Lessons from the Workshop
The demo is not the evidence.
A working demo proves the thing can be built. It says almost nothing about whether it should be.
By Michael O'Callaghan ·
Building is now cheap enough that a convincing demo can be produced before anyone has been forced to think clearly. That's a genuine gain and a genuine hazard.
The hazard is that a demo generates conviction out of proportion to what it tested. It feels like progress because it is visible, and visibility is what boards and teams reward.
Evidence is different. Evidence is someone changing their behaviour — paying, switching, returning, complaining when it breaks. A demo can be admired by people who would never use it.
So I ask a blunt question of every build: what would we have to observe for this to be wrong? If there's no answer, we've built a rehearsal, not an experiment.