On Managing Expectations: Pilot it, first

Robby Russell
Jul 24, 2017 · 2 min read

Turning Big Decisions Into Short-Term Pilot Programs

In a board meeting recently, the organization shared their desire to drop a program. As they shared their rationale, I reflected on the conversations a few years prior. At that time, the organization wanted to address a large pain point in their operations. We had many discussions leading to an approval of an investment of time and budget.

Two years later, we found ourselves questioning why it was a surprise that it hadn’t been the success we hoped for.

The organization lacked a clear consensus on how we would measure the program’s success. Most of us have found ourselves in this position before, right?

In general, I was comfortable with the program getting canned. But, that wasn’t the difficult part of the equation. The challenge was now on ensuring that all stakeholders understood the decision, too. The staff had grown accustomed to the program being available to them.

When it comes to decision making, it is harder to decide to stop a program then it is to decide to start new one.

Through these discussions, the lesson learned was that we should have framed this as a “pilot” program.

A Pilot for “Heat Vision and Jack” (1999)… a show you probably never heard about.

By classifying it a pilot program, we would have needed to discuss and answer the following eight questions:

1. What problems do you believe this will solve?
2. What would success feel like? (yes, feel.)
3. How (and how often) will you measure the success of it?
4. Who is responsible for measuring that success?
5. How can your team contribute toward its success?
6. Who is accountable should it not work?
7. What would it take for you to abandon it?
8. How long will you accept inadequate results?

When you pilot a program, the stakeholders know it could go away if it does not meet the defined objectives.

Like a TV pilot, the studio, cast members, and production staff know that there no guarantee it’ll get picked up. Yet, they’ll make sure they contribute to making it as successful as possible.

It’s the subtle difference between announcing, “Hey team, we’re going to do X from now on.” versus, “Hey team, we’re going to pilot X. Here is how we’ll measure it and how you can help us make it work.”

Reflecting on many decisions that I’ve been part of, it’s easy to lose sight of the potential conversation you may need to have amongst yourselves at a later point. Recently, I’ve started to keep a list of “Pilots” that I have in play that have yet to get picked up for a full season.

Let’s all be thankful that this HORRIBLE Us Pilot for “Peep Show” never went further.

If you’re not quite ready to commit for the long haul, consider a pilot.

Robby Russell

Written by

Founding partner / VP Engineering @PlanetArgon. Creator of @OhMyZsh. Ruby on Rails developer. Musician in @mightymissoula.

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