What should a product demo video brief include?

The audience and where the video will be seen, the single belief it should leave the viewer with, a scene list of five to eight lines opening with the result, the recording environment and a list of things that must not appear, voice and pace, a target length with a hard ceiling, deliverables, the approver, and whether an interactive version is wanted alongside it.

How long should a product demo video be?

Sixty seconds or under for a homepage hero, up to two minutes for a launch, up to three for a sales follow-up. Set the ceiling in the brief and cut scenes to fit it rather than stretching the ceiling to fit the scenes.

Do I need a brief if I am making the video myself?

A short one, yes. The outcome sentence and the scene list take ten minutes to write and save the afternoon you would otherwise spend re-recording after realising the video had no point.

← Back to blog

How to Write a Video Brief for a Product Demo (With a Template)

September 14, 2026

A product demo video gets re-shot for one reason: the person making it and the person who asked for it had different videos in their heads. A brief is the cheap way to find that out before the recording, not after. It does not need to be long. It needs to answer the questions that otherwise get answered by guessing.

Below is the brief, section by section, then the template to copy. It works whether the video is being made by an agency, a freelancer, a colleague, or you next Tuesday.

1. Who it is for, and where they will see it

One audience, named as specifically as you can: "an ops manager at a 50-person logistics firm who has just been told to replace the spreadsheet". And one placement: homepage hero, pricing page, sales follow-up email, Product Hunt gallery, app-store listing. The placement decides the length, whether there is sound, and whether the first three seconds have to work with no context.

2. The one outcome

Finish the sentence: "After watching, they should believe that ___." One belief. "That it does invoicing, reporting and payroll" is three videos. If you cannot pick, the video is a tour and will be watched by nobody.

3. The scene list

Five to eight scenes, each one line: what is on screen, what happens, what the viewer should notice. Open with the result -- the finished report, the sent invoice -- then go back and show how it got there. This is the section that prevents the re-shoot, because it is the part everyone will disagree about, and it is better to disagree in a document.

If the scenes are hard to write, click through the product with a recorder first: the captured steps are the scene list. How to storyboard a product demo goes into this.

4. Data, environment and what must not appear

Which account to record in, what the data should look like (real-shaped, not "Test 1"), and an explicit list of things that must not appear: real customer names, internal URLs, the half-built feature behind a flag, the notification badge showing 847 unread. Whoever records will not know which of these matter unless told.

5. Voice, pace and length

Narrated or captions-only. If narrated, the register in one line: "a colleague explaining, not a presenter announcing". A target length with a hard ceiling -- sixty seconds for a hero, up to three minutes for a sales follow-up -- and the rule that the ceiling wins over the scene list, not the other way round.

6. What done means

Deliverables (formats, sizes, with and without captions, thumbnail), who approves, and how many rounds of changes are included. Then one more line most briefs forget: whether an interactive version is wanted alongside the video. The same click-through produces both, and the interactive one is what goes on the pricing page and in the follow-up email, where a video would be skipped.

The template

Audience: one sentence.
Placement: where it will be seen; with or without sound.
Outcome: "After watching, they should believe that ___."
Scenes: 5–8 lines; open with the result.
Environment: account, data, and the must-not-appear list.
Voice: narrated / captions; register in one line.
Length: target and hard ceiling.
Deliverables and approval: formats, approver, rounds.
Interactive version: yes / no, and where it will be used.

Frequently asked questions

What should a product demo video brief include?: The audience and where the video will be seen, the single belief it should leave the viewer with, a scene list of five to eight lines opening with the result, the recording environment and a list of things that must not appear, voice and pace, a target length with a hard ceiling, deliverables, the approver, and whether an interactive version is wanted alongside it.
How long should a product demo video be?: Sixty seconds or under for a homepage hero, up to two minutes for a launch, up to three for a sales follow-up. Set the ceiling in the brief and cut scenes to fit it rather than stretching the ceiling to fit the scenes.
Do I need a brief if I am making the video myself?: A short one, yes. The outcome sentence and the scene list take ten minutes to write and save the afternoon you would otherwise spend re-recording after realising the video had no point.

Keep reading

This is what Demorta does

Click through it — the same kind of demo you can record of your own product.

Try it on your own product

Record your first interactive demo free.

Five demos on the free plan, forever. No credit card, no trial countdown, no sales call. Install the Chrome extension, click through your product once, and you have a shareable link in about ten minutes.

Start free →