What will you do if it doesn't work on the first try? Second try? What's the backup plan? Hopefully you won't need it, but it will make you feel more confident.
Walk through a scenario where everything that could fail, fails. When do you stop trying? What do you switch to? How do you segway? Do you warn at the start of the demo, or just as you are about to do the thing you are worried about, or both? Is the audience technical, should you talk about the randomness or just say "it's somewhat random?" What are the important things to get across, even as things fail. If your brain starts going into panic mode; what are your top priorities?
The second way is to think about the positives of failing. During the on-stage Windows 98 launch party, the demo computer BSODed. Bill Gates quickly interjected with "I guess this is why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet", and everyone got a very memorable moment out of it. What are your one-liners to ease the mood and at the same time shift focus from the failure to the process of development?
Personally, I tend to say "let me try this..." right before I do something I'm not sure will work. If it doesn't do what I want, I (mostly calmly) acknowledge that it needs more work and describe what should happen in the finished product. Getting the word "finished" in there is my "not shipping yet." Then I move on to paint a picture of how the feature will be useful, and why it's worth continuing getting there.
I once saw a demo of a smoke detector. The demonstrator started talking about how much time they spent on making sure it gave no false positives. Then he took a can of fake smoke (used for testing smoke detectors, mind you) and nothing happened. He kept trying for at least a minute, but nothing. Was this a failed demo? Or did he demonstrate that there are no false positives? It's all in the framing of the recovery. I don't believe he had a recovery line, sadly, so I'm sure the part of the audience that didn't remember/listen to his initial speech had a very different take-away than did those who remembered.
What will you do if it doesn't work on the first try? Second try? What's the backup plan? Hopefully you won't need it, but it will make you feel more confident.
Walk through a scenario where everything that could fail, fails. When do you stop trying? What do you switch to? How do you segway? Do you warn at the start of the demo, or just as you are about to do the thing you are worried about, or both? Is the audience technical, should you talk about the randomness or just say "it's somewhat random?" What are the important things to get across, even as things fail. If your brain starts going into panic mode; what are your top priorities?
The second way is to think about the positives of failing. During the on-stage Windows 98 launch party, the demo computer BSODed. Bill Gates quickly interjected with "I guess this is why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet", and everyone got a very memorable moment out of it. What are your one-liners to ease the mood and at the same time shift focus from the failure to the process of development?
Personally, I tend to say "let me try this..." right before I do something I'm not sure will work. If it doesn't do what I want, I (mostly calmly) acknowledge that it needs more work and describe what should happen in the finished product. Getting the word "finished" in there is my "not shipping yet." Then I move on to paint a picture of how the feature will be useful, and why it's worth continuing getting there.
I once saw a demo of a smoke detector. The demonstrator started talking about how much time they spent on making sure it gave no false positives. Then he took a can of fake smoke (used for testing smoke detectors, mind you) and nothing happened. He kept trying for at least a minute, but nothing. Was this a failed demo? Or did he demonstrate that there are no false positives? It's all in the framing of the recovery. I don't believe he had a recovery line, sadly, so I'm sure the part of the audience that didn't remember/listen to his initial speech had a very different take-away than did those who remembered.
I wish you the best.