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The Canadian Forum on Workplace Innovation

Practical Brief

Before You Scale

Six questions for evaluating workplace technology

A practical decision framework for organizations evaluating workplace technology. The brief moves from understanding and defining the problem through baseline measurement, testing, learning and the decision to scale, adapt, stop or investigate further.

August 2026 · 5 pages · PDF

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Cover of Before You Scale

Publication overview

Publication record

Publication type
Practical Brief
Length
5 pages
Geographic focus
Canada
Main subjects
Technology evaluation, Pilots, Measurement
Format
PDF

At a glance

Three things this publication establishes

Six questions, in sequence

Understand → Define → Baseline → Test → Learn → Decide → Share. Write the problem in operational terms before selecting a product.

Implementation is not outcome

Licences, training, usage and pilot completion show that activity occurred, not that the defined workplace condition changed.

Three additional AI checks

Validate the system in the actual use context, define where human review and override are required, and document data, privacy, error and bias risks.

Summary

What this publication examines

A pilot should reduce uncertainty, not merely demonstrate that a tool can be switched on. This brief combines the Forum’s workplace-adaptation framework with established human-centred design, AI risk-management, privacy and ergonomics principles.

Six questions, in sequence

Key findings

What the evidence shows

  1. Six questions, in sequence

    Understand → Define → Baseline → Test → Learn → Decide → Share. Write the problem in operational terms before selecting a product, and end with an explicit decision.

  2. Do not confuse implementation with outcome

    Licences, training, usage and pilot completion show that activity occurred. The decision question is whether the defined workplace condition changed, by how much, for whom, and whether the intervention created new burden or risk elsewhere.

  3. When the technology uses AI, add three checks

    Validate the system in the actual use context, define where human review and override are required, and document data, privacy, error and bias risks that could affect workers or decisions.

Contents

Inside the publication

  1. 01Understand
  2. 02Define
  3. 03Baseline
  4. 04Test
  5. 05Learn
  6. 06Decide
  7. 07Share

Evidence and sources

Sources and evidence notes

  1. ISO 6385:2016, Ergonomics principles in the design of work systems

    Integrated human-social-technical work-system design.

  2. ISO 9241-210:2019, Human-centred design for interactive systems

  3. ISO 9241-220:2019, Processes for enabling, executing and assessing human-centred design within organizations

  4. ISO 10075-2:2024, Ergonomic principles related to mental workload

    Work-system design covering mental workload, health, safety and performance.

  5. NIST, AI Risk Management Framework

    AI risk management and evaluation in context.

  6. Federal, provincial and territorial privacy commissioners, Protecting Employee Privacy in the Modern Workplace

  7. NIOSH, Elements of Ergonomics Programs

    Task analysis, worker involvement, control selection and evaluation.

  8. ILO, Generative AI and Jobs: A 2025 Update

    Task-level transformation and the importance of human input and social dialogue.

Official statistical and regulatory sources are used for core factual claims where available. Survey, think-tank, consulting and international evidence is used as complementary context and is identified by source type. Descriptive associations are not presented as causal effects, and measures with different populations, definitions or reference periods are not treated as directly comparable.

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Read the full publication

Before You Scale

PDF · 5 pages · Practical Brief

  • Technology evaluation
  • Pilots
  • Measurement
Download the full PDF — Before You Scale, PDF file, 5 pages

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