Module 4 of 12 · Async + Virtual · Two parts
Pursuit, Contracting & Project Startup
Module 4 comes in two parts: 4a · Pursuit & Contracting, then 4b · Project Startup. Open each part’s overview and keep its quick reference handy.
Module 4 throughline: You earn the right to lead a project by understanding the project you have stepped into, well enough to explain why every decision was made, take a view on whether it still holds, and say what winning will require.Module Videos
The module videos, Part 1 and Part 2. Watch these first. They set up both 4a and 4b.
AvailableOpen →Oakhaven Marketing Folder
The pursuit record for the Oakhaven Public Safety Campus. Download each file and work from the same documents the videos use.
- DOCX1 · RFP · Oakhaven Public Safety Campus↓
- DOCX2 · RFP Communications, internal and external↓
- DOCX3 · Go / No-Go Form↓
- XLSX4 · Project Budget Spreadsheet↓
- DOCX5 · Grace Proposal, Word version↓
- PDF5 · Grace Proposal, PDF version↓
Week 4 Live Discussion
The Week 4 live session slides: what changed after signing, what belongs on one client call, and the discovery questions every PM should answer before kickoff.
- HTMLWeek 4 Live Discussion · interactive slides→
- PDFWeek 4 Live Discussion · download↓
- HTMLWeek 4 Discussion Summary · recap of the live call→
Part A · 4a · Pursuit & Contracting
Module Overview
The 4a illustrated walkthrough: the polite-scope trap, SAFER, and sentence craft.
AvailableOpen →Quick Reference
The Scoping Playbook: SAFER cards, red-flag words, and sentence patterns to keep open while you write.
AvailableOpen →Contract Process Field Guide
The step-by-step contracting workflow: intake, tracks, the six priority provisions, and signers.
AvailableOpen →The Storyteller Role Field Guide
The questions behind the Centerline story, your part vs. the Storyteller's, and how the record gets captured.
AvailableOpen →Pursuit & Go/No-Go · FAQ
Scoring the chart, the hotline for a fast call, cross-studio coordination, and who has final say.
AvailableOpen →Part B · 4b · Project Startup
Module Overview
The 4b illustrated walkthrough: stepping in, getting ready to lead the project, and discovery.
AvailableOpen →Quick Reference
The Ownership Playbook: Go/No-Go, getting ready to lead the project, and the discovery questions.
AvailableOpen →What you will be able to do
- ✓Write scope you are willing to own, specific, finite, and clear about what is in and out, using the SAFER discipline.
- ✓Read the project you have stepped into and get ready to lead it: how and why Grace won the project, the Performance Expectations, the Experience Expectations, and the broad parameters that define it.
- ✓Evaluate a decision you have stepped into, form a view on whether it still holds, and bring it to your Principal rather than overruling it alone.
- ✓Confirm what the documents assume and discover what only the people can tell you, then confirm with your Principal that you are ready to plan.
Tools & resources
Tools & resources you will use
- Gap-Analysis Template
- Discovery Question Set
Listed items are the governance and operational tools tied to this section. Items marked “Participant generated” are built during the work.
The Archetype Lens
Owning the project is where ambiguity gets expensive, for three different reasons.
The Coordinator processes scope after the fact, the People Pleaser will not enforce the contract, and the Obsessed Designer advances work under ambiguity. Same absorbed cost, three roads.
Competent Coordinator
Logs and documents instead of intervening, trusts the meeting cadence over the timely call.
Obsessed Designer
Optimizes for the design, treats budget, client ops, and team load as someone else’s problem.
People Pleaser
Leads with relationship, says yes, softens bad news, absorbs cost to dodge the hard conversation.
Accountable Owner
Owns the intersections, reads signals early, stops work, presents options, protects the outcome.
A client requests work that is arguably out of scope.
Says yes to protect goodwill, and never prices it.
Pauses, prices it, and presents the client a choice through an amendment. The contract is a tool, not a weapon.
Meet the four archetypes in depth →