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Ask HN: Should we demo a half-baked product?

4 points by jammur ↗ HN
I'm working with an early stage startup, and one of the co-founders wants to demo our mobile app to potential customers in a focus group type setting. A few of the people we might demo to will have significant input into volume purchasing decisions within their organization.

However, our mobile app, iPad to be specific, is at best half-baked. UI is essentially non existent from a design standpoint. I would say functionality is about 30%, but enough to just barely get the point across. Design wise, it's less than 10%.

The co-founder is under the impression that if you're a startup, it's perfectly fine to demo with a "relatively half-assed" (his words) product, under the assumption that it will be refined at a later time.

In my opinion, if you are demoing to potential customers, you should have something that will impress them (even if not 100% complete), and not rely on them assuming it will get better (and by better, I mean getting to a point where it's actually useable).

My question is, am I wrong? Or is it worth it to take the extra time to create a great first impression?

5 comments

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dglassan
I know this isn't the best answer but it really depends on what your product does. If your product is the kind of groundbreaking technology that the potential customers will understand right away how it will impact their company (high efficiencies/lower costs/increased customers), then I would say demo the product...ONLY if the core functionality is built. If the main purpose of your product isn't working properly yet then you may want to hold off.

If you anticipate that it might take the potential customer some time to fully comprehend how it will benefit their company, I would wait until you can polish the UI some more. A better designed and thought out UI will make it much easier for a potential client to understand the true benefit of your product.

I know it's a little vague because I don't know exactly what it is you are building but I hope that helps

user24
I agree with you. If the product is as flaky as you suggest, then by all means get them together for a concept discussion with some slides mocking up the functionality, but when they see the product, they'll need to be very understanding to be impressed by a half-baked demo, in my opinion.

'this is x' is more powerful than 'this will be x', because 'will' really means 'might' and introduces doubt, whereas 'is' is concrete and undeniable.

You know that adding pretty logos is simple stuff, and that the real challenge is in integrating the data feed quickly enough, but your customer very often just assumes that the functionality will be there, and only worries about the flashy cruft. Get the flashy cruft right! I think it's easier to sell a product that looks great but does nothing than a product which does loads but looks terrible.

Breakfast
I have to agree with this. The customer/buyer is going to be looking at it from the perspective of their own users experience and will be mostly interested in how it will enhance their workflow. I'm in a similar position. I want some early feedback but don't have the whole backend settled yet. So I'm just going to dummy up some backend data and processes and present them onscreen to get the concept across. Once they've got the concept, they can be instrumental in designing what the processes and presentation will actually be. I mean hell, if I can't even explain/sell the concept, I've got the wrong idea or the wrong audience. Invaluable knowledge at this stage.
PonyGumbo
>A few of the people we might demo to will have significant input into volume purchasing decisions within their organization.

Based on this alone, I'd say it's a bad idea.

znt
I remember reading about releasing a "Half Product" rather than a "Half Assed Product" at 37Signals Get Real book. It made sense to me at that time, maybe you should give it a look too.