War Camp Demo 🔥

tl;dr

Bi-weekly presentation of the dope shit we do in DAOhaus. Every other Friday we will present what has been completed in the previous iteration to other DAO members and the larger community.

Issues We Are Attempting to Address

  • Too much alpha in :house_with_garden: War Camp Monday meeting
  • Provide handoffs for completed work
  • Transparency with the community
  • Celebrate our accomplishments

Potential Concerns

Overlap with Monday Meeting

Some of the information is what has previously been shared in the Monday :house_with_garden: War Camp meetings. Ideally this will free up some time in that meeting to allow more space for planning and coordination.

Another Damn Meeting

Unfortunately, this adds another recurring meeting to our calendars. Our hope is that this Demo becomes something we all actually look forward to. A way to share what we are working on, connect the dots between workstreams and celebrate the dope shit that we do.

NGMI at This Time

That is completely understandable. And many may not be able to attend. Rather than spending weeks trying to coordinate an optimized time I am just gonna YOLO and see how it goes. The selected time is meant to be a bookmark to the end of the week. A way to wrap things up and allow us to shift gears. Unfortunately it favors one side of the globe and we can work together to address this problem moving forward.

Will Take Time to Prepare

We do not want to reduce BUIDL time preparing for the meeting. But we also do not want to diminish the importance of sharing our efforts. Hopefully, each Circle will be able to find a way to make documenting what is considered done into their existing processes that do not require a bunch of meeting preparation and the end of the week.

Will Suck at First

We will probably fumble through the first few Demos. And it will be a pain in the ass getting ready for them. But as we learn we iterate and will soon have good processes in place that result in a cool presentation.

Audience is Unaware of Context

Please remember that humans attending the meeting may be completely clueless about what we are working on and how it fits into the bigger picture. This is a good opportunity for Circles to figure out how to share the stories of their effort in meaningful ways.

Some Work is Hard to See

The nature of the work that we do can make it difficult to share. Showing Solidity code or operational processes can be difficult to make interesting to present to an audience. Circles will continuously get better at finding creative ways to demonstrate what has been completed.

Only Demo Work That is Done

This is not the time to share work in progress or an idea that is half baked. The only stories demoed should be completed effort. It may be a small piece of a bigger puzzle but it should be done. This may also help teams break down their work into more meaningful chunks.

Murphy’s law

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

Live demos of software frequently explode. We all know this and it is okay. Having a forcing factor that gets us to those failures quicker actually benefits the entire community and provides opportunities for us all to work together to solve problems that arise.

Demonstrating Results

Being asked to demonstrate work is a strong motivator. Having a demo motivates teams to get things done.

The iteration demo builds trust and accountability between Circles and the DAO.

Preparing for the Demo

The secret to successful demo meetings lies in preparation.

Circles sow the seeds for a successful demo in iteration planning. Teams should continuously be trying to figure out how user stories and the work they complete can be demonstrated to others.

Who Attends the Demo

Everyone in the community is invited to attend. Hopefully, we can get to a place where all core contributors look forward to participating.

Circles can view the demo as an opportunity to demonstrate what they’ve built to other Circles as well as the wider DAO community. Members can also invite other stakeholders who may be interested in the content to the demo.

Finalize the Running Order

  • Welcome
  • Paladins
  • Alchemists
  • Magesmiths
  • Rangers
  • Discuss
  • Celebrate

On the last day of the iteration, Circles need to develop a drill for getting ready to run the demo meeting. Remind the team about this at your Standup meetings. Here are some things they can do to prepare:

  • Clarify which stories are complete and ready to demo
  • Decide on a running order for presenting the stories
  • Agree who will be presenting which stories
  • Organize a run-through to rehearse the demo
  • It is critical that each circles demo not exceed 10 minutes

Technical Setup

The last thing we want are technical issues spoiling the demo. We will use a Discord voice channel to allow screen sharing and identify a way to record the meetings so members who were not able to attend have access to the content.

Everyone Plays a Part

Circles should start their part with an introduction of the customer. This can be users, Circles or other DAOs. Be clear about who you are solving for. Who does your work create value for. Provide an overview of the goal of the iteration and the work that was prioritized.

Be clear about any work that is not ready to demo. This helps maintain the focus on what is being demonstrated.

Next, it’s the turn of the team to present the work. Encourage each team member to take their share of the limelight in iteration demos, but do not force it. Each Circle should decide who presents what in the meeting.

During the demonstration, ensure that feedback, both positive and negative, is captured.

Before the meeting ends, review the main points of feedback with the group to check that none has been missed. Suggestions for enhancements or new features will feed future planning sessions.

After the meeting, make sure your Circle creates new user stories for suggested improvements.

After a successful demo, we should celebrate what we have achieved!

If things do not go well, Circles should discuss what went wrong in their retrospectives.