Pilot sponsor guide

Run the pilot so the evidence means something.

You make the practice possible and collect the outside evidence. Your participants do the work. This guide covers what to do before Week 1, what happens each week, how to gather supervisor and crew feedback, and how to read the results without overclaiming.

For the agreement you make before the pilot (who takes part, protected time, authority, and privacy), see the pilot agreement guide. Questions at any point: hello@joinvarentum.com.

Your job in one paragraph.

Give 5–8 willing new foremen or early superintendents a real reason and a real opportunity to practice one leadership behavior at a time. Make sure the time, the decision authority, and a support person you agreed on actually exist. Then ask the people around each participant (their supervisor and their crew) what they see, at a few fixed points. You do not grade participants, read their coaching, or use any of this in employment decisions.

Before Week 1.

Work through this list in order. Starting baselines late is the most common way a pilot ends up with nothing to compare.

Assign the roster in the company hub. Sign in at joinvarentum.com/company with your administrator email, add each participant, and send their access email.
Agree on a shared Monday start. Each participant's weeks open on seven-day intervals from their own start date, so a common start keeps the group on the same week.
Pick one or two behaviors to observe. Choose from: setting clear expectations, giving timely and specific feedback, delegating ownership, and following through without taking over. Use the same behavior at every checkpoint so before-and-after results can be compared.
Name one observer per participant. Pick their direct supervisor or superintendent, someone who sees their work at least weekly. Keep the same person for the whole pilot.
Tell each participant what will be collected. Tell them before you create any link. The hub will not let you create one until you confirm you have. Use the talking points below.
Ask participants to turn on sponsor reporting. Each participant decides whether their company sees program-level results. In the portal they tick “I consent to a cohort sponsor report” under Sponsor Report Permission. Only participants who have turned this on can be selected in Pilot evidence. It is their choice. Don't pressure anyone, and don't ask who hasn't opted in.
Send the baselines in the last week before Week 1. Send one supervisor observation and one crew pulse per participant. Links expire after 21 days, so don't send them much earlier than that.

Tell participants first.

Say this in your own words, one to one or in a short group kickoff:

Participant talking points

• You're in a 12-week field-leadership program. Each week you learn one thing, try it on the job, check in, and get written coaching back. Your check-ins and coaching are private. I can't see them.

• To see whether the program helps, we'll ask two groups a few short questions at the start, around Week 6, at Week 12, and 30 days after. Your supervisor, [name], will rate one behavior: [behavior]. Your crew will answer three anonymous questions about working with you.

• You'll see what your supervisor says, plus your crew's group average once at least five of them answer. It's in your portal under “What others are seeing.” I only see totals across the whole group.

• This is for your development. It is not part of your review, pay, or promotion decisions.

What happens each week.

Participant

One rep, every week.

On Monday a short lesson opens. They name one real situation and a first move, try it on the job, and check in by Thursday, by text or voice. Written coaching follows. Company cohort coaching is reviewed by Varentum's founder before it is sent, which can take longer than the next business morning.

You

Protect the opportunity.

Check the hub once a week: who has access, what week each person is on, and which weeks were reported. If someone keeps missing check-ins, ask about time, opportunity, and support, not effort. A missing check-in does not mean they didn't try.

The evidence schedule.

Create each link in the company hub under Pilot evidence
When	Supervisor observation	Crew pulse
Baseline last week before Week 1	Yes, required for any before-and-after comparison	Yes
Midpoint around Week 6	Optional	Not used
Endline Week 12	Yes	Yes
Follow-up 30 days after Week 12	Yes: did it last?	Yes

Each link belongs to one participant and one checkpoint. A supervisor link accepts one answer. A crew link accepts up to 40. Links expire after 21 days. If a link is lost, create a new one for the same checkpoint; the old one stops working automatically. You can also revoke a link from the table in the hub.

Creating and sending a link.

In the company hub, scroll to Pilot evidence.
Choose the Participant, the Instrument (Supervisor observation or Crew pulse (anonymous)), and the Checkpoint. For a supervisor observation, also choose the Behavior to observe. You can add the supervisor's name for your own tracking.
Tick the box confirming you have told the participant, then select Create link.
The link is shown only once. Use Copy link, Email it to the supervisor, or Text it to the crew right away.

