Activity: Pilot Next Steps - Ditch, Iterate, or Scale

Overview

Now that you have reflected on your pilot, it is time to decide whether your prototype should be scaled.

• If the pilot did not meet its goals, there are still important steps you can take to learn from the experience.

• If the pilot partially met its goals, you can use feedback to improve the prototype, run additional pilots, and continue to seek feedback from a broader range of students, families, teachers, and classified staff.

• If the pilot met its goals, you can scale your prototype for even greater impact. This requires you to think about a range of updates necessary to support scale. For instance, a plan to launch a new grading system likely impacts the way you think about family communications, data systems, teacher professional development, and more.

Steps to Implementation

Suggested time: 1 hour

1. Gather your team in a room (in-person or virtual); make sure your team has reflected on the successes and challenges of your pilot.

2. Remind team members about the goal of your pilot and how the pilot connects to your vision and problem of practice. Indicate that today’s discussion is a chance to decide whether to scale, revise, or stop the pilot.

3. Review headlines from your session to reflect on the pilot; reiterate the successes and challenges.

4. As a team, discuss whether the pilot met its goals, such that it should be scaled. Refer back to your vision, problem of practice, and pilot data as you make this determination.

   • If your pilot did NOT meet its goals and should be finished, jump to “Learn From & Ditch It.”

   • If your pilot partially met or only met some of its goals and you believe it could be updated, jump to “Iterate & Try Again.”

   • If your pilot DID meet goals, jump to “Scale Up.”

5. Regardless of whether your pilot met its goals, your team should celebrate the work you’ve done throughout this process. Consider ending your meeting by sharing gratitude across the team.

6. Next, you will step back to reflect on how equity has been incorporated and advanced throughout your entire design process.

Learn From & Ditch It

If your pilot did NOT meet its goals and should be stopped, don’t be discouraged! All pilots give us important information on the path forward.

• Take time as a team to document your learning from this experience. Give every person 10-15 minutes to collect their individual thoughts, then discuss as a team using the Pilot Next Steps - Ditch: Discussion Questions document:

  • What did we learn? (For example, students who participated in project-based learning did not report higher levels of engagement and/or increased progress as compared to baseline.)

  • What might it mean? (For example, teachers may need additional training on how to effectively lead project-based learning. Alternatively, perhaps a different model for project-based learning would be a better fit for our organization.)

  • Where could we go next? (For example, consider exploring other models for project-based learning to integrate into our curriculum.)

• Be sure to document your learnings, as hopefully your design team will be motivated to repeat the design process to tackle another problem of practice or explore another solution.

Iterate & Try Again

If your pilot partially met or only met some of its goals, but you believe it could be updated, it is important to align on what did (and did not) go well. This will help you determine which parts of the prototype and pilot to redo versus maintain.

• Take time as a team to reflect on what you learned from this experience. Give every person 10-15 minutes to collect their individual thoughts, then discuss as a team:

  • How do we know this pilot did not meet its goals?

  • What aspects of the prototype/pilot kept it from meeting its goals, and how can we address them?

  • What aspects of the prototype/pilot contributed to it partially meeting or meeting some goals, such that we should keep them?

• Once you’ve aligned on these insights, go back to prior activities to revise your prototype, update your plan to pilot, and re-conduct the pilot with the new and improved approach.

Scale Up

If your pilot met its goals, congratulations! It’s time to consider how to build on your momentum..

1. Oftentimes, teams decide to run one or more pilots to continue testing your prototype. If your team decides to go this route, go back to prior activities to create a new plan to pilot and to conduct your additional pilots.

2. Once you’ve fully tested the solution, you are in the exciting position of being able to scale your solution. To do this, you will need to consider what changes are required across your system (e.g., in learning materials and tools, teacher professional development). You will also need to develop a concrete, step-by-step plan to implement this solution more broadly. As a team, complete the following Plan to Scale template, which asks you to:

   • Set the Vision for Success: In this step, your team will articulate what it will look like to succeed in scaling your pilot.

   • Align the Systems and Structures Needed to Scale: Next, your team will consider what organizational shifts will need to occur in order to support the scaling of the pilot.

   • Plan for Action: After identifying the necessary organizational shifts, your team will create a detailed implementation plan to support moving to action.

   • Design to Collaborate: Throughout this process, your team will need to think intentionally about when, who, and how you engage the broader community in order to ensure an equitable and inclusive process as you scale your solution.

3. Once your plan to scale is fully drafted, align as a team on what meeting and/or communications structure you will use to keep the plan in motion. For example, many teams like to schedule a weekly check-in to ensure that the work to prepare for and conduct the pilot is “on track” and that all people involved in the work collaborate closely.