Anna Decroix: Can you provide a brief introduction to your background and experience in the technology industry?

Ian Goldstein: I’ve been in the technology industry for a long time and have learned a lot from my time at some of the most important enterprise software companies out there, from BEA Systems (remember WebLogic Server?) to Oracle to Salesforce. I love the whole process of using software to alleviate customer pain points, from understanding the users’ problems to developing the right architecture to building a stable and maintainable solution. I’ve even picked up a couple of patents along the way :)

Anna Decroix:What motivated you to take on the role of Technology Advisor of the Board at Demoboost?

Ian Goldstein:This role gives me the opportunity to leverage all my experience and help the team deliver something amazing to its customers. I come to the table with practical knowledge around designing and developing usable APIs, building scalable solutions, creating enjoyable user interactions, making tricky build vs. buy decisions, designing for extensibility, platform considerations and more.

‍Anna Decroix: What aspects of Demoboost's mission and vision resonated with you and motivated you to join the team?

Ian Goldstein:I like the strong focus on improving the sales process by focussing on the buyer’s experience. This mirrors my own focus, when building software, on really understanding the users’ problems first.

Anna Decroix: Demoing diverse software products can be a challenging task. What, in your view, makes this process particularly difficult?

Ian Goldstein:The challenge lies in the diversity of software architectures. Each product is crafted uniquely, with intricate code structures and design philosophies. Capturing this wide range of coding intricacies becomes daunting, leading to inconsistencies in displaying elements reliably across different demos. Furthermore, nuances in how features are implemented can vary greatly, making it difficult to ensure a consistent and seamless demonstration experience for users. Balancing these complexities requires a deep understanding of software code and might need some personalised tweaks to make sure the final demo is 100% accurate.

Anna Decroix: Out-of-the-box demo platforms exist, but not all software products can be reliably represented using them. What, in your experience, are the key limitations of such platforms?

Ian Goldstein:Yes, there are common obstacles when showcasing a wide range of software products. Out-of-the-box demo solutions often result in certain screen elements not displaying correctly. Some drop-downs may not be visible, and screens or fonts may not scale correctly. These are just a few examples, but the overarching issue is that out-of-the-box demos may not accurately reflect the product being demonstrated 100%.

Anna Decroix: Software products often have unique functionalities. Is there a systemic solution there?

Ian Goldstein:Certainly! At Demoboost, we recognize the inherent challenge in accurately capturing the unique functionalities of diverse software products. To address this challenge, we've embarked on a collaborative effort to develop a next-generation capture mechanism. This innovative solution goes beyond traditional methods by incorporating intelligent learning algorithms.

The capture process now involves an additional step where the system meticulously analyzes the intricacies of each screen. Through this analysis, the system gains insights into the specific architecture and functionality of the software being demonstrated. These insights are then used to tailor settings and configurations for each specific tool.

By customizing settings based on the nuances of each software product, we ensure that future demo captures are highly accurate and reliable. This means that users can expect a consistent and precise demonstration experience every time they interact with the software, regardless of its complexity or uniqueness.

Our goal is to empower users with the confidence that they are experiencing the software exactly as it was intended, without any compromises or inaccuracies. Through continuous refinement and learning, our capture mechanism evolves to adapt to new software architectures and functionalities, ensuring that our demos remain at the forefront of accuracy and reliability.

Anna Decroix: How do you strike a balance between providing customized demos for specific products and maintaining scalability for a wide range of offerings?

Ian Goldstein:I favor extension over customization. Developing the right extensible model can be challenging but I want to prevent getting caught in the deep, dark pit of managing and maintaining one-off customizations!

Anna Decroix:What considerations should be taken into account when aiming for a solution that can handle both depth and breadth in software product demonstrations?

Ian Goldstein:We have to understand the breadth of software products we want to enable our users to demo so that we build the right foundation, but I believe that once we understand that, we have to go deep enough to enter the conversation with buyers, and that means we have to deliver a compelling set of features.