Menlo's weekly "show and tell" meetings involve the client directly in the development process. By having clients demo the work and plan the next week's tasks, the team ensures continuous alignment and avoids the common pitfall of delivering a finished product that misses the mark after months of isolated work.
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Instead of guarding prototypes, build a library of high-fidelity, interactive demos and give sales and customer success teams free reign to show them to customers. This democratizes the feedback process, accelerates validation, and eliminates the engineering burden of creating one-off sales demos.
To make platform progress compelling for executives, avoid code demos. Instead, stage a "before and after" customer scenario. Team members can role-play as a customer and an agent to vividly show how a new API improves the experience or saves time.
Early demos shouldn't be used to ask, "Did we build the right thing?" Instead, present them to customers to test your core assumptions and ask, "Did we understand your problem correctly?" This reframes feedback, focusing on the root cause before investing heavily in a specific solution.
Dedicate a recurring 'Customer Day' not only for user interviews but for the team to step back from tactical work. Use this time to synthesize existing data, analyze market trends, and refocus on the core 'why' behind the product, preventing the team from getting lost in the weeds of feature development.
To prevent deal slippage, don't just present a timeline; co-create a mutual action plan with the client. This shared ownership makes them feel personally accountable and less likely to delay, as they would be breaking a joint commitment rather than just pushing a vendor's date.
Formal slide decks for sprint readouts invite a "judgment culture." Instead, use an "open house" format with work-in-progress on whiteboards. This frames the session as a collaborative build, inviting stakeholders to contribute rather than just critique.
To keep non-technical stakeholders engaged, don't show code or API responses. Instead, have team members role-play a customer scenario (e.g., a customer service call) to demonstrate the 'before' and 'after' impact of a new platform service. This makes abstract technical progress tangible and exciting.
To bridge the gap between a product's long-term vision and its current state, focus on "progress, not perfection." Deliver a quick, meaningful win for the customer—like a single workflow or integration—to build the trust and momentum needed for them to stay invested in the unfolding roadmap.
Endless internal meetings to align stakeholders often feel productive but generate zero real value. They become forums for individuals to 'win' arguments and feel correct. True progress only happens through customer interaction, as internal opinions are worthless until validated externally.
Executives crave predictability, which feels at odds with agile discovery. Bridge this gap by making your learning visible. A simple weekly update on tested assumptions, evidence found, and resulting decisions provides a rhythm of progress that satisfies their need for oversight without resorting to rigid plans.
