,
Kelvin
TechParadox.dev