The conference room pilot as a technique

A conference room pilot is a working, end-to-end demonstration of the client's own process, in a real environment, run in front of the people who will use it — early enough to change the design. Every clause in that sentence is load-bearing. It is not a demo. A demo shows the product; a pilot shows THEIR product being made in THEIR system. That distinction is the whole technique, and it is the difference between a session that changes your design and a session that produces polite nodding. Why it works, and this is specific to this industry. Manufacturing clients are concrete thinkers. A design document produces polite agreement — people read it, it looks reasonable, they sign it, and they have not really engaged with it because it is describing something they cannot picture. A work order completing on screen with their part number on it produces real feedback, including…

In this module: Module 6 · Quick Setup and the Conference Room Pilot

1. 1Why we built it manually first
2. 2What quick setup covers
3. 3Facilities quick setup
4. 4Verifying what it built
5. 5The conference room pilot as a techniqueFree preview
6. 6Running a two-day pilotFree preview
7. 7What breaks
8. 8Lab: build it fast, then plan the pilot