Newly introduced technologies fail for many reasons, including low user adoption, a lack of understanding of the target market, an unsound business model, and more. This resource exists to help technology developers and early adopters plan effective pilot tests that increase a new technology’s chance for success. Drawing from the concept of design thinking,1 this Playbook is framed by three overlapping priorities — viability, desirability, and feasibility — that ultimately inform technology design, product launch, and scale-up to reduce the risk of failure. These priorities matter whether you are looking to commercialize a transformative sanitation technology or wanting to implement an innovative sanitation program that leverages such technologies. In both cases, understanding the drivers behind these priorities will help you design a successful pilot test, including selecting a pilot site that aligns with your defined goals for eventual scale-up
Figure 1. A well-designed pilot of novel sanitation technologies is framed by three overlapping priorities — viability, desirability, and feasibility — and seeks answers to many questions relevant to technology development and program implementation
A pilot test serves as a critical step before going to market or implementing a program. Such a test offers organizations the opportunity to rollout the solution in small numbers before attempting large-scale implementation. Pilot testing provides a safe place to fail and can save organizations time and money in the long run. But how do you know what to pilot and when? How do you design a pilot? And where should you pilot test your solution?
HOW: Pilot design is guided by organizational goals and objectives for the pilot, what organizations — be they commercial partners, technology developers, municipalities — consider to be the definition of success, and the evaluation metrics. All of this information is typically presented in a Pilot Plan – or a written roadmap for the pilot – that answers the who, what, when, where, and how of the pilot.
WHERE: Where to pilot depends on many factors and is often what we think of first when considering a pilot. This chapter aims to guide organizations on what to consider when selecting a site to effectively pilot sanitation solutions. The term “site” in this context is the physical location the solution is to be installed and tested.
WHO: This Playbook focuses on piloting a reinvented toilet (RT) and is mainly intended for those interested in piloting an RT or other sanitation solution in their district: 1) innovators, including technology developers and their commercial partners (CPs); 2) implementers, such as government leaders (such as cities and municipalities) and sanitation planners; and 3) donors.
While municipalities and government leaders can fund and develop pilot test sites, there is risk to them acting alone and/or in isolation of private sector partners who will take their technologies to market. Those who run pilots in isolation of the RT private sector partners may fall victim to the pilot trap, where even promising solutions fail to scale-up because of insufficient market mechanisms, incentives, and/or pull to ensure their uptake. For the purposes of this Playbook, we will refer to the “who” as the pilot team from here on out.
WHAT: A pilot may include a package of interventions consisting of “hard” components such as a new technology, and “soft” components such as a training or marketing approach. This Playbook mainly focuses on the hard components because of the unique, rather complex infrastructural needs and effort required to deploy and operate transformative sanitation technologies such as RTs.
WHEN: Many choose to pilot when the scope of implementation and the risk of commercialization failure is large and/or the proposed solution could have far-reaching or unintended consequences (Hessing, 2014). From a technology development perspective, pilot testing should not occur before the technology is ready, which is assessed through nine defined (but not necessarily linear) steps (as originally developed by NASA, 2012, and adapted for the RT context in Figure 2).
WHY: Propelled by a maturing technology portfolio, a high-profile Reinvented Toilet Expo, and a committed cohort of CPs, efforts to pilot test RTs in real-world environments are gaining momentum. Numerous CPs are weighing various pilot test opportunities around the world and across use cases and need guidance on real-world testing, demonstration design and implementation.
Figure 2. Before piloting, a Reinvented Toilet should be approaching market launch and meet Technology Readiness Level 8 and as shown in the Commercialization and Technology Development Pathways (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation , 2017)
