Innovation Pipeline Desk / How to write a pilot brief with a kill date
GUIDE: PILOT BRIEFS
How to Write a Pilot Brief With a Success Test and a Kill Date
The pilot started in March with a kickoff and a shared folder. In September it is still running, nobody can say whether it worked, and nobody wants to be the one to stop it.
A pilot brief is one page, written before the pilot starts, that says what yes looks like, who decides, what it may cost and the date it ends. It is the difference between a pilot and an open-ended trial.
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The one page
Six lines every pilot brief needs
Each Pilot Brief the desk writes has these six lines, and the business owner edits them before signing.
- The problem statement it answers, word for word from the Mandate Brief.
- The success test: a yes or no result on the owner's own measure, stated as a threshold the owner sets.
- The internal owner who runs the pilot, and who runs the result afterwards if it works.
- The cost ceiling, including internal hours, set before the vendor quotes.
- The security and data path: what data it touches and which team reviews it, cleared before start.
- The kill date, and what happens on that date if the success test is not met.
A worked example
One brief, filled in
Success test: yes if median minutes from discharge order to departure on two pilot units drop below the threshold the VP Patient Flow set, as counted by the bed board. Owner: unit nurse managers. Cost ceiling: set by the owner. Data path: existing bed board only. Kill date: eight weeks after start. This is a fictional example, not a client.
On the kill date
Stop, scale or rewrite
On the kill date the owner makes one of three calls: stop, scale into a contract or production budget, or rewrite the brief once with a new date. The monthly Pipeline Report counts each call.
Straight answers
Questions this guide answers.
- How long should an innovation pilot run?
- As long as the success test needs and no longer, usually six to twelve weeks. The kill date is set before the pilot starts so it cannot drift.
- Who decides whether a pilot succeeded?
- The business owner named on the brief, using the success test written before the start. The vendor and the innovation team do not decide it.
- What if a pilot misses its success test?
- It stops on the kill date, or the owner rewrites the brief once with a new test and date. A pilot killed on time is a working pipeline.
Start with one mandate
Request a Pipeline Health Check.
The Health Check report is yours to keep whether or not you go further. Sign the Sprint within 30 days of the report and the $2,500 comes off the Sprint in full.
Health Check $2,500. Pipeline Sprint $12,000. Then $3,500 a month.
The Health Check is a fixed price, returned 10 business days after the kickoff call. The Sprint runs six weeks. The Run is month to month with 30 days notice, and covers 10 new scored candidates a month, board upkeep and the monthly report.