Consumer
›
Sports & Live Entertainment
›
Sports Technology
Fan Engagement
High-value sponsorship, premium experiences, and rights deals requiring coordinated multi-party engagement.
Satisfi Labs
Kipsu
YinzCam
Greenfly
Inside this journey
-
Pre-Discovery
Align the room on outcomes, decision process, and constraints before deeper discovery.
-
Stakeholder Alignment
Confirm decision roles, timeline, priorities (fan revenue, sponsorship inventory, app adoption), and success metrics across commercial, ticketing, ops, and sponsorship teams.
Alignment Questions
Quick check‑in: who’s in the room?
- Which people or roles will represent your organization for vendor conversations and alignment?
- Who will be the single final decision maker for selecting and signing the platform contract?
- Which teams must be engaged for implementation and post‑launch governance?
- How confident are you that these stakeholders share a common priority for the initiative?
- List names, titles, and best contact method for the people we should loop into discovery (paste org chart snippet if available).
Are we sure the right people are driving this?
- If success is measured in incremental revenue and sponsorship value, do the people on this project control the budget and the commercial relationships needed to deliver it?
- Where do the biggest cross‑team tensions live today (e.g., marketing wants reach, ticketing prioritizes access, ops prioritizes throughput)?
- Give an example of a recent cross‑functional decision that either worked well or failed — what happened and why?
- Who currently owns sponsor measurement and proving ROI for digital assets?
- How would you describe the internal appetite for change on a scale from cautious to aggressive?
What’s the real timeline — not the one we tell vendors
- What hard launch date(s) do we have to hit (season opener, sponsorship activation, renovation completion)? Please provide exact dates if possible.
- If you had to pick the project window that will determine success, which best describes it?
- Are there procurement, board, or sponsor approval windows we must align to? If yes, describe timing and decision points.
- What calendar constraints or blackouts (stadium events, renovation, NCAA/league rules) could limit launch activity?
- How much lead time does internal IT/operations need for integrations and testing?
What would success feel like — beyond PowerPoint metrics
- If fans were behaving differently in six months because of this platform, what three changes would you expect to see?
- Which of the following will be primary success metrics for your stakeholders?
- What are your current baseline numbers for the metrics you care about (per‑fan revenue, active users, sponsor activations)? Please list by metric.
- How precise should measurement be for sponsors (e.g., impression estimates vs. verified activations tied to revenue)?
- Who will own ongoing performance tracking and client reporting for revenue and sponsorship KPIs?
Where are the hidden roadblocks?
- If this project stalls, what is the single most likely cause — technical, political, financial, or cultural?
- Do you currently have the technical access we’ll need (ticketing/POS APIs, data exports, vendor sandbox/test environments)? Please list which systems and status.
- Which legacy systems have historically caused integration delays (ticketing, concessions POS, CRM, identity management)?
- How large a barrier is fan adoption expected to be for you (e.g., low smartphone use, privacy concerns, limited incentives)?
- Are there contractual sponsor obligations or measurement standards that could limit how we run activations?
Where will we draw the lines — roles, responsibilities & escalation
- Who will be the day‑to‑day project owner with authority to approve scope and unblock resources?
- Would you prefer a RACI (Responsible/Accountable/Consulted/Informed) across teams or a single steering committee for decisions?
- What escalation path should we follow if a launch risk emerges (names/titles and contact order)?
- Which of the following data governance or privacy constraints will shape integrations?
- What SLA or uptime expectation is non‑negotiable for your operations team post‑launch?
Ready to commit? Small first steps that prove momentum
- What is one low‑risk pilot we could run in 6–8 weeks that would meaningfully de‑risk the program (e.g., mobile ordering at a single gate, sponsor offer redemption, loyalty signup drive)?
- What minimal resources would you commit to that pilot (people, budget, promo inventory)?
- What would success look like for that pilot in 8 weeks (specific metric thresholds)?
- How willing are you to assign a single point of contact to run the pilot and attend weekly check‑ins?
- Can we schedule an initial alignment workshop within the next two weeks to map stakeholders, timelines, and pilot scope?
-
Current State Mapping
Document existing digital touchpoints, ticketing/POS systems, data sources, fan behaviors, and gaps that block off-event monetization.
Current State
Quick Team Snapshot — a fast orientation
- Who are the core stakeholders we should know about for revenue, ops, ticketing, and sponsorship (names and roles)?
