How do you prove CPS solutions work?

1 Define success criteria

Before you implement your CPS solution, you need to define what success looks like for your problem and your stakeholders. Success criteria are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals that reflect the desired outcomes and benefits of your solution. They help you focus your efforts, evaluate your progress, and demonstrate your value. For example, if your CPS solution is to launch a new product, your success criteria could be to increase sales by 10%, reduce costs by 5%, and improve customer satisfaction by 20% within six months.

2 Test assumptions

Every CPS solution is based on some assumptions about the problem, the solution, and the context. Assumptions are beliefs or hypotheses that you need to validate or invalidate before you invest too much time, money, or resources in your solution. Testing assumptions helps you avoid risks, errors, and biases that could undermine your solution. You can test assumptions by conducting experiments, surveys, interviews, observations, or simulations that provide evidence to support or challenge your assumptions. For example, if your CPS solution is to redesign a website, you could test your assumption that users prefer a certain layout by creating a prototype and measuring their behavior and feedback.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?