Illustration by Hannah Ranieri
Innovation Insights
The pain points of innovation solutions
Excerpt from Evolve Blog: Building Credibility Through Pilots with Gary Gramajo, Chick-fil-A
“In our Evolve discussion with Gary Gramajo from Chick-fil-A New Ventures, Gary discusses the importance of small scale pilots in creating change in larger organizations:
A pilot is a small-scale study that allows for a new or disruptive idea to be tested in order to evaluate feasibility, cost, and potential problems. Ultimately, the goal is to improve upon the design prior to full-scale market implementation. This allows for innovation teams to develop concepts in an agile and scalable manner.
‘Everything brought to New Ventures eventually must undergo a pilot,’ Gary explains. Pilots help to communicate what the concept’s return on investment (ROI) will be, and the goal is to work out kinks in the pilot stage to minimize the operational impact a new technology or process will have on operators in a high-volume restaurant. The pilots are structured collaboratively between internal stakeholders, who have a stronger understanding of the business challenges, and New Ventures, who have a better knowledge of how to structure, run, and measure these tests. Choosing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is a vital part of the pilot and must provide a clear way to gauge the success of a concept.”
Orange Sparkle Ball Perspective:
In many organizations, there is a desire for new initiatives to create large-scale change. Through our work at Orange Sparkle Ball, we’ve seen countless examples of these large initiatives, from establishing a new process to engage with stakeholders to testing a disruptive technology in a business setting.
We always look forward to insights from Evolve guests that add to our body of knowledge about how to create successful change. As Gary Gramajo outlines in his explanation of his organization, New Ventures, the New Ventures process is designed to test new initiatives at a small scale in real world environments. This allows Chick-fil-A to evaluate if it is worth investing the time and money necessary to scale a solution business-wide. New Ventures provides expertise in setting up effective pilots and metrics and works closely with relevant departments across the business to ensure process and value alignment. Large scale innovation initiatives often fail to produce results, which then halts further innovation work. To prevent this from happening, Gary recommends starting with a measured approach, doing only as much as is necessary to generate internal buy-in.
Across varied organizations in government, academia, and industry, we have also seen that there is tremendous value in creating small scale tests of new initiatives. This approach allows for concepts to be validated without investing the time, money, or resources that would be necessary at scale. By breaking off small pieces of problems, instead of trying to tackle the whole problem at once, different solutions or approaches can be tested and evaluated. This not only helps to ensure that your final solution will be a valuable one, but by carefully and intentionally choosing key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your pilot, as Gary mentions, pilots can also provide a powerful, numerical case for your solution using quantitative metrics. Experiences and testimonials can also augment the data to create a compelling argument to convince key stakeholders that your solution is not only possible but will benefit the organization as a whole.
Across our innovation work, we have seen some of the most impactful solutions be quickly adopted and launched after earning validation from a pilot. When considering pilot structures, it is important to think strategically small. Begin by implementing your solution in a single location for a week-long pilot to reduce as many risks and barriers to entry as possible. Then, as you learn over this initial pilot, you can intentionally expand your pilot scale and learnings, and in the case that a pilot falls short, you can easily pivot to new solutions without sustaining significant losses.
Graphic by Hannah Ranieri
Writing by Ashley Touchton, Design Strategy Consultant at Orange Sparkle Ball, Inc.
