--- name: win-loss-interview-guide description: "A question bank for interviewing a buyer after a deal has closed, won or lost — built around the real decision factors and the competitive alternative, not a sanitized recap. Use when: A deal has closed — won or lost — within the last two weeks, while the real reasoning is still accessible. You want the actual decision factors, not the polite, simplified version given at the time. You want to know specifically what the competitive alternative looked like, win or lose. Not for: The deal closed more than a few weeks ago — the real reasoning fades fast; a very late win-loss interview mostly recovers a rationalized account, not what actually happened. You're interviewing about an ongoing relationship or workflow, not a closed decision — that's a general discovery interview or a gemba protocol. You're not prepared to hear an honest account of a loss without getting defensive — the value of this interview depends on the buyer feeling safe giving you the real reasoning." --- # Win-loss interview guide A question bank for interviewing a buyer after a deal has closed, won or lost — built around the real decision factors and the competitive alternative, not a sanitized recap. Family: Voice of the customer · Format: .xlsx · Domain: core ## What it is A win-loss interview happens after the decision is already made, while the reasoning is still fresh enough to be real rather than a polished, simplified retelling. This protocol drafts questions built around the decision process itself, what specifically tipped it, and what the competitive alternative actually looked like — for both wins and losses, since knowing exactly what got beaten matters as much as knowing why something was lost. ## When to use it Use it when: - A deal has closed — won or lost — within the last two weeks, while the real reasoning is still accessible. - You want the actual decision factors, not the polite, simplified version given at the time. - You want to know specifically what the competitive alternative looked like, win or lose. Not when: - The deal closed more than a few weeks ago — the real reasoning fades fast; a very late win-loss interview mostly recovers a rationalized account, not what actually happened. - You're interviewing about an ongoing relationship or workflow, not a closed decision — that's a general discovery interview or a gemba protocol. - You're not prepared to hear an honest account of a loss without getting defensive — the value of this interview depends on the buyer feeling safe giving you the real reasoning. ## How to fill it in - **researchGoal** — What do you actually want to understand about this decision? Naming the specific deal and outcome sharpens the guide more than a generic 'understand win-loss patterns.' - **topics** — Drafted from your research goal — covers the decision process, what tipped it, the competitive alternative, and what would have changed the outcome. - **reminders** — Drafted for win-loss-specific technique — interviewing promptly, staying non-defensive on a loss. - **narrative** — Drafted from the research goal — how to run this conversation and get past the polite version of the story. ## What good looks like The example below is a Q1 enterprise win-loss guide: four topics from the decision process through to what would have changed the outcome, built to work for both wins and losses with the same question set, and reminders specific to interviewing promptly and without defensiveness. Full worked example, on-screen and as a downloadable .xlsx: https://www.katafacts.com/katas/win-loss-interview-guide ## Common mistakes - **Waiting too long after the decision to run the interview.** — The real reasoning behind a decision fades fast — what's left after a few weeks tends toward the simplified, face-saving version rather than what actually happened. - **Getting defensive or arguing the point on a loss.** — The goal is understanding the buyer's real reasoning, not correcting their account of it — defensiveness ends the honest part of the conversation immediately. - **Only running win-loss interviews on losses, never wins.** — Knowing exactly what got beaten on a win is as valuable as knowing why something was lost — skipping wins loses half the competitive picture. ## What it connects to Upstream: - **Deal A3 — win-rate root cause analysis** (`deal-a3`) — A deal that's already been through root-cause analysis on a stalled or lost pattern is exactly the kind of deal worth a deeper win-loss follow-up. Downstream: - **Voice of the customer (VOC) evidence log** (`voc-evidence-log`) — Win-loss quotes are exactly the kind of raw material the evidence log tallies — log them as entries, source type 'win-loss.' ## Where AI helps Judgement — stays with you: - Deciding which competitive detail is worth following up on versus a one-off comment - Staying non-defensive in the moment on a loss Analysis — AI helps: - Drafting decision-process and competitive-alternative questions from a stated research goal - Drafting win-loss-specific technique reminders Drudgery — automated: - Counting topics and questions - Exporting to xlsx in the house format --- Win-loss interview guide 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/win-loss-interview-guide.