Executives usually ask for a “quick” LLM proof-of-concept and then load it with enterprise-grade expectations: perfect data lineage, brand voice controls, SOC 2, the works. The trick is to isolate a thin slice that proves value fast while laying the rails for the real rollout.
Work in this order:
- Capture the narrative, not the feature list. Start by mapping the job stories (“When a field engineer files a fault, they need…”) and the failure modes (“Hallucinations about part numbers break trust instantly”). This is the raw material for prompt design and evaluation criteria.
- Design the sandbox. Before writing a single prompt, answer: Which data sources are in scope? What’s the maximum acceptable latency? Who is allowed to try the pilot? The constraints drive architecture choices far more than favourite model families.
- Codify evaluation on day one. Every pilot needs a rubric, even if it is a lightweight scoring spreadsheet or a set of Playwright assertions with golden answers. If you can’t measure improvement, you can’t justify the next phase.
- Instrument everything. Logs, prompt/response pairs, timing, user feedback buttons: whatever it takes to understand behaviour without manual digging.
The aim is to finish the first week with:
- A secured, single-purpose UI, deployed somewhere boring (Cloudflare works well).
- A prompt and retrieval pipeline that passes the rubric on the cases you wrote down.
- A dashboard stakeholders can open without asking the team for screenshots.
The pilot either earns the budget for a production build or shows the idea isn’t worth the organisational effort. Both are useful answers: you either speed up, or you stop spending time on the wrong bet.