Four Key Behaviors That Help Scale POC Delivery

In the world of presales, the proof-of-concept (POC) holds immense potential for showcasing the value of solutions to customers. However, many presales organizations tend to view POCs with caution, focusing on minimizing risks rather than embracing their value.

Successful proof-of-concept delivery is a fundamental activity for enterprise presales teams, and a presales team that can rapidly deliver high-impact, high quality POCs offers serious competitive advantage.

I spent many years as a solution engineer (SE) and director for a global presales proof-of-concept team. We got good at delivering POCs because we delivered a lot of POCs, made a lot of mistakes, and took the time to learn from them. More importantly, we developed a set of behaviors that helped us scale and adapt to change.

In this article I will explore four key behaviors that can help presales leaders develop POC readiness and enable POC delivery at scale: Invest in POCs Like Demos, Collaborate and Build Trust, Control Discovery and Scoping, and Get Creative with Staffing and Funding.

?

Invest in POCs Like You Invest in Demos

If you built a successful program for delivering demos, then you can do the same thing for POC delivery. The key to successful proof-of-concept delivery is to make it a priority - and to make strategic investments in POC Platform, Process, and People. Key areas of investment include:

Configured POC Environments

Create fully configured POC environments that are available on demand.?This can cut POC development time in half or more. It will allow SEs to run smaller POCs, and it allow SEs who are experts in areas other than install and config tasks to execute POCs. This will have an enormous impact on POC capacity by reducing overall POC development time, and increasing the number of resources who can deliver POCs.

Continuous Process Improvement

Establish a dedicated POC process and continuously refine it based on feedback and lessons learned. Develop the process in modules that can be assembled together. Make it easy to understand and to change. If it is not streamlining and simplifying execution then it needs to be changed. This will increase the predictability of POCs, and decrease effort and development time.

Automation Tools and Artifact Reuse

Develop tools that automate time-consuming tasks and enable the reuse of code, data, and analytics artifacts across multiple POCs.?The impact on development time is huge.?Reuse can add innovative features and increase overall POC impact without having to immediately upskill SEs on how to implement those features from scratch.

Collaborate and Build Trust

When things get busy, it is natural to look outward for the cause, e.g., blaming Sales for unqualified deals, or blaming SEs for wasting time. Do not fall into this trap. This kind of thinking kills collaboration, and spawns transactional and non-transparent processes. Find a way to work as a team and you will solve problems together.

Focus on Mitigating Risk, Not Avoiding POCs

The POC qualification process is a core tenet of presales’ leadership doctrine, but it can turn into a way to avoid doing the work needed to scale. Work with sales to implement a qualification process to identify and mitigate risks, not pick winners and losers in an effort to reduce the workload.

Remove Yourself as the Bottleneck

You will never be able to scale if you have to approve every project.?Trust SEs and encourage them to build relationships with sales. Empower experienced SEs to manage their own time, and qualify their own activities. They are closer to opportunities, and have the most recent and complete information needed to avoid risks and pre-qualify projects promptly.?????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Avoid Transactional Processes

Does your qualification process involve detail approval forms, long waits, secret formulas, and yes/no answers? This is a transactional process.?Instead, collaborate with sales, actively listen to customer needs, and explore alternative solutions such as custom demos, hands-on training, reference customer call, or interactive workshops.

Stay in Control of Discovery and Scoping

Discovery and scoping play a vital role in determining the success of a POC. There is no standard POC - so the scope is always negotiable. Customer concerns can often be offset with other activities - but this requires presales to be involved throughout the process, building trust with the customer, and guiding the process.

Engage Presales in Discovery

SEs must actively participate in discovery workshops. Experienced SEs should be leading substantial portions of the workshop. All SEs need to understand the customer's issues - both spoken and not. Avoid hand-offs of discovery findings from AEs to SEs This will speed up the POC planning process, and eliminate problems inherent in scoping a POC based on second-hand information.

Steer the Scoping Process

If a POC was put on the table in discovery, then get ahead of it and quickly deliver a draft scope document. It does not need to be extremely detailed, but it should cover initial timelines, proof points, and resource commitments.?This will maintain momentum from discovery and mitigate a number of risks that result from working with a customer's draft. Best case, you can get them to stick to the timeline and negotiate for the proof points. It is immensely easier to accept changes and integrate customer feedback into your document, than it is to try to remove items from theirs.

Scope for Success

Minor changes to the scope can make the difference between a PoC that takes 2 days, 2 weeks, or 2 months.?Keep the scope limited to one or two clear proof points. Focus on proof points you know you have the skills and available resources to tackle. Combine activities that prove the same thing. And simplify activities to the lowest level e.g., do not try to lift and shift reporting application if you can just compare response times for a SQL query on both databases.

Get Creative with Staffing and Funding

Effective POC delivery at scale is not something you take on alone. Expect and plan for bursts in activity by collaborating across teams for staffing and funding:

Build Cross-Functional Teams

Build relationships with other delivery teams, including regional partners, global Centers of Excellence (COE), customer success teams, and professional services, to share the workload.?Create shared scoping and development processes.?This reduces staffing risks, and it lets you handle larger POCs or POCs requiring different skillsets.

Leverage Training Opportunities

POC projects are an invaluable training tool.?Expand your resource pool by pitching participation as a pathway to new technical skills or industry experience.?POC work is one of the best ways to develop deep knowledge of the technology that can be applied in other activities. Upskilling your own resources with POCs reduces training costs, and delivers better results.

Secure External Funding or Resources

For important opportunities with overly burdensome POC requirements, look for financial support to cover the costs. The sales team may cover it. Or consider cost-sharing with the customer. Strategic deals may find partners willing to cover the costs, or commit resources, for the chance to work on the opportunity.?This greatly increases capacity, and it can help build commitment from the customer, or help weed out customers who are not ready to make a purchase.

?

Conclusion

I hope this article will help some presales leaders recognize the immense value of proof-of-concepts (POCs) and embrace them as a fundamental activity for their teams. By investing in POCs like they invest in demos, collaborating and building trust with other teams, and focusing on mitigating risks rather than avoiding POCs, presales organizations can start to enable POC delivery at scale and gain a significant competitive advantage.