# Deal Desk pilot — hypothesis and measurement

## Hypothesis
For a team repeatedly reconciling deal evidence across systems, an explicit evidence gate can reduce assembly and rework time while agreeing with the accountable reviewer. Validate this alongside the existing approval process before expanding.

## Scope to agree with the customer
One team; one late-stage gate; a named Deal Desk owner; approved read access to the required records; an agreed sample of historical and current deals. Begin in observation mode. Agree acceptable errors, operating cost, integration effort and success thresholds before measuring; no target or ROI is assumed here.

## Interview and baseline
Examine three recent delayed deals. Separate evidence collection, policy interpretation, reviewer waiting time and customer negotiation. Only the first two are directly addressed by this demo. Establish whether current CRM/CPQ/CLM configuration could solve the problem more simply.

## Measurement
Use PILOT-WORKSHEET.csv. For each case record baseline and assisted evidence-assembly minutes, avoidable rework, time to find the blocker, reviewer agreement and a source for the measurement. Keep customer delays and approver queue time separate. Record integration effort and ongoing maintenance.

Capacity released = completed reviews × measured minutes saved per review / 60. Capacity is not automatically cash saved. Any loaded hourly cost must be supplied by the customer. Do not count the deal’s full value as value created, or count the same benefit as both labor savings and recovered revenue. Commercial impact and close-rate changes require separate evidence.

## Decision
Proceed only if the team demonstrates a recurring problem, a useful improvement over its existing workflow, tolerable error rates, an accountable owner and a budget path. Reconsider if integration and maintenance exceed the benefit, the existing platform can readily address the gap, or delays mainly reflect buying intent or negotiation.