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Show, Don't Tell

🤫 Show, Don't Tell #76 - They made the demo non-negotiable


Read Time: 4.3 minutes

Welcome to our 76th edition of Show, Don't Tell. A newsletter to help you build REMARKABLE interactive demos...3 tips at a time.

This week, we see:

  1. a demo that hands you a person to root for before it shows you a thing
  2. a psychology trick that you probably haven't thought about
  3. the product-page mandate that everyone should adopt

Let's get after it...

Supported By:

  • Navattic is our favorite interactive demo platform ❤️
  • It's easy to build demos of your product, that feel like the real thing
  • With HTML screen captures, easy editing, lots of sharing options, and powerful analytics
  • ​Try building your first demo for free!​
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Tip #1: Give Your Demos a Main Character

Pretend you just clicked "how it works," fully braced for the usual feature parade.

Instead, Safety Culture introduces you to Lindsay. And you spend the rest of the tour seeing the product through her day, not through a list of buttons.

Jason found this one and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Because the second there's a name attached, the whole demo changes.

Our brains have a much easier time when you stop grading features and start following a person. And instead of thinking "How does this work?” it turns into "okay, what happens to Lindsay next?"

Because remember, humans are creatures who loves stories. And you can’t follow a story if there are no characters.

I remember when Kallidu built their whole demo around a character back in Edition #37. And nearly 40 episodes later… we’re still talking about it.

→ Go ahead, meet Lindsay​

Tip #2: Use Human Psychology

Demos with dark background AND dark modals look like somebody just forgot to turn the lights on.

That’s why we’re featuring Pylon's demos this week. They’ve got the same dark background, but they use a light-colored modal for contrast. They even run a bright purple outline around the active step, so your eye lands exactly where it's supposed to.

In psychology, there’s a principle called Figure-Ground Organization.

The brain organizes visual fields into a "foreground" (the primary focus) and "background". High contrast instantly brings an object into the foreground, while low contrast blends it into the background.

There’s also evolutionary hardwiring to think about. For centuries, survival relied on detecting predators or prey. So the human brain adapted to heavily prioritize differences and sudden transitions (changes in light, color, and movement) over flat, uniform environments.

It’s one of the easiest changes you can make to a demo. And based on how our brains work… it could be one of the biggest changes you make.

**Fun fact: Navattic shipped an update so you can now change the theme step by step. Now the mood can shift as the story does.

→ See how Pylon dresses up the dark​

Tip #3 - Make It the Default, Not the Option

Click through a few of Remote's product pages and you start noticing the same thing on every one.

An interactive demo sitting right in the "how it works" spot. And it’s not just some pages… but all of them.

And maybe the most important part? They lead with it instead of letting it get buried underneath 7 scrolls and a wall of text.

They’ve intentionally made the demo the first real look at the product, before the feature-benefit breakdown even starts.

Somebody (their CMO or whoever runs demand) made a conscious call that every product page MUST have a demo, then built it into the template. So for them, it’s the standard.

We've been banging this drum for a while (Editions #47 and #48). Glad to see someone has made it into a policy.

→ Browse a few of Remote's product pages and watch the pattern repeat​

Make AI-powered capture edits, without leaving your demo builder

Screen captures are the building blocks of your demo. But capturing screens is only step one. Editing is where the real magic happens.

Thing like removing UI clutter, blurring sensitive data, or updating tables with fresh data. And when something in your UI changes, just update it across all captures in one click.

All of this was possible in the Navattic, but they just made it easier.

Their new In-line editor now brings capture editing, and new AI editing capabilities, directly into your demo builder.

That means you can make edits just by talking to Navattic's Co-pilot. You just click on the thing you want to edit, describe the change you want to make, and boom, it's done.

​→ Take the tour now!​

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Ask the Dash Bros 🎙️

A live, FREE coaching session to help you build better interactive demos (and make them your top marketing asset.)

In these 45-minute coaching sessions, Eric and Jason answer your questions about demo strategy, distribution, sales enablement, and any other challenges you're facing with interactive demos.

The next session is Wednesday, September 23rd at 12PM ET.

​→ Register now - It's 100% Free​

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So that’s it. Our 76th edition of Show, Don’t Tell.

3 useful tips to help you build remarkable interactive demos.

Tune in next Tuesday for more advice from DemoDash.

P.S.

If you know anyone else who would love these tips, please consider sending them this edition so they can subscribe 🙏
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​Jason and Eric​
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Show, Don't Tell

Learn how to create remarkable interactive demos that make your SaaS product easy to understand and buy. 3 practical tips and examples every Tuesday.

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