Pilot to Contract

Pilot to Contract

Plan a pilot from the buyer's budget date backwards, with criteria both sides agreed in writing, so a pilot that works has a contract waiting at the end of it.

When to use

When a founder is about to start a pilot (a school or district, a clinic or health system, or a design partner for an AI or B2B product), when pilots keep "going well" and then stall, or when a free pilot has quietly become free use.

Before you start

1. Read the brand/product context first. Pull the product, buyer, pricing and proof from .agents/product-marketing.md (or .agents/aaj-brand.md). If none exists, ask the user for the essentials.
2. Gather inputs: buyer type; pilot start date and length in weeks; the buyer's own budget decision date and fiscal year start; the founder's procurement estimate in weeks; each success criterion (metric, baseline, target, how measured, who owns the data, agreed in writing or not, and how many weeks before it can move); the evidence the buyer needs; whether a champion is named and the economic buyer is involved; which conversion terms are agreed; pilot price; seats or sites in the pilot and in the full contract.
3. Get the buyer's dates from the buyer. Budget calendars differ by district, health system and company. Never assume a date. For a US district, the founder enters that district's own budget adoption date and fiscal year start, from the champion or the district's published budget calendar.
4. Confirm the objective: a pilot plan the champion can sign before kickoff. If there is no champion yet, run discovery-call-framework first; if the buyer group is unmapped, run sales-process-design.

Method

A pilot converts when three things are settled before it starts: the dates, the criteria and the deal. The dates are worked backwards from the moment the buyer commits next year's money, not forwards from the founder's quarter. The criteria are few, measurable inside the pilot, baselined, owned by someone who will share the data, and agreed in writing. The deal names who signs, what it costs afterwards, when the contract starts and what happens if the criteria are met. A free pilot with none of that is a free trial with extra steps.

Workflow

1. Collect the buyer's dates (budget decision, fiscal year start) and the founder's procurement estimate. Mark every date as the founder's input.
2. Build the timeline: kickoff, mid-point review, pilot end, results readout, buyer decision, contract signature target. Work back to the latest kickoff that still lands the decision before the budget decision and the procurement window.
3. Check each criterion: measurable, baselined, owned, agreed in writing, and able to move inside the pilot.
4. Check the evidence fit: does what the pilot will produce match what the buyer said it needs?
5. Flag deal risks: no economic buyer, no champion, a free pilot with no conversion terms, too many criteria, a pilot that already covers the whole rollout.
6. Give the verdict and the three fixes, then hand over the plan as Markdown (for the champion to sign) or CSV (for a tracker).

The framework

pilot end        = kickoff + pilot weeks
readout          = pilot end + readout weeks          (default 1, a planning default)
decision         = readout + decision weeks           (default 2, a planning default)
signature target = decision + procurement weeks       (founder's estimate)
procurement window: last decision that can still sign by fiscal year start
                 = fiscal year start - procurement weeks
binding deadline = earlier of (budget decision date, procurement window)
latest kickoff   = binding deadline - decision weeks - readout weeks - pilot weeks

Warnings
  readout or decision after the budget decision date   -> fix (verdict: re-plan the dates)
  readout or decision after the procurement window     -> fix (verdict: re-plan the dates)

Criteria (each)
  measurable  = target names a number AND how it is measured is stated
  baselined   = a baseline is given ("unknown", "n/a", "tbd" count as missing)
  owned       = someone owns the data
  agreed      = agreed in writing
  too slow    = weeks before it can move > pilot weeks (founder's estimate) -> fix
  more than 3 criteria                                  -> improve (a rule of this engine)

Verdict: Re-plan the dates / Fix before kickoff / Ready to propose

The defaults (1 week to readout, 2 weeks to decision, at most 3 criteria) are rules of this engine that the founder can change. They are not benchmarks.

Run the tool

node resources/pilot-plan.js --help
node resources/pilot-plan.js --demo
node resources/pilot-plan.js '<json-config>'
node resources/pilot-plan.js '<json-config>' --md    # the plan as a Markdown template
node resources/pilot-plan.js '<json-config>' --csv   # the plan as CSV

plan(config) returns the milestones, the latest kickoff, each criterion's checks, every finding with an action, the top three fixes and the verdict. toMarkdown() and toCSV() write the plan as a template. The same engine runs in the free Pilot-to-Contract Planner at aajconsult.com/tools/pilot-to-contract-planner.

Reference

Evidence levels for US schools. When a district asks for evidence, it may be asking about the evidence levels in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Quote the primary sources rather than paraphrasing them:

• The Comprehensive Literacy State Development National Literacy Center's fact sheet (U.S. Department of Education) "Evidence-Based Practices" lists the tiers as "Strong evidence from at least one well designed and well-implemented experimental study", "Moderate evidence from at least one well-designed and well implemented quasi-experimental study", "Promising evidence from at least one well-designed and well implemented correlational study with statistical controls for selection bias" and "Demonstrates a rationale." (https://literacycenter.ed.gov/Docs/Evidence-Based_Practices_Fact_Sheet.pdf, no date printed).
• REL Central (Institute of Education Sciences), "Requirements for Evidence of Effectiveness and Design Standards": "To demonstrate a rationale, a program must have a well-specified logic model with one intended outcome of interest that aligns with a stakeholder need." (https://nces.ed.gov/sites/default/files/rel-central/document/2024/10/Module%203%20Chapter%203%20-%20Requirements%20for%20Evidence%20of%20Effectiveness%20and%20Design%20Standards.pdf).

A short pilot produces usage data, feedback and, with a baseline, a before-and-after comparison. Do not tell a founder that a pilot gives them a particular evidence tier. Point them to the sources, and to whoever will design a formal study.

Present the result

• Verdict in one line, with the reason.
• Timeline table: milestone, date, note; the latest kickoff; days of slack (negative means late).
• Criteria table: metric, baseline, target, how measured, data owner, agreed, with a yes or no on each check.
• The three fixes that matter most, each as an action.
• All findings, fixes first.
• The plan file: Markdown with a sign-off block for the champion, the economic buyer and the vendor, or CSV.

Guardrails & common mistakes

• Never invent the buyer's dates. Budget and fiscal-year dates come from the buyer or its published calendar. If they are unknown, the first fix is to ask.
• No conversion benchmarks. Do not say what share of pilots convert, or what a "normal" pilot length or procurement time is. Use the founder's estimates and say they are estimates.
• Annual outcomes do not fit short pilots. If a metric only reports at year end, swap it for a measure that can move during the pilot. The annual result can be the renewal case.
• The economic buyer agrees the criteria, not only the champion. Otherwise the champion's yes is not a decision.
• No legal or compliance verdicts. Student data, patient data and procurement rules carry obligations. Point to the buyer's own review and tell the founder to check the legal consequences with counsel.
• Fictional examples are labelled fictional. The demo district is invented.

Related AAJ resources

• Pilot-to-Contract Planner (same engine): https://aajconsult.com/tools/pilot-to-contract-planner
• EdTech Marketing Playbook: https://aajconsult.com/playbooks/edtech-marketing-playbook
• How to Sell EdTech to School Districts: https://aajconsult.com/blog/selling-edtech-to-school-districts
• The EdTech Marketing Calendar: https://aajconsult.com/blog/edtech-marketing-calendar
• Pipeline Forecast Calculator: https://aajconsult.com/tools/pipeline-forecast-calculator

Related skills

sales-process-design · discovery-call-framework · pipeline-and-forecast · objection-handling · case-study-and-proof · win-loss-analysis