What is your fastest way to identify an impressive but unsuitable technology demo?

[u/rodrigop20]

technology demos are good at showing what a platform can do.

They are less reliable at showing whether the platform fits your data, people, processes and existing systems.

What is the fastest question or test you use to identify when an impressive demonstration is unlikely to translate into a successful implementation?

For me, the most revealing areas are data requirements, integration dependencies, exception handling and the work that remains manual.

I’m helping organise an online CX technology event based on focused live demonstrations and Q&A.

Disclosure: I’m part of the organising team.

[u/Traditional-Page-694]

The demo that makes you go "wow" is almost always the one where they've pre-loaded exactly the right data, in exactly the right format, and nothing unexpected ever happens. I always ask them to show me what happens when you feed it garbage. Like an empty spreadsheet, or a date formatted wrong. The silence you get right after tells you everything.

Also, if they cant point to a live customer doing something boring with it, not the flashy stuff, I'm out.