A Proven Framework for Moving from Idea → Adoption

I keep seeing the same pattern across AI and automation projects:

Excitement → pilot → build → silence.

The project doesn't get canceled. It just stops getting mentioned.

From what I've seen, this usually isn't a tooling issue. It's a delivery issue.

A lot of builders are excellent at building automations, but we don't always have a clear end-to-end framework for how projects should move from idea to adoption to long-term value.

Over time, I've started thinking about delivery in four phases that help keep projects grounded and actually used:

Discover → Design → Deploy → Drive

Not as a sales framework. Just a way to structure work so things don't quietly die three months in.

DISCOVER

This is where projects are either set up for success or quietly doomed.

If discovery is shallow, you don't get leverage. You get demos.

For me, this means stepping inside how the business actually runs. Where is time getting lost? Where are opportunities leaking? What does success actually look like in concrete terms?

Without this, even impressive automations tend to get abandoned.

2. DESIGN

The biggest mistake I see here is building *for* clients instead of *with* them.

Collaborative design means mapping workflows in real time, prototyping early, and testing assumptions with feedback loops. This keeps builds aligned, surfaces edge cases early, and creates buy-in before anything goes live.

Adoption gets engineered here, not after deployment.

3. DEPLOY

This is the bridge between "it works" and "it's used."

Deployment isn't just pushing something live. It's hardening, testing, training users, writing SOPs, and providing go-live support.

If people don't know how to use it confidently, it's not ROI.

4. DRIVE

This is where most projects should start, not end.

Drive is the ongoing phase. Iteration based on real usage. Troubleshooting and reinforcement. Identifying follow-on opportunities.

The best systems compound over time instead of becoming shelfware.

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I'm sharing this less as "the right way" and more as one way to add structure to engagements and avoid the pilot-to-silence trap.

Curious how others here approach this:

Do you have a delivery framework you rely on, or do you structure things differently?
Where do projects tend to break down for you—discovery, handoff, ongoing support?
How do you handle post-handoff ownership? Do you stay involved, or is it a clean break?

Would love to hear how each of you are thinking about this.

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