Based on our experience, if you are a company that is interested in scaling circularity the pilot process can be an incredibly useful tool, but you must design your pilots correctly to benefit.
Identify what you want to pilot
What is it that you want to test and why. It might be that you are able to design a pilot for scale, then do so. Be clear that this pilot is the first step in the scaling version and use that to design the pilot correctly. It is also fair that your company isn’t ready for scale, so design your pilot to learn what you need to then design Phase 2 of your pilot that could scale. Be clear from the beginning about what you are trying to accomplish.
Before you start, imagine you already won
It is easy to imagine if the pilot is unsuccessful and you stop the work, that will look like the world you are in today. You can continue business as usual. But it is more helpful to imagine the pilot is successful. Then ask yourself, OK we prove all the metrics, and now we want to scale this. Who and what then needs to be involved in the process. Once you identify that you can pull those people in early to get their feedback, what will they need to see in the pilot to help them at scale. This exercise will unearth the true metrics that you need to be testing and including in your pilot.
It is really easy to scope back everything to something you can do with force and grit, but making it mainstream as part of regular business operations is much harder. The pilot process is a useful tool if used correctly. Understand what scale looks like, where circularity is part of daily operations and work backwards from there. What do we need to test, what information do we need, who do we need to change their workflows. Design a pilot for winning.
Is everyone in the room
Once you have articulated what success looks like, is everyone that would be a part of scaling the pilot in the room? Even if the team who will scale is not in the weeds of the pilot, bring them along the process, so they can start to think about how this will impact their roles and the business overall.
The reality of bigger things gets in the way. Find the clues
Designing a pilot for circularity is enviably going to hit a barrier within the company where either the financials, the product, the technology, the systems, the processes were not designed for any besides a business as usual, making and selling products once. So, when your pilot is making asks of any of these parts of the business to do something differently, there could be major resistance. Either from leadership, that doesn’t really want or know how to change or a process or technology that literally cannot do the thing you need it to. Learn this lesson early and then stop and work on addressing that. These issues are real, and yes you can find sneaky work arounds for them, but that’s not going to help you scale.
Maybe a pilot is the best you are going to get
There is the other reality where the circumstances of your company are such that the pilot is the best you are ever going to get, and maybe a limping along pilot that hangs onto the business is your success. And just be honest with all the stakeholders about what this is. Service providers and colleagues will keep pushing the pilot to be something it isn’t or can’t be because of the circumstances of your business. You will save a lot of wasted effort by just acknowledging that the pilot is your finish line.
Circularity is not just a small adjustment—it’s a fundamental shift in a business model. It requires rethinking financial success and restructuring the business to fully leverage investments in products, customer engagement, technology, and operations.
Pilots can sometimes serve as a way to maintain the status quo while creating the illusion of change. When companies approach pilots with this mindset—or if it’s the only approach that gets support—built-in limitations prevent scaling from the start. Without the necessary resources or commitment, a pilot is set up to remain just that—a pilot.
For circularity to scale, companies must genuinely want their pilots to succeed and expand. Successful pilots are achievable. The key is to define clear goals, establish metrics to measure progress, and, when a pilot proves effective, commit to moving beyond it. To make circularity a core part of your business, you must actively push past the pilot phase and integrate it into your long-term strategy.
