| File | Use |
|---|---|
| templates/pilot-charter.md | Scope, metrics, RACI, commercials, sign-off |
| templates/kpi-dictionary.md | Finance-aligned definitions + deck footnote |
| templates/workshops.md | Definitions + tech/security agendas; follow-up email stub |
| templates/handover-pack-checklist.md | Post-sales BAU handover |
What I’d sign off mentally: You showed you did homework on our business. The stack story is sane. Twelve weeks is credible.
What still makes me pause:
- I’m buying an outcome, not four deliverables. Translate each deliverable into one line: “So on Monday I can ___.”
- Numbers without footnotes feel like theatre. Put methodology in the footer: period, grain, profit formula. If you can’t, say “illustrative on sample data” and I’ll respect honesty more than precision I can’t audit.
- The discount and region stories need an owner. Name who changes behavior if we trust this (Pricing? Regions?). Without that, this is analytics tourism.
- Tell me how we’ll know the pilot worked. Three metrics max, with baseline and target. I shouldn’t have to ask.
- Risk: data residency, PII, who’s on-call, what we get if we stop—four bullets, not a whitepaper.
- Money: why $500 cap vs $180 estimate, what’s in “funded SE,” and one concrete phase-2 example so phase 2 isn’t a cliff.
What would make me say “book the workshop”: A one-page charter draft with success criteria + RACI + a proposed definitions session date. Slides alone don’t advance the deal.
14-day objective: Signed or verbally committed pilot charter + KPI dictionary v0 + sandbox spike + security path identified.
| Day | Action | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Send follow-up: 3 bullets (heard / next artifact / workshop date) | SE |
| 1–3 | Book: Definitions (Finance + data, 90m) + Tech/security (platform + sec, 90m) | SE + AE |
| 3–7 | Run workshops → KPI dictionary (1 page) + data-access request (minimal slice first) | SE |
| 5–10 | Spike: land one entity, one BQ view, one BI tile (or export); document IAM gaps | SE + CE |
| 7–14 | Circulate charter v1 (scope, metrics, RACI, commercials); security checkpoint before prod-like data | SE |
Minimum viable charter (one page): Scope / non-goals → 3 success metrics (baseline → target) → milestone weeks 4 / 8 / 12 → RACI → spend cap + exit note.
Teams to pull (customer): Sponsor · Finance · Data platform · Security · BI · (Pricing or Regions if stories are central) · Procurement when paper is warm.
Teams to pull (Google): AE/CSA · CE for spikes · Trust/compliance if questionnaire gates.
If stuck: Smaller data slice, “pilot basis” single profit definition, BI = their standard tool if Looker isn’t real.
- Workshop invites sent (definitions + tech/security)
- KPI dictionary v0 + charter v1 in one folder
- Spike: ingest + consume in their project
- Security: classification + path to wider access
- Sponsor steering cadence on calendar
Use this from contract/start date through handoff to BAU. Adjust weeks to your SOW.
| Week | Focus | Outputs |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Kickoff with sponsor; confirm RACI, comms, escalation | RAID log, meeting cadence |
| 0–1 | Environments: projects, IAM groups, billing alerts, repo/folders | Runbook link, access list |
| 1–2 | Ingest to landing; pilot data aligned to KPI dictionary | Reconciliation note vs source |
Exit criteria: Daily/weekly jobs run once end-to-end; Finance signs “pilot basis” numbers for one month.
| Track | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Trusted KPI | Mart + refresh SLA; Looker/BI content in draft |
| Margin guardrail | Report drillable by dimensions agreed in charter |
| Forecast | ARIMA_PLUS trained; backtest metrics vs target |
| Classifier | BOOSTED_TREE v1; flag-only workflow documented |
Cadence: Biweekly steering (demo + risks); weekly eng sync.
Exit criteria: All four in staging with documented definitions; UAT list with named testers.
- Performance/cost review (slots, partitions, query patterns).
- Security: least privilege, audit sample, PII checks.
- UAT sign-off from Finance + BI owner; training session(s).
- Go-live checklist: rollback, on-call for 2 weeks.
Exit criteria: Production cutover; sponsor acknowledgment of success metrics snapshot.
| Activity | Detail |
|---|---|
| Hypercare | Triage bugs vs enhancements; weekly stability note |
| Handover pack | Architecture diagram, data dictionary, job list, runbooks, model cards (inputs, refresh, limitations) |
| BAU owner | Named maintainer for jobs, dashboards, model retrain policy |
| Expansion gate | Short readout: hit/miss on metrics, phase-2 options (streaming, Vertex, enterprise Looker) |
SE role post-pilot: Thin out after handoff; CE or PS for depth; AE owns renewal/expansion narrative.
Use when expanding slides or security appendix: methodology footnote; discount lever + threshold defense; regional ROI framing; success table; Cloud SQL vs BQ + PII + exit + on-call; enterprise IdP/BI fit; ML limits (backtest, cold start, flag vs automate); logo/CTA.
Internal planning doc — tailor names, regions, and week numbers to the account and SOW.