Beyond Pilots: Building Platforms for Continuous Innovation

Big companies run hundreds of pilots but most end up just being innovation sandboxes that rarely scale. Evidence shows only a small fraction of pilots transition into operational platforms. Why? Ownership, funding, and productisation pitfalls plague these platforms before they can thrive. For Ryver Partners, moving beyond pilots means building durable, scalable innovation platforms and changing the operating model.

Pilot Purgatory & the Scale Gap

Why do so many pilots stall? Ryver Partners has identified lack of ownership (who scales the solution?), short-term funding (“prove it first, then maybe we’ll invest”), vague metrics (what does success look like across functions?), and tech debt (rapid builds that break under real load) as contributing factors. To escape pilot purgatory, organisations must establish:

  • Platform-First Design: Architect for reusability, cross-team data standards, and shared governance. GE’s Predix Platform enabled predictive maintenance across gas turbines by supporting modular data ingestion and analytics tools.
  • Product-Based Funding: Allocate budget for platforms that evolve, not just the projects that ship once and die. Caterpillar’s CAT Connect funds new features based on usage and business value metrics, not pre-set project scopes.
  • Embedded Accountability: Product managers or squad leads with end-to-end ownership responsible for live deployments, analytics and iteration.

Measuring and Incentivising Innovation

Metrics should include frequency of releases, user adoption, downstream business impact, and time-to-value. Cisco’s DevNet platform tracks not only developer community size, but app launches, customer satisfaction and support tickets resolved by new features.

Focus on Learning and Adaptation

At Ryver Partners, we know that continuous innovation requires fast feedback cycles. Unilever’s personalised learning platform for employees used algorithmic recommendation engines, but its breakthrough was measuring employee engagement and adapting content, accordingly, tripling completion rates.

Conclusion

For Ryver Partners, innovation means building more than just the “next bright idea.” It is about architecting lasting platforms, defining clear business ownership, and logging metrics tied to value. Real business transformation is iterative and powered by the tenacity to scale and adapt beyond your launch.