Cognigear
Operations & Deployment

Pilot Design & Site Deployment Playbook

Design and execute a first-site pilot: routes, safety boundaries, staffing, KPIs, and success criteria.

Timeline
4 Weeks to Value
Typical Engagement
$50k–$130k
Focus Areas
Pilot fleets

Pilot Design & Site Deployment Playbook

Don't let your pilot linger in "purgatory" forever. Design a pilot with clear success criteria, safety boundaries, and a path to scale.

  • Define the "Go/No-Go" criteria before you start
  • Design the pilot zone layout (physical barriers, signage, network)
  • Train the temporary "pit crew" needed to support the early deployment

Who this is for

deployment Managers, Innovation Leads, and Site Superintendents at:

  • Operators conducting their first autonomy trial
  • OEMs deploying a new model to a launch customer
  • Tech companies needing a structured deployment process

Operational context

This engagement focuses on:

  • Phases – FAT (Factory Acceptance Test), SAT (Site Acceptance Test), Burn-in, Handover
  • Logistics – Spare parts, networking, charging/fueling, maintenance bay setup
  • Safety – Temporary isolation of the pilot zone from the rest of operations

Trigger phrases you might be saying

  • “We’ve been running the pilot for 18 months and still don’t know if it works.”
  • “Every time we deploy, we find new bugs that should have been caught at the factory.”
  • “The site team hates the robot because it disrupts their flow.”
  • “We need to know what 'Success' actually looks like.”

Business outcomes

  • Accelerated timeline to Go/No-Go decision
  • Reduced operational disruption to the host site
  • Safety assurance during the high-risk "learning" phase
  • Structured data to prove ROI for full rollout

What we deliver

  • Pilot Definition Document (Scope, KPIs, Timeline, Success Criteria)
  • Site Layout & Infrastructure Requirement Plan
  • SAT (Site Acceptance Test) Protocol & Checklist
  • Deployment "Runbook" (Day-by-day execution guide)
  • Final Pilot Report template

How it works

  1. Scope – Agree on the smallest viable test that proves value
  2. Prep – Ready the site (network, physical changes, training)
  3. Execute – Support the launch and initial data collection

Timeline & effort

  • Duration: 3-5 weeks (Design phase)
  • Client time: Site visits, co-designing with local site leadership
  • Data: Site maps, operational schedules

Pricing bands

Fixed-fee: $50k–$130k, depending on:

  • Duration of the pilot support
  • Complexity of the site integration
  • Number of stakeholder groups to align

Tech stack & integrations

  • Tools: Jira, Gantt charts, Checklist apps
  • Communication: Daily standup protocols, Escalation matrices

Risks & safeguards

We explicitly design for:

  • Scope creep – keeping the pilot focused on the core hypothesis
  • Site fatigue – preventing the "shiny toy" from becoming an annoyance
  • Data loss – ensuring logs are actually captured during the critical test window
  • Premature scaling – ensuring we don't scale until the KPI gates are met

Site examples

  • Greenfield Mine (Africa) – Designed the deployment playbook for a fleet of 5 autonomous drills, defining strict SAT criteria that the vendor had to meet before payment was released.
  • Retail Warehouse (USA) – Managed the pilot of 20 cleaning robots, compressing the deployment time from 4 weeks to 5 days by standardizing the site prep checklist.

Frequently asked questions

Do you run the pilot for us? We design the pilot and can provide "Launch Support" (boots on the ground) for the first critical week, but we train your team to run the daily operations.

What if the pilot fails? A failed pilot is a success if it saves you from a bad multi-million dollar investment. We structure the pilot to "fail fast" if the tech isn't ready.

Do we need to fence off the area? Usually, yes. For early pilots, physical separation is the best safety layer. We design the layout to minimize impact on other traffic.

Target KPIs

  • ↑Time to first autonomous move
  • ↑Pilot pass/fail timeline
  • ↑Incident rate during pilot
  • ↑Stakeholder sign-off rate
  • ↑Pilot conversion to contract

Deployed Environments

First deployment sites

Ready to start?

Book a 15-minute technical scoping call to discuss your fleet requirements.

Book Scoping Call

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