Satire
The Demo That Became the Product
It was never meant to go to production. The CTO saw it on a Tuesday.
The team built a demo over a weekend. Internal innovation showcase. Forty slides, one working prototype, free pizza.
It was not meant to go anywhere.
What Actually Happens
The CTO sees it. Mentions it in the all-hands. The all-hands slide is screenshotted and shared on LinkedIn by three people who were not in the room. A client asks the account manager about it. The account manager says "we're actively developing that." The pitch deck is updated. A timeline is requested.
The demo backend is a hardcoded JSON file. The authentication is a shared password written in a comment in the code. There are no tests. The team that built it over a weekend is now being asked for a roadmap. No one has told them they own a product. No one has resourced them to build one.
The first delivery milestone is in eight weeks.
“This demo has zero acceptance criteria, no definition of done, and is now the flagship product. I've added it to the backlog. It has no story points because I cannot estimate something that should not exist.”
DivineForge Advisory
Recognise this pattern in your organisation? I help teams cut through the governance, make the right technical calls, and actually ship.
Let's talk architecture →How a Builder Should Respond
You set the context for any demo, in writing, before it is shown — what it is, what it is not, and what would need to happen before it could become a product. If leadership runs past that framing, you resurface it immediately with a cost attached: here is the gap between what was shown and what ships, here is what it takes to close it, here is the decision that needs to be made. A demo shown without a productionisation cost is an unpriced commitment. Price it before someone else prices it for you.
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