Message to the supervisor

Email · edit the brackets

Subject: One-minute observation for [Name]

[Supervisor name], [Name] is in a 12-week Varentum field-leadership program. Because you see their work, we'd like a one-minute observation at a few points during the program: now, around Week 6, at Week 12, and 30 days after.

You'll rate one behavior, [behavior], and can add one example. If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, say so. That is recorded as “not observed,” not as a low score.

[Name] will see your answer, to help their development. Company leadership sees only totals across the group. This is not an employment evaluation.

[link], which expires in 21 days. Thank you.

Script for the crew

Read this at a toolbox talk or send it with the link. The person sharing the link should not be the participant, and nobody should watch anyone answer.

English

[Name] is working on their leadership this season, and we'd like your honest take. It's three questions, about 30 seconds, and it's anonymous. No names are collected. Nobody here, not [Name] and not the company, can see any one person's answers. Results only show as a group average once at least five people have answered. Open the link on your phone. If you're sharing a phone, tap “let the next person answer” when you're done. It works in English or Spanish.

Español

[Nombre] está trabajando en su liderazgo esta temporada y queremos su opinión honesta. Son tres preguntas, unos 30 segundos, y es anónimo. No se piden nombres. Nadie aquí, ni [Nombre] ni la empresa, puede ver las respuestas de ninguna persona. Los resultados solo aparecen como promedio del grupo cuando han respondido al menos cinco personas. Abran el enlace en su teléfono. Si comparten teléfono, toquen «Deje que responda la siguiente persona» al terminar. Funciona en inglés y en español.

The crew answers three statements, from strongly disagree to strongly agree: they know what [Name] expects each day; when their work is off, [Name] tells them soon and specifically; and they can raise a problem or safety concern with [Name] without it being held against them. The supervisor and crew forms are available in English and Spanish. The rest of the participant program is currently delivered in English.

What you will and won't see.

	You (sponsor)	The participant
Link status	Whether each link is waiting, answered, full, or expired, plus the number of crew responses	Which feedback is still pending
Supervisor ratings	Totals only: how many leaders improved, stayed the same, or went lower, shown once at least 5 leaders have a baseline and a later rating	Their own ratings and the supervisor's examples, in full
Crew pulse	Averages across the whole group, per checkpoint, once at least 5 people answer	Their own crew's average, once at least 5 of their crew answer
Any one person's answer	Never	Never for the crew; supervisor answers only
Check-ins, coaching, commitments	Never	Their own, privately

With 5–8 participants, supervisor totals appear only if at least five of them have both a baseline and a later rating. Missing baselines cannot be recovered later, which is why the baseline step comes first.

Read the results honestly.

Small numbers are small. Report counts, such as “4 of 6 leaders improved,” rather than percentages that make a pilot sound larger than it is.
Missing is not zero. “Not observed” and unanswered links are missing evidence. They say nothing about whether the person improved.
Keep sources separate. Supervisor ratings, crew answers, and participants' own private checkpoints are never combined into one score.
Don't claim causes. A small pilot without a comparison group can't show that Varentum changed retention, safety, rework, or profit. It can show whether people practiced, whether the coaching was useful, and whether the people around them noticed a difference.
Decide against what you agreed. At the end, judge the pilot on the success criteria you set before launch. Did people practice? Did delivery work? Did the people around them notice? Would you fund another group?

Please don't.

Use any of this in performance reviews, pay, discipline, or promotion decisions.
Try to work out which crew member said what, or ask who answered.
Ask a supervisor to share or change their answer.

Have the participant hand out or collect the crew pulse.
Ask participants for their check-ins or coaching.
Rank participants against each other.

Closing the pilot.

At Week 12, send the endline links. Thirty days later, send the follow-up links. Then plan a readout with Varentum covering what was practiced, delivery reliability, whether participants found the coaching useful, what the supervisor and crew evidence shows (with its counts and gaps), and what you decide about continuing. Any public quote or case study needs the participant's explicit written approval first.

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