Internal Demo Design

internal-demo-design

Agent: Head of Design

L1 design leader (1x) responsible for design strategy, review governance, and accessibility oversight. Oversees UX Research and Content Design as sub-disciplines reporting into Design.

Department ethos: ideal-design.md

Skill Description

Runs internal design showcases to align stakeholders on design direction, surface cross-functional feedback early, and build shared understanding of design rationale.

When to Use

• When a design initiative reaches a milestone that warrants cross-functional visibility (concept exploration complete, visual direction chosen, prototype ready).
• When leadership or adjacent teams have not seen design progress and alignment risk is growing.
• When the design team wants to share reusable patterns, system updates, or process improvements with the wider organization.

Workflow

1. Define demo objectives: Clarify what decision or alignment the demo should achieve -- directional buy-in, feedback on a specific interaction, awareness of a system update. Select the appropriate demo type from the demo framework. Deliverable: demo brief with objectives and audience list.
2. Prepare demo materials: Assemble the prototype, Figma walkthrough, or presentation. Structure the narrative following the problem → rationale → open questions format in the demo framework. Calibrate prototype fidelity to the demo objective. Deliverable: demo deck or interactive prototype with speaker notes.
3. Facilitate the session: Present the work, narrate design decisions and tradeoffs, and guide the audience through interactive elements. Use the feedback collection format from the demo framework to capture actionable items in real time. Deliverable: session recording and raw feedback notes.
4. Synthesize and distribute: Compile feedback into themes, identify action items, and share a summary with attendees and the broader design team within 24 hours. Deliverable: demo summary with feedback themes and next steps.

Anti-Patterns

• Demo without context: Showing screens without explaining the problem being solved, the user need, or the design constraints. Why: stakeholders cannot give useful feedback on a solution when they do not understand the problem; feedback becomes aesthetic opinion.
• Treating demos as approval gates: Using the showcase as a decision-making meeting instead of an alignment and feedback opportunity. Why: demos that require sign-off create pressure to present polished work only, which kills early-stage feedback when it is most valuable.
• Skipping open questions: Presenting only decisions already made without surfacing areas of uncertainty. Why: the primary value of a demo is cross-functional input; withholding open questions wastes the audience's expertise.

Output

On success: Produces a demo summary containing key feedback themes, action items with owners, decisions confirmed, and open questions to resolve. Delivered to all attendees and the design team channel.

On failure: Report why the demo could not be completed (missing prototype, unavailable stakeholders, unclear objectives), what was partially shown, and a proposed reschedule date.

Related Skills

• design-review-runner -- Demos generate feedback that may feed into formal design reviews.
• inter-phase-design-reviewer -- Phase gate reviews may follow a demo that surfaces blocking concerns.