Understanding Two Sides to Every Pilot Project
Piloting solutions is the starting point. Rightfully so. Most organizations want to ensure effective use of time, money and resources before committing to a new vendor or solution to a larger rollout.
After participating, executing and promoting many pilots for organizations and clients I have witnessed the great, good, bad, ugly, exciting and disappointing outcomes.
10 Tips for Successful Pilots
(and I am not talking about implementation plans or customer support. These tips are about methodology for the organization, and vendor)
Piloting at one community or one site is an extremely difficult project to validate as a success or failure.
One community is one community. Generalizations that the same outcome will occur at other communities is a lofty goal.
Community metrics may be the most important factor to determine success or failure:
Staff retention, tenure and turnover metrics tell us more than we think.
Occupancy percentage is a game changer.
A culture for change and innovation are paramount to success.
The level of disruption a community team can support should not be disregarded.
How do you benchmark the above attributes in your portfolio? Do you have longitudinal data that indicates why one community is operating well and others are ongoing projects of oversight and support?
Current satisfaction of residents, families and staff need to be taken into consideration.
The community team is the ultimate executor of a pilot, not corporate oversight, decision makers or vendor support.
How much communication and understanding is shared with the team before a pilot? Why are we doing this? Why do we need to do something different? What is the purpose and why did you select our us or our community? What does success look like for all key stakeholders? What is a definite time frame in terms of commitment? Pilots without a hard end date for evaluation can lack urgency and perceived importance to the team responsible for executing.
Staff need to know what success looks and feels like, not just checking off boxes and an emailed to do list at various times and dates throughout the project. If we are successful, what is the reward? As a leader of the community, how can I get my team onboard and excited to support the project?
As a vendor, do not commit to a pilot out of desperation if you do not know why a community or subset of users were selected as the pilot host.
Pilots are two-sided. If an organization pilots your solution and you cannot define possible limitations in the selection methodology prior to piloting, you have no recourse for defense and your reputation can be scarred for future endeavors. Do your due diligence!
Only piloting in high performing, high occupancy and communities with strong leadership will not help you learn what to do when this ideal support and structure is not the norm. Future success and longevity of your product is at great risk when the pilot is not tested by challenging circumstances. You need to know how to succeed in multiple scenarios; less controlled and unstable environments.
Inquire about other pilots completed in the last 18 months across various departments implementing various solutions. How did the organization initially evaluate success and what were the standards for moving forward with a vendor? If they do not have an answer, you need to supply realistic expectations.
And 1 to grow on…
Free pilots do not put any skin in the game for the recipient. In this space we put the most emphasis and time where money is spent.