Most developers now give a live demo, a sprint review or a technical interview over a video call every week. The code is usually fine. What goes wrong is the talking: losing your place, reading notes off to the side, or freezing when something breaks on screen.
These are the habits that helped me most.
1. Write talking points, not a script
A full script makes you sound like you are reading. Write one line per point instead:
- what this part shows
- the one thing to click
- the result people should notice
Three to five words per line is enough to remind you without pulling your eyes down for long.
2. Keep your notes near the camera
Where your notes sit matters more than what they say. If they are in a window at the side of the screen, people see your eyes move away every few seconds.
Put them as close to the camera as you can:
- Laptop: a narrow window at the top centre of the screen, just under the webcam.
- External camera: move the camera to the screen you read from, not the other way round.
- Shared screen: check that the notes window is not part of what you share. Share one app window rather than the whole screen, or use a tool that keeps notes out of the share. I use Glance, a free Mac teleprompter that sits under the camera and does not show in screen shares or recordings.
3. Prepare the demo state, not just the demo
Most broken demos break in the setup.
- Log in to every account before the call.
- Open each tab in the order you will use it.
- Use seed data that looks real but contains nothing private.
- Turn off notifications, and close chat apps and email.
- Raise your font size: 16px code is hard to read in a compressed video stream.
4. Plan what to do when it breaks
Something will fail at some point. Decide in advance:
- A short line to say: "That's a network issue. Let me show you the result I recorded earlier."
- A fallback: a screenshot or a 30-second recording of each key step, in a folder you can open in one click.
- A time limit: if a fix takes more than a minute, move on and follow up in writing.
People remember how you handled the problem more than the problem itself.
5. For technical interviews, practise out loud
Reading your answer in your head is not practice. Record yourself answering the common questions:
- "Tell me about a project you're proud of."
- "Describe a bug that took you a long time to find."
- "How would you design this?"
Play the recording back once. Most people find they talk too fast, skip the result, or never say what they did themselves. A simple structure such as situation, task, action, result keeps answers short.
6. End with one clear next step
Close a demo with what you need: a review, a decision, or a date. Close an interview by asking what the next stage is and when you will hear back. Then write it down while the call is fresh.
None of this needs special software. Good notes in the right place, a prepared demo and a plan for failure cover most of what makes a call feel calm.
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