Hi, Kate. First, what's PoC for you and clients, and what is its main goal?

PoC is the time for both client and us to take a closer look at each other and understand whether we are meant to be together. We will understand if we can bring real, measurable (in $$) value for a client and if DISPL solves the client's issue in the best possible way. 

Got it! How long does this pilot period usually last?

We recommend going for 2 weeks because, usually, it is enough to collect a significant amount of data and make conclusions and insights for a hypothesis we've started with. If a store's traffic in PoC is not big enough or the hypothesis is too tricky, we can go for a month or two. 

Ok, so can you walk us throught the main steps of PoC?

Sure, no problem. So, as I said before, everything starts with the client's issue or need. Here my main goal is to reveal it as precisely as possible and then form a hypothesis with a client based on it. We always make the hypothesis measurable. For example,

"Optimize salespeople's hours to save 5% of the budget without losing in sales."

"Optimize product location to increase sales up to 10%."

Pilots are not free (the price starts from 49 euros), so we must ensure our clients see real profit that would be much higher than PoC investments.

After the client sets and approves the hypotheses, I ask for a floor plan. It's a store map with the basic departments to see where we should put screens and/or DISPL Kits.

Where and what we will place in-store depends on the hypothesis. We can go with only one DISPL Kit in the entrance zone and use a sensor in the POS system or an iPad in the Cashier zone if our goal is to get a demographic portrait of visitors, calculate visitor-to-customer conversion, and make customer profiles.

If we need to optimize product location or salespeople's hours in brand zones, we'll need to put DISPL Kit in the required zones. The equipment needed depends on the goal we've set at the beginning and on the equipment our client has in-store (tablets, POS machines, screens, sample devices).

In this step, we also use open-source photos of the store to see where we can place our sensors. We can move on to the next step when photos and a plan are combined.

Here I specify metrics for each sensor and insights the client will get out of that zone. It's important for us that the client understand why every piece of equipment is installed and what it gives, and how it affects our PoC goal.

When the client approves everything, we can start the pilot. Usually, I connect our partners in a specific country, so they help with the delivery and installation of the equipment.

After all the equipment is set and ready to go, starts the most interesting, my favorite part - data collection. During two weeks, I check that everything works correctly, but generally let the system work. Some clients visit their Dashboard almost every day because it's so exciting to see that first stack of data and notice patterns and insights. But no peeping for me - I will see data only after two weeks, not to get a peeking problem.

Then we start doing data analysis. We do it for free only during the PoC. I take one or two analysts, and we research dashboards and raw data to see interesting patterns, find insights and provide recommendations to see how our hypothesis worked.

"I always say that data itself is useless. The data is needed to be analyzed and implemented. That's what we help our client to do during the pilot".

Based on the data and our initial hypothesis, I return to a client with insights and graphs.

For example, our goal was to optimize staff hours without losing sales. In that case, I can find that on Monday and Thursday, the average attention of customers in the kitchen zone is longer than others by 30% - put several salespeople in this zone during these days, but make sure you have several people in the Air Conditioning zone on Saturday. If we have data about sales, we can match it with this data for more crucial insights.

If our goal was to optimize product location, we would look at the customer journey map to see how visitors move inside the store and where they are most engaged. We can also take data from POS to compare sales and visitor engagement in every zone. If we understand that the reachability of zone A is the highest, then we'll offer to place the most margin goods there.

After insights and recommendations are presented to the client, we wait until changes are implemented on the client's side. After 2 weeks, we have a call again to measure changes and calculate client's revenue from the POC. At this stage, we then discuss the scaling of the project.

To sum up, during the pilot, we're having a custom approach to every client, ensuring that they see the real value that can be measured at the end of it! And that's how it is in almost all cases.

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