- Which properties, teams or seasons does this initiative need to cover?
- In one sentence, why are you exploring fan engagement and off-event monetization now?
- How urgent is demonstrating off-event revenue lift to your leadership?
- List any recent digital or sponsorship wins we should be aware of (links or short descriptions welcome).
If Your App Went Silent, What Would You Lose?
- Roughly what percentage of your sponsorship value today is tied to digital activations versus static in-venue inventory (estimate)? What would you lose if digital activations vanished for a season?
- Which sponsors currently ask for digital deliverables (in-app offers, push campaigns, data reporting, audience segments)?
- Tell a recent story where a sponsor requested something you couldn’t deliver—what did they ask for and what was the outcome?
- How do your sponsors measure success today (select all that apply)?
- If sponsors began demanding more digital inventory, what internal concerns would surface (revenue, ops complexity, measurement skepticism)?
Where Fans Live Digitally (and where they vanish)
- Which digital channels and touchpoints do you actively manage today?
- For each owned channel you selected, please estimate a current engagement metric (MAU/DAU or open rate) or write 'unknown'.
- Which channels drive the most revenue per fan today (rank up to three)?
- Describe a typical fan journey that results in a secondary purchase (merch, concession, upgrade) — step by step.
- How frequently do you engage fans between events with promotions, content, or offers?
The Systems Behind the Scenes — Are They Talking?
- How confident are you that your ticketing, POS, and CRM systems can reliably stitch a single fan identity?
- Which ticketing, POS, CRM or middleware vendors are in your stack today? (select all that apply)
- What data sources currently feed into a fan profile (pick all that exist even if not integrated)?
- How often does data move between these systems (real-time, daily, weekly, ad-hoc)?
- What technical, contractual, or resource barriers have prevented deeper system integrations?
What Keeps You Up at Night (Revenue Edition)
- Estimate how much incremental revenue you believe is currently unrealized per season because fans aren’t engaged between events (ranges are fine).
- Which fan actions would most directly move the needle on revenue for you?
- What is your current baseline per-fan revenue and what target would be meaningful to leadership?
- Have you run experiments (offers, push campaigns, loyalty tiers, gamification)? Briefly describe one that succeeded and one that failed—why?
- What measurement gaps stop you from confidently proving revenue lift to executives and sponsors?
Hard Truths About Adoption — Why Fans Don’t Download
- If most fans never install or reuse the app, what would that imply about your long-term fan strategy?
- How do people discover and install your app today (select all that apply)?
- What incentives or activation mechanics have you tested to get installs and sustained engagement (drops, discounts, exclusive content)?
- Approximately what percent of event attendees have your app installed versus actively engaging weekly?
- When people go inactive or uninstall, do you have feedback or hypotheses about why? Share specifics if you have them.
- What budget, team capacity, or channels can you commit to post-launch activation and retention?
People, Process, and Politics — Who Signs Off?
- If we needed to launch a revenue-driving feature next month, who could realistically greenlight it—and who could block it?
- Which internal teams must approve data sharing, commercial terms, or sponsor measurement (select all that apply)?
- How is sponsorship measurement and reporting currently governed—formal SLAs, periodic reporting, or ad-hoc?
- What procurement, exclusivity, or vendor contract terms could meaningfully delay integrations or launch?
- What is the typical internal decision timeline for projects like this (weeks to approve, months to launch)?
Small Tests, Big Proofs — Where Would You Pilot?
- If you could run one small pilot that would prove measurable revenue or sponsor value in 6–8 weeks, what bold test would you run?
- Which fan segments or venue zones would be ideal for a pilot?
- What minimal technical integrations are required to run that pilot (select all that apply)?
- What specific success metrics would make the pilot an unambiguous win for revenue and sponsorship?
- Who on your team will be accountable to run and measure the pilot (name/role)?
The Unsaid Risks — Be Honest
- What’s one internal truth about your current tech, contracts, or team capacity you rarely share but would help surface now?
- How much schedule slippage can leadership tolerate before a season launch is considered compromised?
- Do you have legacy exclusivity or data-sharing agreements with vendors that limit new integrations?
- What would be the fiscal or strategic cost of delaying this program by a full season?
- On a scale from 1–5, how willing is leadership to trade immediate revenue for long-term data ownership and audience growth?
