Demo Review & Coaching Guide

Most demo feedback sounds like "good job" or "that felt long." Neither one tells an SE what to do differently next time. This guide replaces the gut-feel version with a rubric, a review process, and a coaching conversation built to change behavior, not just record an opinion.

Use this in three steps

Score your own demo before anyone else does. Self-critique is a skill, and the SEs who improve fastest are the ones who build it. Then let the coach check your work. Then, if you want a human in the loop, that part is free too.

1. Self-assess with the worksheet. Watch your recording with the rubric open, score all seven dimensions, and write down your evidence with timestamps.
2. Run it through the Demo Review Coach. A free Claude skill built from how I review demos. It scores the tape, compares its read to yours, and coaches on the gap.
3. Send it to me. Worksheet, transcript, and ideally the recording. You get an hour of live coaching, free. Details below.

What's inside the guide

Seven sections, from the thinking behind the rubric to a scorecard you fill out as you go.

• The philosophy: three principles to keep in view while you watch and score, including why a demo should play like a Lego set built for the room in front of you, not a scripted monologue
• The scoring rubric: seven dimensions, from discovery and framing to call control, each scored 1 to 5 with a plain description of what weak and strong actually look like
• How to run the review: watch with the rubric open, timestamp what jumps out, and land on one strength and one focus before you ever open your mouth
• The coaching conversation: how to lead with what worked, balance the positives against the criticism, and end every session with a specific next rep instead of just a score
• An SE self-audit checklist: a shorter version SEs run on their own recordings between coaching sessions, so review time goes to the harder stuff
• Common failure patterns and fixes: the patterns that show up again and again, each with a one-line fix
• A fillable scorecard: the whole rubric in an appendix you fill out and save per demo, or print

The Demo Review Coach: an AI coach built from how I coach

The worksheet gives you the rubric. The skill gives you the coach. I turned the way I review demos into a skill Claude can run: evidence-cited scores across all seven dimensions, every genuine strength named, and exactly one focus for next time. Not a pile-on. Not a compliment sandwich. A coaching conversation.

Bring your self-scored worksheet and it does something no generic AI prompt will: it compares your read of the demo to what the tape shows, and coaches on the difference. The gap between those two scores is where you grow.

Installing it takes about a minute:

1. Download the .skill file below.
2. Open Claude (web or desktop), go to Settings, find Skills under Capabilities, and upload the file. Claude Code users can unzip it into ~/.claude/skills instead.
3. Start a chat and say "review my demo." Attach your worksheet and the transcript. The coach takes it from there.

It runs in your Claude, on your data. Nothing comes back to me unless you send it. Works best on Claude Sonnet or better.

Step 3: Get my eyes on it. Free.

The coach is built from how I review demos. It's still not me in the room. So here's the offer: send me your self-scored worksheet, the call transcript, and ideally a way to watch the recording, and I'll give you an hour. Live, one on one, free. We'll walk the tape together, compare your scores to mine, and you'll leave with one focus for your next demo.

Why free? Every review makes the worksheet and the coach sharper. And this is the part of the job I love.

Ground rules, so there's no fine print: your call stays private, and nothing you send gets shared anywhere. If a pattern from your review would improve these tools, I'll anonymize it and ask you first. Recordings get deleted after we're done. I take two of these a week, so if the week is full, you're at the front of next week's line.

Claim your free review

Want a second set of eyes on how your whole team demos? Book an intro call and I'll walk through it with you.