How to Run a Demo Inventory That Keeps Every Demo Current

A demo that no longer matches the product is worse than no demo. A visitor clicks through, signs up, and finds a different screen. Demos go stale one release at a time, and nobody notices until a customer asks why the button moved.

For more on this topic, read Interactive Demo Software with HTML Capture.

This post is about the process around a growing set of demos. The inventory, the owners, the release check and retiring old demos. For the hands-on fix to a single demo after a release, see how to keep demos up to date after a UI change.

Short Answer

Keep one inventory of every live demo with its placement, flow and owner, tie a check to each release, and retire demos nobody links to.

1. Keep an inventory of demos, placements, flows and owners.
2. At each release, flag demos whose flows changed and hand them to their owners.
3. Retire or merge demos that no longer earn their place.

Why Maintenance Is Harder than It Looks

• Nobody owns the demos after launch.
• The release notes do not mention which demos are affected.
• Rebuilding a whole demo feels like too much, so nothing happens.

Keep an Inventory

A short table is enough.

Check at Each Release

• Read the release notes against the "Flow covered" column.
• Open each affected demo in preview.
• Note which steps differ from the product.

Replace Steps, Not Demos

Most releases change a few screens. The owner replaces those steps and republishes to the same link, so every embed updates. The step-by-step fix, including when to edit text in place and when to record again, is in how to keep demos up to date after a UI change.

Let the Brand Kit Handle Visual Changes

If the change is your branding rather than the product, edit the brand kit. On Proovyt's Creator, Pro and Team plans, linked demos pick it up with nothing to republish.

An Illustrative Worked Example

This example is hypothetical. A release moves the export button from a menu to the toolbar.

1. The inventory shows two demos include export.
2. The inventory names one owner for both, and the release check hands them the change.
3. The owner replaces the affected step's screenshot in each demo, checks the hotspots, and keeps the callouts.
4. They republish. Both embeds update in place.

The Old Way Versus a Better Way

A 30-Day Rollout Plan

Week 1. Build the inventory. List every live demo, where it is embedded or linked, the flow it covers and who owns it. Search your site, help center and sales templates for demo links. You may find demos that nobody remembers making.

Week 2. Retire and consolidate. Unpublish demos that nobody links to. Where two demos cover the same flow, keep the better one and point both placements at it. Fewer demos means less to check at every release.

Week 3. Fix what is stale. Open each remaining demo in preview next to the live product. Replace the steps that differ. Republish each one to its existing link.

Week 4. Make it routine. Add a line to your release checklist that says "check demos for changed flows," with a link to the inventory. Agree who reads the release notes against it.

Signs a Demo Has Gone Stale

• A support ticket mentions a screen that does not match the demo.
• Completion drops after a release, with no change to the demo itself.
• Callouts describe a button by a name the product no longer uses.
• The sample data shows dates from long ago.

Questions to Ask Before You Start

Answer these before recording. They take a few minutes and prevent most rework.

• Do we know every place a demo is embedded or linked?
• Who reads the release notes against the demo inventory?
• Which demos cover flows that change most often?
• Which demos could be retired because nobody links to them?
• Is every demo linked to the brand kit, so visual changes need no work?

Where Proovyt Fits (Full Disclosure)

Proovyt is an interactive demo tool, and this is our blog.

• Replace a step's screenshot in the inspector. The hotspot, callout and blur stay where they were.
• Republishing keeps the link, and unpublishing takes a retired demo down at once.
• On Creator, Pro and Team, linked demos follow brand kit changes without republishing.
• On Team, owners and admins see every demo in the workspace, which makes the inventory easier to check.
• Every edit can be undone and redone.

Proovyt has no reusable screens yet, so a screen used in two demos is updated in each. See the product page.

Related Reading

Related reading on this blog covers the next steps. Start with measuring demo drop-off to see which demos need attention first, and screenshot hygiene for the review that runs before every publish. Both apply to every demo you keep live, whatever its placement.

Common Mistakes

• No inventory, so nobody knows which demos to check.
• Rebuilding whole demos for one changed screen.
• Publishing a new link and leaving old embeds pointing at the stale version.
• No owner per demo.

The Bottom Line

Maintenance is a short check at each release, not a rebuild. Keep the inventory, replace the changed steps, and republish to the same link.