Customer Show + Tell: Quintin Smith on Managing Interactive Demos Through Feature Launch Frenzy

In our Customer Show + Tell series, we feature presentations from Navattic customers about how they're using interactive product demos. These talks were given initially at Navattic's User Event Meetup.

Quintin Smith, Product Marketing Lead at CaptivateIQ, shares how his team has developed a strategic approach to managing interactive demos amid rapid product evolution. As a commissions and sales planning software for operations teams, CaptivateIQ needed a systematic way to keep demos current with their frequent product and feature releases.

When I joined CaptivateIQ, we faced a common challenge for fast-growing startups: our product was evolving rapidly, making our interactive demos quickly outdated. This created inconsistent product experiences across the funnel.

We had a lot of out-of-date tours and inconsistent product interactions. Sometimes, there was surprise and delight in the sales cycle where features not shown in the interactive demo were actually available - not the worst problem, but it wasn't looking as professional as we'd like.

We struggled with three key questions:

• Which features warrant demo updates?
• Should we update existing tours or create new ones?
• Which channels should leverage which demo types?

As a four-year Navattic customer, interactive demos have become a critical component of our marketing and growth infrastructure, and a huge lead gen and MQL tool.

To maintain this value while keeping pace with product changes, we developed a three-part solution:

1. Establish a Product Launch Tiering Framework

We created a comprehensive go-to-market checklist that classifies product launches into three tiers:

• Tier 1: Major features requiring full marketing, sales, customer, and internal enablement
• Tier 2: Important updates needing sales, customer, and internal enablement without dedicated marketing
• Tier 3: Minor updates only requiring customer and internal communications

2. Align Interactive Demo Strategy with Feature Tiers

Each tier triggers specific demo actions:

• Tier 1 features: Create dedicated product tours (like Guided Plan Builder)
• Tier 2 features: Update evergreen CaptivateIQ Incentives Overview tour
• Tier 3 features: No demo updates required

3. Define Channel Strategy for Different Demo Types

We distribute our demos strategically across channels:

• Evergreen product tours: Featured on G2 listings, nurture tracks, core website pages, and shared after sales demos
• Feature-specific tours: Used in launch emails, product landing pages, sales enablement in Highspot, and outreach templates

This demo strategy has delivered results for both evergreen and feature-specific demos:

• Approximately 70 leads/MQLs generated monthly from our evergreen product tour
• Interactive demos are our highest-converting asset for new opportunities
• 30 net new leads generated from a single feature launch (CaptivateIQ Bonuses)

We're driving pipeline and revenue with these interactive demos. It's a core part of our strategy.

We structure our demos around three core value pillars:

• Seller transparency: Shows how sellers gain visibility into their pay, raise inquiries, understand dashboards, and simulate earnings with AI
• Admin efficiency: Demonstrates how admins can build commission plans more efficiently
• Performance insight: Illustrates how leadership gains insight and better understands plan performance

This structure allows us to use different flows for different personas and product pages across our site.

• Prioritize with purpose: A clear tiering system helps determine which features warrant demo updates
• Balance evergreen and feature-specific: Maintain a core demo for your main value props, with specialized demos for major launches
• Align with broader GTM: Ensure your demo strategy connects with your overall go-to-market approach
• Structure around value pillars: Organizing demos by core value props creates flexibility for different personas

Looking ahead, we're focused on expanding our approach with:

• Industry-specific vertical demos beyond our core SaaS use case
• Better data collection on demo impact across the funnel
• Continued refinement of our process for keeping demos aligned with our evolving product

We've always been centered on the SaaS use case that we started out supporting, but we really want to do a better job with industries.

This content was adapted from a presentation by Quintin Smith, Product Marketing Lead at CaptivateIQ.