How To Nail Software Pet Project Demo: Free Tiers Only
Making Your MVP Showcase Look Brilliant Even if You’re Broke.
As a university student pursuing my Master’s in Data Science and working as a Data Engineer, my design and marketing skillset is obviously limited. However, that didn't deter our demanding teachers, who expected us to present "professionally looking marketing material" for our semester project—a realization of an innovative software idea. That's when LectureMate Telegram Bot came to life.
In a world full of AI hype, summarizing YouTube educational videos and having interactive discussions may not seem groundbreaking. But what really got me excited about this project idea was diving into a tech stack I’d been itching to try: AWS services, OpenAI API, and Telegram Bot.
Me and my team put in some work on the project and managed to implement a decent list of features before the end of the semester.
But it wasn’t enough to showcase a fully-functioning app; we needed captivating marketing material or a demo video. With a mix of tech student skepticism and girl curiosity, I saw it as a challenge rather than just another irrelevant to Data Science obligatory assignment.
So this article is about how I handled MVP showcasing without breaking the bank, using the magic of free tiers and fancy AI tricks.
It all began with the bot’s “/start” and “/help” commands. To ensure a smooth user experience, I used ChatGPT to refine my initial draft, providing functionality explanations.
Next on my list was a logo. I stumbled upon myfreelogomaker.com, a free logo generator. With just a few clicks, I had a range of logos to choose from, giving LectureMate a visual identity.
The biggest challenge was creating the video. Using my smartphone, I made a simple user story screen recording, showcasing the key functionalities of the bot — summarizing, chatting, the user’s personal video library, note-taking capabilities, etc.
To add a touch of professionalism, I turned to the free tier of app.typecast.ai, a voice generator that provided a human-like voiceover for the video. I created a text walkthrough for the screen recording and generated the voice audio absolutely for free.
For video editing, I relied on the freemium version of canva.com. With its user-friendly templates designed specifically for mobile screen recordings and intuitive drag-and-drop features, I was able to combine audio and video into a seamless product demo presentation.
With some creativity, patience, and determination, I managed to complete the entire project's market-presentable makeover in just 5 hours, without spending a single penny. As a first-time demo creator, I am incredibly satisfied with the results!
📹 Check out the LectureMate demo video!
With this post, I hope to encourage others to embrace experimentation and exploration! Don’t hesitate to leverage the incredible capabilities the Internet provides us for free :)
