Monthly Challenge for July, 2021:Let's demoing in public, let's show our work!
During this month, the idea is to learn to communicate around a project as you demo it, show the finished product or show the finished parts, give confidence and learn to be proud of any progress made.
Theme
Let's demo in public!
Goals
- Define and set goals: decide what you want to share, define what is the scope and the result you want to reach at the end of the month.
- Start working: once your demo project is defined you can start considering your demo plans. Share and celebrate your progress!
- Reach your goal: can you present to a group in VC? Would you prefer to pre-record it? Pick your demo method and make a commitment for the final week.
- Present: Synchronously or async. See explanation below.
Weekly check-ins- Are you hitting your goals?
Monday of each week, set the goals for that week and by Friday review/check-in with those goals. We will be using the slack channel for this purpose.
Demo Days - Final Week
There will be two ways for participants to demo their projects:
- Synchronously - A Zoom meetup will be held for members who wish to demo their project to the VC community. You will need to register by the end of week 3 with the monthly challenge team.
- Asynchronously - You will be able to share your pre-recorded demos on the #monthly-challenge Slack channel, using Loom for example (check this example).
Who can participate?
Virtual Coffee's goal is to support all developers, no matter where they are in their coding journey. We encourage all members to participate. This challenge can be done alone or in a group.
How to share my progress?
Share your progress in the #monthly-challenge channel in Slack. While no other platform is imposed, it can be a good idea to also share on social media for more reach but only if you are comfortable to do so (Twitter using -or not- the hashtag #VCMonthlyChallenge, a personal blog, a post on DEV.to, you get the idea)
Sharing every time some work is added is a good idea, small progress is still progress. No need to write a detailed blog post: a 140 characters Tweet can be enough. For example:"Today I added some styling. I used Bootstrap and implemented some cards to display the users in the home page".
What if I need help?
You can ask a question in the #help-and-pairing VC channel, get 1:1 help during Office Hours (check #office-hours channel), join the VC co-working room. Asking for help is part of the process!
And remember, we're always here to help ❤️
Tips for Demoing
Before you start:
- Test the exact workflow(s) you are planning to demo
- Prepare all the environments you need for the demo
- Close potential distractions such as Slack or email programs
- Test your mic and camera
- Prepare some notes about what you want to say during the demo
- If you are demoing synchronously, make sure you have a good internet connection
- If you are on a larger screen, make sure that code is large enough, and visuals zoomed enough, to be easy to read on smaller screens
Check out this demoof one of our members preparing for a demo