Embracing proof of concept to deliver transformation faster

This post is part of our Delivering Public Safety Outcomes at Pace series.

Public sector organisations are under constant pressure to innovate, modernise services and explore new ways of working. But across government, there’s a growing frustration with ideas that never seem to make it beyond the proof of concept stage.

Pilots are launched, prototypes are tested and early promise gets people excited, only for momentum to stall before anything reaches production. Sometimes that creates scepticism around innovation itself. If services never go live, what was the point?

According to Ben Pirt, Principal Technologist at Made Tech, and Geraldine Mathews, Made Tech’s Client Partner, the answer is more complicated than simply labelling these projects failures.

“Some proof of concepts should bring a stop to a process,” says Ben. “That is exactly what alpha is there for: testing whether something genuinely meets a need before too much time, money or complexity builds around it. The bigger challenge is making sure that the ideas which should move forward are designed for real-world delivery from the start.

“That means building earlier, testing with users sooner and thinking about integration, operational pressures and delivery constraints long before a service reaches production.”

Ben continues: “The whole point of the process is to have some stage gates so you can make sensible decisions as you go. People have been burned by the old-school approach of spending a long time building something and then getting to the end and realising it wasn’t actually what was needed, or it didn’t fulfil the right need, or legislation had changed. This process exists so you can learn that earlier.”

Geraldine and Ben agree that the proof of concept process gives teams the chance to test whether something genuinely meets a need before too much time, money or complexity builds around it.

“Alpha is definitely about identifying that there is a need and identifying the right shape of the thing to build,” Geraldine explains. “By the time you get to beta, you should know that it’s fulfilling a need. Beta should be more about rolling something out gradually and learning the things you can’t know until real people start using it.”

That distinction matters because it changes how teams think about progress. A decision not to move forward after testing is not necessarily a failed project. Often, it is evidence that the process is doing exactly what it was designed to do.

Why good ideas still struggle to become live services

Where things become more difficult is in the gap between a promising proof of concept and a service that can operate successfully in the real world. In government, even relatively straightforward services rarely exist in isolation.

“You almost never build a system that doesn’t integrate somewhere else,” Geraldine says. “Even if it’s something quite small, there’s usually another dependency, another team, another platform involved. That’s just the nature of government services.”

Those dependencies can quickly become the real challenge. A proof of concept may demonstrate clear value, users may respond positively and teams may want to move ahead, but the surrounding environment is not always ready to support it.

“Sometimes it’s operational overload,” Geraldine explains. “Teams just can’t take something else on right now because they don’t have enough people. We’re seeing that all over government at the moment. In other cases, it’s integration, data sharing or legacy systems. Somebody can have a really good proof of concept that would genuinely help citizens or caseworkers, but taking it live becomes difficult because there are too many dependencies in other places.”

Building earlier and learning faster

That complexity is one reason why Made Tech prefers to get tangible services in front of users early rather than spending long periods in theory or planning.

“We don’t stay on paper for a long time,” Geraldine says. “We build, we show, we go.”

That approach reflects a broader shift happening across delivery teams. Expectations have changed. Clients increasingly expect to see working services earlier in the process rather than static wireframes or long discovery documents.

“I think it’s the expectation that things can be done a lot faster now,” Geraldine says. “Clients are hearing that. They’re going to conferences, they’re reading about AI and rapid prototyping and they know it’s possible to move more quickly. It’s not just mock-ups on a wireframe anymore.”

For Ben, this comes back to a simple principle: learning happens through doing.

“A lot of big consultancies became known for massive discoveries and huge amounts of upfront thinking,” he says. “But you don’t really know if any of it is right until you hit the ground and start testing with real people. You can plan and think as much as you like, but until people are actually using something, it’s all still theoretical.”

Why Made Tech does not believe in wasteful delivery

That same mindset shapes how Made Tech thinks about alpha delivery itself. There is a long-standing belief in some delivery circles that whatever gets built during alpha should be disposable. Ben understands the reasoning behind that idea, but believes it can sometimes create unnecessary waste.

“The intention behind it is right,” he says. “You don’t want people becoming too attached to early decisions because they’ve already invested time in them. But if you’re building something that people are genuinely going to use for testing, it still needs proper infrastructure, it still needs to be secure and it still needs to meet certain quality thresholds. Once you’ve done that, throwing it away and starting again can feel pretty wasteful.”

Instead, the focus should be on remaining flexible enough to change direction when needed, rather than assuming everything built early on must eventually be discarded.

A pragmatic approach to government delivery

That pragmatism comes through repeatedly in how both Ben and Geraldine describe delivery. Rather than trying to fully untangle every complexity at the outset, the focus is on finding something meaningful that can be understood, built and tested quickly.

“A lot of government services have evolved over years and years,” Geraldine says. “Policy is layered, legislation changes and nobody completely understands every part of it. We’re probably better at going in, finding something smaller that we do understand and showing something tangible around that, whether it’s service design or a front end. Then we work our way through the complexity instead of getting stuck in it.”

That practical approach also shapes how Made Tech works with clients more generally. Ben describes it as a willingness to adapt to whatever the project actually needs rather than rigidly sticking to an original scope.

“We’ve historically been good at just doing what needs doing,” he says. “If the shape of the project changes halfway through, then fine, we change with it. It’s a very pragmatic approach.”

What comes through in the conversation is a practical view of delivery. Less focus on innovation for its own sake, more focus on getting something useful in front of users early and learning from it.

The important thing is not that every proof of concept reaches production. It’s more about ensuring that teams learn, early enough, to make the right decision about what happens next.

Learn more about our public safety and defence expertise and how Made Tech can help your organisation.

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