THE PRACTICAL TAKEAWAY
A pilot should reduce a specific uncertainty. Agree on evidence and acceptance criteria before the work begins.
Write the question in one sentence
A pilot is an experiment with a decision at the end. Begin with the uncertainty you need to resolve: can this workflow produce a useful draft from the customer’s actual inputs, at an acceptable review effort?
Make the question narrow enough to answer with the access, time, and people available. A pilot that tries to test every department and every exception usually struggles to explain what it learned.
Agree on the working arrangement
Describe the inputs, output format, number of examples, and review process. Name a decision-maker and a day-to-day owner on both sides. Specify what happens when a necessary input is missing or a request falls outside scope.
Use acceptance criteria that the customer understands. “The workflow completes” is weak. “The draft preserves the required facts, flags missing information, and can be reviewed within the agreed effort” is closer to a useful outcome. Set the actual threshold together.
Finish with evidence, even if the answer is no
Keep a record of failures, manual interventions, and time spent on support. Avoid quietly fixing every error and then presenting the system as fully automated. The customer needs to understand the real operating model.
End with a concise report: the question, examples tested, results, limitations, and recommendation. Continue only if the evidence supports it. A pilot that identifies a poor fit early can be more valuable than one that produces a flattering presentation and an expensive next phase.
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