From Frustration to Innovation: The DemoPenguin Story

Every great product starts with a problem. For me, it was the countless hours spent coding and recoding onboarding flows for Gridlock, our storage facility management software. This is the story of how that frustration led to DemoPenguin. 🐧

The Breaking Point

It was 2:00 AM on a Tuesday night in March 2023. I was knee-deep in React components, trying to update our onboarding flow for the fifth time that month. Our latest user feedback had shown that storage facility managers needed more guidance on our inventory tracking feature. There I was, yet again, modifying dialog components, managing state, and plotting user progress through our application.

// What I was tired of writing for the 100th time
const OnboardingDialog = ({ step, onNext, onClose }) => {
  const [userProgress, setUserProgress] = useState({})
  const [hasSeenFeature, setHasSeenFeature] = useState(false)
  
  useEffect(() => {
    // Complex logic to track user progress
    // State management for different user types
    // Conditional rendering based on user actions
    // ... and so much more boilerplate
  }, [step])
 
  return (
    <Dialog>
      {/* Pages of conditional rendering */}
    </Dialog>
  )
}

The Lightbulb Moment

While building Gridlock, I realized something crucial: the people who knew our users best (our product team) couldn't modify the onboarding experience without going through me. Every tiny change needed developer intervention:

"Can we change this welcome message?"
"Users are confused at step 3, can we add more context?"
"We need to highlight this new feature!"

Each request, no matter how small, required:

Code changes
Testing
Deployment
Hoping we got it right

I thought to myself: "There has to be a better way. Why can't we manage these flows like we manage content in a CMS?"

From Gridlock to DemoPenguin

That night, I started sketching out what would become DemoPenguin. The core idea was simple:

// The dream: One component to rule them all
 
import {DemoPenguin} from "demo-penguin"
 
export default function RootLayout({
  children,
}: Readonly<{
  children: React.ReactNode;
}>) {
  return (
    <html lang="en">
      <body>
        <DemoPenguin 
          clientToken="client-token"
          userInfo={{
            userId: "user-id",
            userFirstName: "John",
            userLastName: "Doe",
            userEmail: "john.doe@example.com",
            userType: "admin",
          }}
          variables={{
            [key: string]: string;
          }}
        >
          {children}
        </DemoPenguin>
      </body>
    </html>
  );
}

One component. Zero state management. All onboarding flows managed through a dashboard.

Early Validation

I showed the first prototype to other founders in the SaaS space. Their responses were unanimous:

"Wait, you mean our product team could update the onboarding without bugging developers?"

"We literally just spent two sprints rewriting our onboarding..."

"This would have saved us months of development time!"

Building for Developers, by Developers

As a developer myself, I knew what I wanted:

Simple Integration
- One NPM install
- One additional clientside component
- Zero boilerplate

Flexible Architecture

     <DemoPenguin 
       clientToken="client-token"
       userInfo={{
         userId: "user-id",
         userFirstName: "John",
         userLastName: "Doe",
         userEmail: "john.doe@example.com",
         userType: "admin",
       }}
       variables={{
         [key: string]: string;
       }}
     >
       <YourApp />
     </DemoPenguin>

Developer Experience
- TypeScript support out of the box
- Detailed documentation
- Minimal runtime overhead

The Impact on Gridlock

Gridlock became DemoPenguin's first customer. The results were immediate:

Product team now manages all onboarding flows
Development time saved: 15-20 hours per week
Customer activation increased by 47%
Time to implement changes: from days to minutes

Lessons Learned

Product-Led Growth Requires Flexibility
- User onboarding isn't a "set it and forget it" feature
- Different user segments need different guidance
- rapid iteration is key to finding what works
Empower Your Product Team
- The people closest to your users should be able to guide them
- Developers shouldn't be a bottleneck for content changes
- A/B testing should be easy

Keep It Simple

// Before DemoPenguin: 100s of lines of code
// After DemoPenguin: Just this
<DemoPenguin
 clientToken="client-token"
 userInfo={{
   userId: "user-id",
   userFirstName: "User",
   userLastName: "Name",
   userEmail: "user@example.com",
   userType: "admin",
 }}
 variables={{
   [key: string]: string;
 }}
>
   <YourApp />
</DemoPenguin>

Looking Forward

Today, DemoPenguin helps dozens of companies deliver better onboarding experiences. But we're just getting started. Our roadmap includes:

More customization options
Better analytics and insights
Enhanced targeting capabilities
Improved collaboration tools

For the Developers Out There

If you're like I was - tired of building and rebuilding onboarding flows - give DemoPenguin a try. We built it for developers who want to focus on building great products, not dialogs and tooltips.

Start your journey with DemoPenguin:

npm install demo-penguin
 
# or
pnpm add demo-penguin

Join Our Story

Every great product starts with a problem. DemoPenguin started with mine. What's yours?

Try DemoPenguin Free →

P.S. Yes, Gridlock is still using DemoPenguin, and no, I don't miss those 2 AM coding sessions! 😄