RESEARCH METHOD / PRACTICE GUIDE

Closed-deal walkthroughs

How did information and authority change across a complete transaction?

A repeatable workflow using Plan → Conduct → Report. Adapt recruitment, timing and depth to the decision, participants and evidence available.

1. 01

   Plan

   Choose completed deals that vary in role, complexity and outcome. Define a consistent start and finish, and agree which records participants can share. Prepare prompts for milestones, approvals, information sources and changes in responsibility.

2. 02

   Conduct

   Walk through one deal chronologically with the people involved. Reconstruct what was known at each stage rather than judging choices with hindsight. Trace handoffs and decisions back to available records, and note gaps or conflicting recollections.

3. 03

   Report

   Compare deal timelines to identify common stages and meaningful exceptions. Separate role-specific needs from deal-specific conditions. Produce a lifecycle model with evidence confidence, information requirements and implications for product sequencing.