Customer diligence memo
Project Cedar
A fictional B2B platform for coordinating maintenance across multiple locations.
01 / The question
Does the product solve a recurring customer problem, and what would make its adoption durable?
This example shows how a small set of interviews can be synthesized without flattening concerns or treating customer enthusiasm as proof of every claim. Each finding identifies its source, its limits, and the next useful question.
02 / Executive synthesis
Useful in the workflow. Durability still needs testing.
The three illustrative accounts describe a useful coordination layer for recurring maintenance work. Their accounts suggest value in shared visibility and clearer handoffs. The evidence is less conclusive on deployment effort, adoption beyond an internal champion, and willingness to expand at renewal.
The strongest signal is day-to-day usefulness. The open question is whether that usefulness persists when deployment support or a customer champion changes.
03 / Interview coverage
Three perspectives, with different blind spots.
All roles and interview descriptions below are fictional.
- A
Head of operations
Owns rollout and cross-location coordination
Limit: Executive sponsor; not representative of every day-to-day user
- B
Business systems manager
Configured the workflow and supports integrations
Limit: Close to implementation; does not own renewal budget
- C
Regional service manager
Uses the product with a field team
Limit: One region; adoption elsewhere has not been verified
04 / Evidence & interpretation
What the interviews suggest—and what they leave open.
Finding 1 · Interviews A and B
Shared visibility addresses a recognizable problem
Both participants described fragmented status updates before adoption. A shared view made responsibility clearer and reduced the need to ask several people for the same update.
- Qualification
- These are reported experiences. No time study or independently verified efficiency measure was available in this example.
- Next check
- Ask a frontline user to walk through a recent task and compare the workflow with the previous process.
Finding 2 · Interview B
Implementation required more work than the initial setup suggested
The systems manager described a straightforward initial configuration, followed by work to reconcile location data and agree on ownership rules.
- Qualification
- A successful deployment does not establish that a similar account could launch without equivalent internal support.
- Next check
- Review a deployment plan with responsibilities, integration dependencies, and customer effort made explicit.
Finding 3 · Interviews A and C
Positive sponsor feedback does not yet establish durable team adoption
The sponsor sees value in consolidated reporting. The regional manager still prompts colleagues to keep work current, suggesting that usage is partly supported by a local champion.
- Qualification
- Interview sentiment is not a substitute for retention, usage, or renewal evidence. Those records were not part of this illustrative scope.
- Next check
- Speak with a less-active user and the budget owner. Test what would happen if the champion changed roles.
“We know who owns the next step now. Keeping everyone’s updates current still takes a nudge.”
05 / Limits of the evidence
A first layer of diligence, with explicit boundaries.
- The example uses three selected, existing-customer perspectives. It is not a representative market sample.
- No lost prospects, churned customers, or independent budget owners are included.
- Interview statements have not been reconciled with contracts, product usage, financial records, or renewal history.
- Account selection and the presence of internal sponsors may favor positive experiences.
06 / Direct follow-up
Reserve the next conversations for unresolved questions.
Budget owner
What would justify renewing or expanding, and what alternatives are being considered?
Purpose: Separate perceived utility from an actual purchasing decision.
Frontline user
Walk through the last task that stalled. Where did you work outside the platform?
Purpose: Check whether the workflow holds up beyond the sponsor’s view.
Implementation owner
Which setup work is repeatable, and which parts required customer-specific intervention?
Purpose: Understand deployment dependencies before extrapolating to new accounts.