Demos only when necessary

Let’s be honest. Teams don’t always have something big to showcase every sprint. Without substantive demos, the sprint reviews become a formality and a reporting exercise. Take a pragmatic approach to sprint reviews instead.

• Every cycle, create a report of what the team has achieved. This can include the stories on the project management system, your delivery and tech metrics and screenshots or video snippets where applicable. 

• Encourage stakeholders to look through the reports asynchronously on the project wiki and respond with feedback.

This helps you avoid boring sprint review meetings that are merely a status update. Buy that time back for deep work and meet only when you have something substantial to showcase.

If you have something big to showcase - for example, a new capability in the system; organise a full-blown demo. Make these proper showbiz events. Plan for them, and get as much attendance as possible. They’re as much an opportunity for the team to celebrate as one to show off what you’ve accomplished! 

You should aim to do such demos once, every four to six weeks, but the key is to time them in a way that you can show off something you’re proud of as a team.