Written by DROPS.ST.
A three-SKU pilot tests whether your team can run the intended workflow: clear products and quantities, correct orders and an understood next action. Gather that evidence before expanding.
A SKU distinguishes a catalogue item. Choose three items with different operating characteristics.
DROPS connects product prices, units, stock and quantity choices with customer-linked orders. Connected Telegram uses the same catalogue and order system. Named wholesale packages and tiers can also be assessed where relevant.
The pilot establishes workflow evidence. It does not establish market demand, legal approval or a guaranteed commercial result.
Choose three items that test different decisions
Use products your business is authorised to handle. Choose them for their operating differences rather than promotional appeal.
A practical selection is:
- Item A: a straightforward unit and quantity choice.
- Item B: a defined package or wholesale quantity option, if relevant.
- Item C: a product with a meaningful quantity boundary or a different category.
Choose genuine operating differences; do not add an unnecessary package or feature simply to fill the pilot.
Record each item’s intended name, SKU, unit, category, price, available quantity and applicable limits. Use the product-description guide to resolve unclear wording before asking a tester to interpret it.
Apply the same checks to preloaded catalogue content: compare the pilot items with approved source information before launch.
Separate rehearsal from real trading
Use an approved environment with fictional records and external messages/fulfilment disabled. No real funds or identity documents are needed.
If safe order creation is unavailable, test visible steps and mark the staff-record outcome untested.
GOV.UK beta guidance supports limited participation and previously chosen success criteria. This scorecard is an original adaptation, not a certification. GOV.UK: how the beta phase works
Score evidence rather than impressions
Use three outcomes for each required criterion:
- 0 — Missing or failed: the required evidence is absent or shows a problem.
- 1 — Partial: some evidence exists, but a required case remains unresolved.
- 2 — Demonstrated: the stated cases passed and evidence is recorded.
Mark a genuinely irrelevant criterion “not applicable,” with a reason. Define the required cases before testing so that a difficult result cannot be removed afterward to improve the score.
| Criterion | Evidence | Record for each SKU |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | Name, reference, unit | Customer/catalogue match |
| Discovery | Intended listing | Category/view check |
| Quantity | Correct unit/package | Selected meaning |
| Boundaries | Minimum/maximum cases | Below, at, above |
| Review | Correct items/calculation | Safe checkout comparison |
| Order | Customer/items retained | Test-record match |
| Staff handling | Next person understands | Written action |
| Repeatability | Agreed rerun passes | Dated evidence |
Score each SKU separately, then use the lowest applicable SKU score for each criterion. Eight scored criteria give a maximum of sixteen; excluding a whole criterion reduces that maximum by two. State the denominator. The total tracks progress and never overrides a critical failure.
Set expansion blockers before the first run
Treat wrong items, ambiguous package quantities, incorrect order records and broken required quantity rules as blockers. A polished page cannot compensate for them.
Require two on every essential criterion before expansion. Assign lesser issues to an owner and review date.
Define a fresh-session and phone rerun; repeated clicks in one open page are not independent evidence.
For a transferred catalogue, use the migration checklist to establish the records being tested. The pilot evaluates their behaviour after transfer; it does not replace migration reconciliation.
Hypothetical example: fifteen points is still a hold
A team tests three labelled demonstration items. Item A and item B pass their required cases. Item C appears correctly but its minimum-quantity case has only been discussed, not demonstrated.
The team’s overall criterion score is fifteen out of sixteen: seven demonstrated criteria and one partial boundary check.
They hold expansion for the essential boundary, demonstrate the missing case and repeat it. A fourth item would not supply that evidence.
Record objections without calling them demand
Ask participants what they understood and where help was needed. Distinguish unclear content, confusing ordering and objections to the offer.
Record the observation and proposed change. A comment can identify a problem without establishing representative demand.
For an incomplete launch workflow, use the menu-software requirements. Expanding the catalogue does not replace missing evidence.
Build from evidence with DROPS
Choose DROPS when you want to assess the catalogue and customer-linked order path together before expanding. Its product, stock and quantity information gives the pilot concrete inputs, and order records give the team something specific to reconcile afterward.
Explore DROPS and open the demos. Bring three item records and this scorecard. Inspect visible choices in the demo and staff handoff in an approved test environment.