Reverse Demo: How to Stress-Test Your Product Before You Launch

Émilie Carignan
May 21
4 min read

“Ship it. The market will tell you what’s working.”

It’s true, but only partly.

You don’t need a landing page, a free trial, or a go-to-market plan to validate your idea. And if you wait for that level of polish, you might miss the window when feedback is most useful: when the product is still malleable.

What you do need is a way to watch people interact with what you’ve built (or what you’re thinking of building), before you fully commit.

A way to stress-test it in the real world, quickly.

That’s where Reverse Demos come in.

TL;DR: What is a Reverse Demo?

A Reverse Demo flips the traditional demo on its head.

Instead of sharing your screen and walking through a polished pitch, you ask your prospect to share their screen and try to complete a real task inside your product.

You’re there to observe. See how they navigate, where they get stuck, what they ignore, what they assume.

This gives you a fast way to get real, unfiltered insights at whether your product actually solves the problem and how real users experience it.

You’re the expert on the solution. They’re the expert on the problem. A Reverse Demo tells you if those two things really meet.

Use Reverse Demos before you’re ready

You don’t need to wait until your product is “launchable” to start using this technique.

In fact, Reverse Demos are most powerful when you’re not sure whether you’re solving the right problem, or whether your approach actually makes sense.

I’ve seen early-stage teams use Reverse Demos to:

Validate a prototype or hacked-together MVP
Test a new feature in progress
Pressure-test their early messaging and positioning
Understand how their ICP actually works and thinks

Nothing will clarify your roadmap like watching someone try to solve their problem in your product. The silences, the clicks, the confusion: they’re all part of the feedback.

But Reverse Demos aren’t for every situation.

Don’t use one if:

Your product takes more than 15–20 minutes to show clear value
The setup is complex or too technical for your ICP
There are too many use cases for one person to follow the thread
The value only emerges after onboarding, data integration, or team-wide adoption

In those cases, the signal will be noisy. You’ll either overwhelm the person or misinterpret their struggle.

Reverse Demos work best when they’re focused, fast, and grounded in a real task your ICP already wants to solve.

How it works (and how to run one well)

I’ve used this method both ways as the person doing the observing, and the one trying the product and every single time, it’s revealed something a classic pitch would’ve hidden.

Here’s how to make it work:

1. Set it up

This isn’t a public launch. You don’t need a whole onboarding flow.

You just need to create a testable version of your core product interaction:

A sandbox account with dummy data
A clickable prototype
A barebones build that lets the user move through 1–2 flows

Keep it simple. Send access before the call. Hit record.

2. Start with context, not a pitch

You’re not here to convince them.

You’re here to learn.

Start by reminding them of the pain they shared with you. Then give them a simple mission:

“You mentioned you struggle to export this report for your manager, try doing that here.”

Then sit back. Let them go.

It will feel awkward. You’ll want to jump in. Don’t.

That confusion? That silence? It’s the good stuff.

3. Observe, guide, and dig into the why

Your job is to notice what they do and what they don’t.

Use lightweight questions to surface assumptions:

“What are you trying to do here?”
“Why did you expect that to be there?”
“What would you usually do at this point?”

You’re not just testing usability. You’re learning how they think. What they expect. What they value. What frustrates them.

4. Keep it short, make it safe

20 minutes is plenty.

But don’t underestimate the emotional context.

People tense up when they feel like they’re being tested. You want the opposite.

Set the tone:

“There’s no right way to do this. I just want to understand how you’d approach the task.”

Once they feel safe, they start thinking out loud. That’s when you get the gold.

After the session: go deeper

Once they’ve completed the task, ask just one powerful question:

“What would you normally do next?”

This opens up the use case. It shows you where this task sits in their workflow. It surfaces hidden constraints, collaboration needs, export preferences, and more.

From there, you can probe:

Who would you share this with?
Why that format?
What’s missing from what you just did?

This part often reveals more than the demo itself.

It’s where you move from testing product functionality to understanding product relevance.

Reverse Demos = The tightest feedback loop you’ll find

Reverse Demos work because they collapse the distance between intention and reality.

All without the distortion of a pitch or the bias of a pre-framed demo.

When done well, they create not just feedback, but engagement.

Every time I’ve run one, both as the person giving and receiving Reverse Demos, I’ve walked away with clearer insights and stronger conviction.

What to remember

If you take one thing from this:

Your prospect is the expert on the problem.
Let them show you how they approach it.
Feedback is clearest in motion.
Don’t rely on what people say. Watch what they do.
You don’t need polish. You need clarity.
And clarity comes from observing real behavior, early.

I saw this done incredibly well by Toni from LandingRabbit. When I tested his product during a Reverse Demo, he didn’t pitch. He listened. The product was early, but the experience felt grounded in real use. My feedback wasn’t just heard it shaped what came next. I’ve been using LandingRabbit ever since. It’s a perfect example of how a well-done Reverse Demo can drive both insight and engagement.

Like he says: “Reverse demos are fascinating. I guess they can be really terrifying if people don’t get the product, but in our case, people were commenting on things we were planning already. It gave us more confidence that we are not fully lost.”

Thanks Toni!

Em.