01 · Presales & kickoff · Acceptance memo
If kickoff never wrote how variance closes, acceptance can only run on feel
At kickoff the delivery manager writes “what counts as done” into an acceptance memo that can produce a document. Acceptance day only runs that memo. Wishes outside scope cannot be treated as a reject.
The delivery manager looks at evidence, not at how the demo feels
The project manager makes sure scope is finished in sequence. The delivery manager makes sure “finished” can be admitted by both sides in the same sentence. That sentence has to enter the acceptance memo before the contract is signed: which document, which state, who operates, what record is left. The role does not appear the day before acceptance. If the memo is empty at kickoff, acceptance day will become a feel discussion. At eighty percent progress, he asks which line in the memo still has no evidence, not remaining person-days.
“Optimise it a bit more” has to split into two things. Defect: an in-scope path cannot finish, there is a document number, it has to be fixed before sign-off. Change: a new wish outside scope, scheduled separately, cannot constitute a reject. Owner, date, and whether it blocks go-live are different for the two.
The main experiment happens in kickoff week, not in the demo room
At a DC kickoff, the warehouse lead said “receiving that runs smoothly is enough”. The delivery manager split that sentence into two memo lines. Line one: a normal arrival can reach received, and leaves a document number. Line two: when actual received is less than expected, it must close in the system. The close record holds variance quantity, reason, closer, close time. At that time floor variance was still matched in WeChat — a fact that has to enter the memo at kickoff, not a surprise found on acceptance day. The warehouse lead signed line two. An out-of-scope stock report was listed as a change, with a note that it was not a reject condition.
The memo also has the acceptance person's name. If they are swapped at short notice for a leader who never joined the survey, the delivery manager reads these two lines first, and does not open every menu. His boundary with the Implementation consultant sits on cutover day: the delivery manager decides whether any in-scope defect still blocks go-live; the implementation consultant owns closing old documents and whether the floor will actually use it. An in-scope path that cannot finish cannot be explained as insufficient training.
Acceptance day opens only that kickoff paper
The first arrival on demo day received smoothly. The delivery manager did not click the next document. He opened line two of the kickoff memo and asked where the close record was. In the system that document sat on pending. This was not a new need. It was a signed path in the memo that still had no evidence. Treating “optimise after go-live” as a pass would have accepted a shortcut production would never use. Sliding cutover three days was executing the kickoff memo, not inventing a new standard on the floor.
Three days later the team walked a real arrival where actual received was less than expected, through close. All four fields sat on the document. Sign-off happened after memo line two was met. Whether the main path later falls back to WeChat is counted weekly by Customer success. The delivery manager does not write the acceptance floor as a usage survey. For the out-of-scope new report, he asked the warehouse lead to confirm again: if it is not in the memo, it cannot constitute a reject.
Who prepares each piece of evidence three days before acceptance also has to enter the memo. If the evidence owner is blank, even a test sign-off will leave the floor with no closed document to show. Each of the two memo lines carries a naming rule for evidence: document number, state, operator, time. Missing one item does not count as ready. A report they suddenly want to see on acceptance day, he asks the other side to handwrite “not a reject” in a blank on the memo before the demo continues. Without that line, the demo becomes new acceptance scope. The signature page only pastes those two kickoff lines and the evidence owners. It does not attach a stack of menu screenshots to fill space. If the evidence owner is on leave, the memo needs a named deputy, or acceptance day still counts as blank.