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Preparation

Learning Outcomes​

By the end of this session you will be able to

  • Describe what Demo Day is and what will happen on the day
  • List the aims of the Demo Day presentations
  • Build a presentation that will impress employers
  • Write a description about yourself that is succinct and memorable
  • Highlight what makes a presentation good or bad
  • Use software to create videos of your projects to ensure your presentation goes smoothly

Slideshow​

What is Demo Day?​

Demo Day is when we invite employers to see the Final Projects that you have been working on over the past four weeks. It's a chance for us all to come together to see what you've achieved!

You'll be expected to present your product using a combination of presentations, live demonstrations and videos.

Let's Prepare!​

It’s time to start preparing for Demo Day!

Part of the Demo Day event will be a demonstration and presentation from each team to show what they’ve achieved, so you need to prepare for that.

As well as the actual outputs of your project you should be thinking about:

  • What have you learned, personally and as a team? This can be related to technology, product, process, ...
  • Which parts did you find most enjoyable and/or interesting? Has that impacted what you’re thinking about in terms of careers or next steps? How?
  • How did you find collaborating as a team? What was made easier or harder by working with others, compared to working largely on your own?
  • How happy are you with where you got to? What did the users think? What part of the product would you build next, if you had more time?

Try to show the journey, not just the destination - if you have pictures of early sketches or screenshots from previous builds of app, for example, you can use those to tell a story about how you approached the project and the progress you’ve made behind the scenes. This isn’t always obvious to less technical members of the audience, so it’s important to be able to illustrate the work you’ve put in.

Presentation Tips​

Introduction​

  • Don't spend time talking about the volunteers that helped with your project - the demo day is about you! Employers don't care about volunteers! (It's fine, the volunteers already know that you appreciate it!)
  • It's a good idea to say what type of job that you're interested in - so if you'd like to be a backend dev, say so!

Presentation​

  • When you talk about challenges, make sure you say how you solved it. If you didn't manage to solve it, then talk about what you tried to solve it
  • Talk about how you communicated and collaborated with each other (Github, Slack, calls, etc). Remember that this is a big part of a developer's day so it's a good idea to show that you have experience of this

Demo​

  • Have a script for the demo and practice it! You should be able to talk without thinking too much about it
  • Practice switching between demo and slides so that you don't waste too much time on it
  • Use tabs to pre-fill forms - we don't need to see you type out stuff, especially if you don't explain it
  • Use Incognito mode to prevent logging into/out. With incognito mode, you can be logged into multiple accounts at once
  • Consider recording a (silent) video of the demo - what if there's no internet? Or the app goes down? But remember that this is your best chance to make a personal impression; Never stand there silently while a video talks!
  • Get someone to hold the mic if you're typing/demoing - then you have two hands!
  • Make the font size bigger so people can see it at the back of the room. (Ctrl-+ on Windows/Linux or Cmd-+ on Mac)

Common questions after the demo​

It's a good idea to prepare answers for these questions:

  • What was your biggest challenge?
  • If you were starting from scratch would you change anything?
  • How did you test your app?
  • How does your app work on mobile devices?
  • Did you think about accessibility?

Prep your codebase​

  • Finally, make sure your README is filled out and presents your project clearly.
  • Make sure your repo is linked on your deployed site and your deployed site is linked on your repo.
  • Fork your group project to your personal Github and pin it to your profile.
  • Generally imagine that employers are now looking at your work: you are launching into the world!

There is more guidance on the Graduate Module