Periodic Reviews will help you to track and document progress of the pilot in a team environment, to make real-time decisions and pivot when required, and to share learning across the project team.

Many innovation teams allow the management of their pilot to be dominated by funder requirements; reporting is based on ‘what the donor wants’ and it is often left to one person to gather the information and report it to the ‘project lead’ and to the ‘donor.’ This process undermines agility and inclusiveness. It means you are constantly driven by your original objectives and activity plan, whether or not they are still valid.

Periodic reviews are intended as an interactive team session, where you get together (face to face wherever possible, but if not, it can be done online or by phone) to go through a structured review process. We recommend that you do this monthly, and at least every quarter.

Set aside 2-3 hours when you can all free yourselves from the day-to-day, minute-to-minute activity of the pilot and reflect on how things are going, and what you might need to change. This is a chance to talk through what has happened and plan for the next period. It will generate information for reporting and planning, but most importantly, it is a time to reflect on the purpose of the pilot, your Theory of Change, and your fundamental beliefs about the innovation – and to see whether new research and learning requires you to pivot.

Finally, documenting this process provides critical information and learning that can be used to understand the innovation journey, why decisions were made, and improve practice. Discussing the following items and documenting your learning and decisions will enable your project to adapt and your team to retain and own the vision of what you are trying to achieve. Key features that should be covered are:

• Key achievements in the previous period
• Key challenges in the previous period
• Any changes in the context
• Results of user feedback and all research and learning activities
• Decisions on whether changes are required and whether you need to pivot
• Key targets for the coming period