Stall diagnostic

Diagnose why a pilot stalled and pick the restart.

Six stalls and one-line restarts

Use this as a lookup table matching the flowchart.

Stall mode	Symptom	One-line restart
No economic buyer	Champion loves you; check-writer never in the room	Get the check-writer on calendar with ROI + criteria evidence
Vague success	We liked it / hard to measure	Rewrite 3–5 quantifiable criteria; re-baseline before next ask
Science project	Endless new use cases; no decision date	Pull back to the buying decision; freeze scope to written criteria
Quiet champion	Your only ally goes dark or leaves	Multi-thread users + EB; rebuild map this week
Procurement takeover	Legal/procurement owns the clock with no urgency	Loop champion/EB; tie every delay to the compelling event
Loved it, no budget	Hearts won; pocketbook closed	ROI cost-of-inaction, then reduce scope — not discount

Work the stall diagnostic worksheet with your team before the next customer call.

FounderNexus

If the pilot worked and the PO is stuck, bring it to FounderNexus. Operators who have closed this motion will pressure-test the ask — not cheerlead.

Claims and patterns on this page are paraphrased from practitioner session notes and the Startup Bible pilots page. See Sources.