--- name: discovery-standard-work description: "The work instruction shape pointed at a sales discovery call: major steps, each with a key point for the technique that surfaces real information and the reason it matters — so the compelling event and real decision process get found regardless of which rep is on the call. Use when: A discovery motion needs to work the same way regardless of which rep is running it — a new hire, a fill-in, or your best performer on an off day. You keep losing deals to 'no decision' or a surprise late-stage objection, and suspect the real compelling event or the real decision process was never actually surfaced. Not for: The sales motion is genuinely transactional with no real discovery conversation (e.g. self-serve, low-touch) — forcing a discovery script onto a motion that doesn't have one adds process without adding signal. You're still figuring out what actually separates a won deal from a lost one — go run the win-loss interview guide first, then write the standard work once you know what to listen for." --- # Discovery call standard work The work instruction shape pointed at a sales discovery call: major steps, each with a key point for the technique that surfaces real information and the reason it matters — so the compelling event and real decision process get found regardless of which rep is on the call. Family: Standard work · Format: .xlsx · Domain: commercial ## What it is Discovery call standard work is the same three-column job instruction as the canonical version — major steps, key points (a specific technique, not a generic prompt), and the reason each one matters — pointed at a sales discovery call instead of a shop-floor task. The lean connection: a discovery call is where the voice-of-customer evidence an eventual deal A3 or value hypothesis depends on actually gets gathered, and it fails the same way an untrained gemba walk does — without a repeatable technique, a rep skips the exact question that would have surfaced the real problem. ## When to use it Use it when: - A discovery motion needs to work the same way regardless of which rep is running it — a new hire, a fill-in, or your best performer on an off day. - You keep losing deals to 'no decision' or a surprise late-stage objection, and suspect the real compelling event or the real decision process was never actually surfaced. - You want to see honestly which steps in the call still have no real technique behind them yet, not a checklist that looks complete but isn't. Not when: - The sales motion is genuinely transactional with no real discovery conversation (e.g. self-serve, low-touch) — forcing a discovery script onto a motion that doesn't have one adds process without adding signal. - You're still figuring out what actually separates a won deal from a lost one — go run the win-loss interview guide first, then write the standard work once you know what to listen for. - The 'key point' would just restate the step ('ask about budget') — a real key point adds a specific technique a step alone doesn't convey. ## How to fill it in - **purpose** — What does this call need to establish, and why does it matter for how the deal moves afterward? - **steps** — Drafted from your description of the call — major steps, each with zero or more key points and, for every key point, the reason it matters. A step with no technique yet is flagged, not hidden. - **narrative** — Drafted from the steps actually built. ## What good looks like The example below is a mid-market new-business discovery call — four of five steps carry a real technique and reason, and the close step is honestly left flagged rather than padded with a generic 'schedule next steps' instruction. Full worked example, on-screen and as a downloadable .xlsx: https://www.katafacts.com/katas/discovery-standard-work ## Common mistakes - **Writing a key point that's really just a question to ask, with no technique behind it.** — 'Ask about their timeline' isn't a technique — it's the topic. The technique is how to ask it so the answer is real instead of a polite deflection. - **Treating every discovery call as needing the exact same script regardless of deal size or segment.** — A rigid script that ignores what's actually different about an enterprise vs. a mid-market conversation produces the same failure work instructions warn against everywhere else in this catalogue: steps a person follows without judgement. - **Skipping the cost-of-inaction step because it feels pushy.** — Without a number the buyer calculates and defends themselves, the eventual business case has nothing real to stand on — this step isn't optional, it's where that evidence gets created. ## What it connects to Upstream: - **Win-loss interview guide** (`win-loss-interview-guide`) — A pattern of losses traced back to a specific discovery gap (missed compelling event, unsurfaced decision process) is exactly what turns into a new key point here. Downstream: - **Deal A3 — win-rate root cause analysis** (`deal-a3`) — When a discovery gap shows up as a recurring loss pattern rather than a one-off, that's the Pareto category a deal A3 chases to root cause. ## Where AI helps Judgement — stays with you: - Deciding whether a step genuinely needs a technique or is simple enough not to - Deciding whether a drafted key point reflects a real, usable technique or is worth sharpening Analysis — AI helps: - Drafting major steps, key points, and reasons from a rough description of the call - Drafting the narrative from the steps actually built Drudgery — automated: - Counting steps and key points - Identifying which steps still have no technique - Exporting to xlsx in the house format --- Discovery call standard work is licensed [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Attribution: Katafacts (katafacts.com). ## Using this skill Apply this method as part of whatever broader task, instructions, or deliverable you're already working on -- it's a method to use, not a standalone conversation to start. There is no generation tool for this catalogue yet, so draft the artifact's actual content yourself, following the fields above, the same way a person filling this out by hand would. The canonical guide page and a downloadable worked example (.xlsx) are at https://www.katafacts.com/katas/discovery-standard-work.