Kaizen events
Mutual action plan
Mutual action plan is licensed CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Katafacts (katafacts.com).
Customise with AISkill file ↓1 · What it is
What it is
A mutual action plan is the implementation-plan discipline pointed at a deal instead of an internal rollout: a real, dated sequence of milestones converging on the target close date, each one owned by your side, the buyer's side, or jointly. Days remaining, overdue milestones, and unowned milestones are all computed from what's actually in the plan, never asserted. The check that matters most here: if every milestone belongs to your own side, that's flagged directly, not smoothed over — a 'mutual' action plan where the buyer hasn't committed to a single dated action of their own isn't actually mutual, and that's exactly the kind of one-sided plan that stalls at the finish line.
2 · When to use it
When to use it — and when not to
Use it when
- The deal has real momentum — a business case is in motion or already built — and you want a dated, checkable path to close instead of a loose verbal understanding.
- You want to know honestly whether the buyer has actually committed to anything with a name and a date attached, not just nodded along.
- You're heading into procurement, legal, or a multi-stakeholder approval process where the sequence of who does what, by when, genuinely matters.
Not when
- The deal is still in discovery — build a value hypothesis and a business case first; this tool assumes there's already a real commitment to sequence toward close, not a pitch still being made.
- You don't have a real target close date yet — pin that down with the buyer first, or the days-remaining and overdue math has nothing real to measure against.
- You're tempted to write every milestone as something you'll handle, to avoid an awkward conversation about what the buyer needs to do — that's exactly the one-sided plan the mutuality check exists to catch.
3 · How to fill it in
How to fill it in
- Milestones
- Describe the deal roughly — a first-pass milestone sequence gets drafted, each with who it depends on (you, the buyer, or joint) and a target date. Assign a real named owner on each side afterward; that's never guessed for you.
- Coverage
- Computed from your milestones and dates — nothing to enter here.
- Risks
- Drafted alongside the milestones — what could realistically stall this deal before close.
- Narrative
- Drafted from the plan actually built.
4 · What good looks like
What good looks like
The example below sequences Northline Freight's path to close on the Beacon Analytics deal, built as the natural next step after Northline's own business case — one milestone is already honestly overdue, one on Northline's side has no named owner yet, and the plan genuinely splits across both sides rather than reading as Beacon Analytics doing all the work.
Same example, as a downloadable xlsx workbook.
Download .xlsxImplementation plan · Northline Freight
Northline Freight — mutual action plan to close
Jordan Ellis, Sales Manager · 2027-03-05
Team: Priya Anand, RevOps · Sponsor: Renee Okafor, VP Sales
Sequences Northline Freight's path from an approved business case to a signed contract, following directly from Northline's own business case for Beacon Analytics.
Milestones
Beacon Analytics: deliver completed security review documentation
Overdueus · Priya Anand, RevOps · Target: 2027-02-28 · Status: in-progress
Northline: get CFO budget sign-off
Unassignedthem · Unassigned · Target: 2027-03-14 · Status: not-started
Joint technical validation call — data migration walkthrough
joint · Jordan Ellis & Northline's VP RevOps · Target: 2027-03-10 · Status: not-started
Northline: circulate the business case internally to finance
them · Northline's VP RevOps · Target: 2027-03-07 · Status: not-started
Beacon Analytics: send final contract redline
us · Jordan Ellis, Sales Manager · Target: 2027-03-20 · Status: not-started
Signed contract
joint · Jordan Ellis & Northline's VP RevOps · Target: 2027-03-31 · Status: not-started
Coverage
Target completion
2027-03-31 (26 days)
Done
0 / 6
Overdue
1
Unowned
1
Us / Them / Joint
2 / 2 / 2
Risks
- Northline's CFO sign-off has no named owner yet on their side — if it stays unassigned past their mid-March board cycle, budget approval could slip to next quarter entirely.
- The security review documentation is already a week behind — if it slips further, it becomes the pacing item for both the technical validation call and the final contract redline.
Narrative
One of six milestones — the security review documentation — is already overdue, and the CFO sign-off milestone has no named owner on Northline's side yet, which is worth flagging directly rather than assuming it will happen. This genuinely functions as a mutual plan, not a one-sided ask: two milestones belong to Beacon Analytics, two to Northline, and two are joint. 26 days remain to the March 31 target close.
5 · Common mistakes
Common mistakes
Writing every milestone as something your own side handles.
A plan where every milestone is yours isn't actually mutual — the buyer never has to commit to a dated action, which is precisely the tell that a deal isn't as real as it looks, and this tool's mutuality check exists to catch it plainly.
Leaving the buyer's milestones unowned rather than naming a real stakeholder.
An unowned milestone on the buyer's side is a real risk to close, not a formatting detail — naming the gap is what lets you go get a real commitment before it costs the deal.
Padding the plan with vague risks instead of specific, named ones.
'Priorities could shift' isn't a risk you can act on — 'the CFO sign-off historically takes 3+ weeks at this account' is, and it's the kind of specific finding this tool exists to surface.
6 · What it connects to
What it connects to
upstream
Business case builder
The case that earns a champion's real commitment is what this plan turns into a dated, checkable sequence.
Value hypothesis
A proof point already validated in a value hypothesis is exactly the kind of evidence a milestone's own risk can point back to.
downstream
Deal A3 — win-rate root cause analysis
A plan that stalls, or turns out to have been one-sided all along, is exactly what an eventual deal A3's root cause analysis would trace back to.
7 · Where AI helps
Where AI helps
Judgement — stays yours
- Deciding whether a drafted milestone's ownerParty judgement is actually right for this deal
- Deciding which overdue or unowned milestone to chase down before it costs the deal
Analysis — AI helps
- Drafting a milestone sequence and real risks from a rough description of the deal
- Drafting the narrative from the plan actually built
Drudgery — automated
- Computing days to target close, overdue count, and the ownership split
- Flagging which milestones have no named owner yet
- Exporting to xlsx in the house format
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