Considerations for Evaluating Pilot Projects
April 2026
About the author: Alecia Kallos is a Project Lead and Director of People and Culture at Three Hive Consulting. A Credentialed Evaluator with a public health background, she brings experience using collaborative, strengths-based, and trauma-informed approaches to design and lead mixed-methods evaluations across provincial, community, and national programs.
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At Three Hive Consulting, we are no strangers to evaluating pilot projects. Pilot projects are usually small-scale, short-term projects or programs that aim to test out a new idea, process, or approach on a time-limited basis. Unlike regular projects, which aim to deliver a final product or outcome and follow well-established plans, pilot projects focus on learning and discovery. The main goal is to see what works, what doesn’t, and gather valuable feedback before deciding on the next steps.
While the approaches, methods, and tools to evaluate pilot projects are the same ones you would use in evaluating other initiatives, there are some specific considerations that impact how you apply them. Evaluating pilot projects isn’t just about crunching numbers or checking boxes—it’s about approaching things with an open mind and a willingness to learn. Since pilot projects are often experimental, they call for flexibility and curiosity to really understand what’s working and what isn’t. In this article, we’ll share some helpful tips and key considerations to make your evaluation process of pilot projects smoother and produce more insightful results.
1. Expect changes along the way.
A good pilot project will typically evolve over time. As ideas are implemented and tested, dialed-in project teams may make tweaks and changes to try to address issues as they arise. These changes will likely impact the evaluation, or at the very least, should be noted in the evaluation. For example, if project components are added, removed or modified along the way, data collection methods and tools may also need to be modified to accommodate these changes. If a pilot project is evolving in real time, development evaluation or using the Model for Improvement or PDSA cycles may be a good fit.
Tip: Stay abreast of project changes. While I normally don’t attend regular project meetings once the evaluation plan and tools are drafted, I find it helpful to attend all of these meetings for pilot projects. Changes happen frequently and sometimes in an ad-hoc manner. Attending the project meetings keeps me abreast of any changes and helps me ensure we can assess how they affect the data we are collecting.
Tip: Budget for uncertainty. Expect changes that may have you redesigning data collection tools or attending extra meetings to learn about project changes. Being able to pivot with project changes ensures your evaluation is thorough and relevant.
Tip: Consider developing a change or decision log to document when and why project changes are made. Having a central source of truth to refer to when piecing together the story of the pilot is immensely helpful come reporting time.
2. Clarify project goals and outcomes with all partners.
I’ve found it’s common for pilot project partners to have different interpretations or goals for the pilot project. This is to be expected as various strategies and contexts are tested. Clarifying the project’s goals, scope, assumptions, and outcomes at the start of the pilot makes for a stronger pilot project and a stronger evaluation.
Tip: Consider facilitating a logic model or theory of change session with the pilot team and all partners to ensure that, although activities might change, the vision and outcomes are clarified and relatively stable.
3. Focus on the ‘how’ as much as the ‘what’.
A strong focus on implementation or process evaluation can help clarify why something does or doesn’t work, which is an important part of a pilot program evaluation. Sometimes the biggest learnings come from the way things are implemented. Implementation science can provide a structure to evaluate what the pilot project is doing and dig deeper than ‘what’s working’ and ‘what’s not working’.
4. Consider the timing of data collection.
When changes are expected, it’s important that you consider how they may impact the data. Quantitative data collection methods need to be stable yet responsive. Collecting quantitative data from the start of the project helps to tell the pilot’s story. However, you may need to adapt your tools as you go along. Commonly we see pilot projects adjust inclusion criteria to match demand with team capacity. For qualitative data, be aware that recency bias will likely impact the recall of participants amidst a slew of changes. Consider collecting data and multiple time-points to capture experiences and feedback along the way. If this is not feasible, craft your questions to ask about multiple time-points.
Tip: Build broad tools that can capture a range of outcomes.
5. Include the pilot project partners in data interpretation.
Project partners are likely deeply embedded in the pilot project. Conducting data parties or sensemaking sessions with the key partners can act as another source of data, providing you with additional insights into the pilot project. Including partners in data interpretation can help deepen your understanding of changes and decisions and strengthen the evaluation findings and recommendations.
Tip: Ensure that data interpretation occurs before final pilot project decisions are made.
While some pilot projects are executed seamlessly from start to finish, many adapt along the way. Expecting changes to occur, integrating with the project team, and building flexibility into tools, budget, and timing can help to support a quality evaluation that provides actionable answers.