Arena · Paper 02 · 14 min
Demo-first or die
Architecture is a Sunday luxury. The happy path, spoken out loud, with a backup recording, is Friday night's only job.
If it is not in the demo, it does not exist. If the demo depends on the building, it does not exist either.
Thesis
Why this paper exists
The most common way to lose is not a bad idea. It is a true idea that never quite appears in the three minutes you were given.
- Write the demo script before the data model
- Build only what the script points at
- Carry a backup that does not need the venue
Script is the spec
On Friday night, write the three-minute script as if the product already works. Opening sentence. The one action the judge will remember. The turn — the moment the constraint becomes the feature. The last line, which is the corridor sentence.
Then highlight every claim in the script that needs a running surface. Those highlights are the only tickets. Everything else is a hobby.
The building is not your friend
Venue Wi‑Fi, venue projectors, venue accounts, venue power — all of these have betrayed better teams than yours. The professional hack is a local demo and a filmed happy path. Showing a film is not shameful. Claiming a live demo and dying on a spinner is.
If you must be live, be live on a phone hotspot you control, with the tab already warm, with a teammate who only exists to press one key.
Stillness
Judges cannot parse motion. They can parse a still frame with one number, one name, one before/after. Design that frame on Saturday morning. It is also your fallback slide, your tweet, and the thing the photographer will take.
Motion is for you. Stillness is for them.
Drill
Write a three-minute script for a project you have not built. Highlight the claims. Count the tickets. If there are more than five, the script is lying about the weekend.
Knowledge check