Capability | Emerging Technologies

A PoC without success criteria is a project that never ends.

We execute proofs of concept with defined success criteria, a bounded timeline and a structured go/no-go decision to validate technology with method, not with hope.

Proofs of Concept in numbers

34%→7.8%

melt loss in steelmaking with a digital twin: PoC with real data, 2012 vs. 2023

Fu et al. / Springer 2024 ↗

87.3%

fewer defects with predictive maintenance in a real industrial environment

Thomas & Weiss / NIST 2021 ↗

39%

lower error in demand forecasting with a deep learning model

Wen et al. / Nature 2024 ↗

18.7%

lower mortality in a clinical PoC with predictive AI

Adams et al. / Nature Medicine 2022 ↗

The risk nobody measures

87.3% fewer defects with predictive maintenance validated in a real PoC. Does your organization validate technology against criteria: or does it drag pilots along with no decision?

A proof of concept that starts without defined success criteria, a deadline or a decision framework gives every pilot a life of its own. The result is resources consumed indefinitely, organizational inertia and technology that never reaches the operation: cycle after cycle.

The real scenario

Four failures that turn a proof of concept into an endless pilot

Each failure runs in silence. Together, they set the difference between a PoC that validates and a PoC that postpones.

Success criteria left undefined

The pilot starts without defining what has to be true for it to count as successful. With no criteria, each stakeholder judges by their own yardstick, and the PoC never ends because nobody knows when it should have ended.

Open-ended timeline, no milestones

The PoC starts with "let's test it for a while" and drags on for months. With no defined deadline and no interim milestones, the pilot consumes resources in perpetual mode, and each extension dilutes the urgency of the decision.

No go/no-go decision

The pilot ends and nobody decides whether to invest, adjust or stop. With no decision framework, the PoC becomes a zombie project: neither approved nor cancelled, just consuming budget until somebody changes jobs.

Insufficient validation data

The PoC runs on test data that does not represent the real operation. When validation uses an artificial scenario, the result does not transfer to production, and the organization finds out at scale that the pilot never proved what it had to prove.

Structured Proof of Concept

Bunker

We have seen this scenario before. And we know where technology validation gets lost.

Organizations do not fail at proofs of concept for lack of technology. They fail because criteria, deadline, data and decision operate as disconnected dimensions. The Bunker Protocol connects those layers into a single architecture: with method, traceability and an informed decision.

We do not eliminate pilots. We install the protocol that makes every PoC run toward a defined destination.

+40 B2B operations with structured PoCs and traceable decisions
+300 technology validation projects with success criteria
8 countries with proof of concept architecture in place
Documented 70% reduction in pilots with no closing decision

Bunker Protocol applied to Proofs of Concept

Four phases. One PoC with method. A traceable decision.

Phase 01

Diagnosis and Scope

We map the validation context end to end: business hypothesis, technical requirements, available data and operational constraints. We identify what the PoC has to prove, with which data and within which deadline. The diagnosis reveals the real scope, and removes the risk of validating the wrong thing.

Outcomes

Business hypothesis formalized with success criteria
Technical scope bounded with requirements and constraints
Map of data needed vs. data available

Phase 02

Validation Architecture

With the scope defined, we design the validation architecture: test environment, representative data, evaluation metrics and maximum duration. Each PoC gets an execution plan with interim milestones, so that validation has rhythm, not inertia.

Outcomes

Validation environment set up with representative data
Evaluation metrics defined with a success threshold
Schedule with interim milestones and a maximum deadline

Phase 03

Execution and Milestones

We run the proof of concept with milestone discipline. Each interim evaluation point produces real data, not impressions. If the result does not meet the criteria, we adjust or stop: before spending more resources.

Outcomes

Validation executed with real data and traceable metrics
Interim adjustments documented against criteria
Consolidated result with evidence for the decision

Phase 04

Decision and Handover

We consolidate the results into a decision framework with go, pivot or stop criteria. The recommendation rests on data, not on enthusiasm. If the decision is to invest, we hand the knowledge over for scaling. If it is to stop, the organization saves before committing more resources.

Outcomes

Go, pivot or stop decision with documented evidence
Scale-up or shutdown plan with defined next steps
Knowledge transferred to the internal team

Transformation

From endless pilots to proofs of concept with criteria and a decision

Without Bunker

PoC as a perpetual pilot

Success criteria left undefined: each stakeholder judges differently
Open-ended timeline, no milestones, no pressure to decide
Test data that does not represent the real operation
Go/no-go decision postponed indefinitely
Resources consumed with no validation and no closure

With Bunker

PoC with method and traceability

Success criteria defined before day one
Bounded timeline with interim evaluation milestones
Validation with real data and traceable metrics
Go, pivot or stop decision with documented evidence
Knowledge transferred for scale-up or a clean shutdown

Every month of a pilot without criteria burns resources, postpones the decision and keeps technology away from the operation.

The first step is a scope diagnosis. No commitment, no generic PowerPoint. Assess whether your validation scenario justifies a different architecture.

Talk to a specialist Request a compatible case study

This service is part of the capability Emerging Technologies.

A PoC without success criteria is a project that never ends.

87.3% fewer defects with predictive maintenance validated in a real PoC. Does your organization validate technology against criteria: or does it drag pilots along with no decision?