Project Background
A Google Cloud sales team has brought you into a late-stage deal with a large retail customer. The customer’s CIO says, “We want to use AI to improve store operations,” but has not defined a use case, success metric, users, or launch scope. You are the Solutions Architect assigned to turn this vague ask into an executable 8-week pilot plan using Google Cloud products such as Vertex AI, BigQuery, Looker, and Cloud Run.
The delivery team includes 1 Solutions Architect (you), 1 Customer Engineer, 3 customer data engineers, 1 customer analytics lead, and 1 security reviewer. The opportunity is urgent because the customer’s procurement team will only approve pilot funding this quarter if there is a credible plan, architecture, and measurable business outcome by the end of next week.
Key Stakeholders
The customer CIO wants a fast, executive-ready proposal. The Head of Store Operations wants a pilot that reduces manual workload for store managers. The customer CISO requires strict controls on data access and will block any pilot that uses sensitive employee data without review. Google Cloud Sales wants a compelling scope that can close the deal this quarter, even if it increases delivery risk.
Constraints
- Timeline: 5 business days to define the plan; 8 weeks to execute the pilot
- Budget: $180,000 total pilot budget, including Google Cloud spend and partner services
- Team capacity: No additional headcount; customer data engineers are available only 50% of their time
- Data dependency: Historical operations data exists in BigQuery, but data quality is unverified
- Security dependency: CISO review requires 7 calendar days before any production data access
Complications
- Sales is pushing for a generative AI chatbot pilot in Vertex AI, but the operations team actually needs workflow recommendations and reporting.
- The customer has three possible use cases, but none has an agreed owner or baseline metric.
- One key dataset may contain PII, and the customer legal team has not yet approved its use.
Your Task
- Define how you would structure the response to this vague prompt and narrow it into a concrete pilot.
- Produce an 8-week execution plan with milestones, dependencies, and decision points.
- Recommend a pilot scope, including what to include now versus defer.
- Define measurable success criteria and a launch/rollback approach.
- Identify the top risks and how you would manage stakeholder misalignment.