-
-
Outcome Discovery
Define target metrics (per-fan revenue, DAU, sponsor activations), acceptance criteria, and what must be true to declare success.
Discovery Questions
Start with the Scoreboard
- To get us started, how would you describe your current business health in one short sentence (revenue, engagement, sponsor sentiment)?
- Which of these headline metrics do you currently monitor for fan monetization and engagement? (select all that apply)
- Of the metrics you've chosen, which are tracked reliably in dashboards you use today?
- Tell us about one metric that recently moved in the right direction—what changed and who made it happen?
- Who owns measurement and reporting for fan revenue and sponsor KPIs today?
Where Revenue Hides (And Why We Miss It)
- Why are dollars that fans would happily spend still slipping through the cracks at your club/venue?
- Which off-event or between-event monetization opportunities are you actively pursuing or piloting right now? (select all that apply)
- Which technical or operational blockers most often stop a revenue opportunity from closing?
- How frequently do your fans engage with a digital touchpoint between events?
- Share a concrete example when a fan wanted to buy or engage but the experience failed—what happened and how did it feel to the team?
Are We Settling for 'Good Enough'?
- When was the last time leadership accepted ‘average’ digital engagement as success — and what was the reasoning?
- Which assumptions about fan behavior or sponsor value are currently guiding your digital strategy? (select all that apply)
- Which one of those assumptions, if proven wrong, would force the biggest shift in priorities?
- If we proposed a 90‑day test to challenge one assumption, what would you most want to learn or measure?
- Who internally would need to buy into that test for it to run without constant roadblocks?
What Winning Actually Looks Like
- Imagine a season where digital channels materially increase revenue and sponsor ROI—what does that season feel like to you and your team?
- Give three specific, numeric targets you'd be proud to hit in Year 1 from this partnership (e.g., $/fan, DAU, sponsor activations).
- Which single metric would be your non-negotiable proof of success (pick one)?
- By what date would you expect to see the first meaningful lift that convinces stakeholders this is working?
- How would you want sponsor partners to describe the value they received in plain language (one sentence)?
The Proof You'll Accept
- What specific evidence would convince you this platform is more than a pilot and deserves scale?
- Which data sources must be included in any success report? (select all that apply)
- What attribution window or model do you prefer for measuring sponsor and revenue impact?
- What minimum percentage uplift or absolute dollar change would you need to see to call the project a success?
- Who must sign off on the final success report before the initiative is declared successful?
What Could Break This?
- What's the single thing that would make this initiative fail before it even gets to pilot?
- From this list, which risks feel most likely to derail the project? (pick up to 3)
- For the top risk you picked, what mitigation or contingency has worked previously or could work here?
- Are there contractual or vendor exclusivity issues (ticketing, POS, sponsorship) that would limit integrations or measurement?
- How much schedule flexibility do you have if integrations take longer than expected?
Let's Agree the First Small Win
- Which concrete, low-risk pilot should we commit to first to demonstrate value within 90 days?
- What short-term KPI and numeric target will define that pilot as a success (please be specific)?
- What resources can you commit to the pilot (select all you can guarantee)?
- Who will be the single accountable owner for running the pilot from your side (name/role)?
- If the pilot hits its target, what next step would you want us to take together?
- How would you prefer we communicate pilot progress and results to internal stakeholders and sponsors?
-
Solution Experience
Translate goals into a scenario-led walkthrough showing how the platform drives revenue, sponsorship activations, and sustained app engagement in your context.
Experience Meetings
- Experience Preparation & Preconditions Alignment
- Scenario-Led Solution Walkthrough (Revenue & Engagement)
- Sponsor Activation Proof & Measurement Session
- Fan Adoption & Retention Playbook Workshop
- Executive Validation & Pilot Decision
- Produce a concrete, owner-assigned campaign calendar and incentive plan that supports the scenario's adoption targets.
- Seller to deliver the scenario replay artifact (recording, annotated flows, and the ROI model) within 48 hours.
- Customer to review and annotate validation breakpoints where the walkthrough didn't match reality and return notes within 5 business days.
- Jointly create a prioritized list of technical integrations required for the pilot and assign owners.
- If ROI threshold is met, schedule the Sponsor Activation Proof Session and Fan Adoption Workshop.
- Sponsor Goals & Current Limitations
- Align on sponsor activation designs that are feasible in the customer's environment and tied directly to measurable KPIs.
- Agree on an attribution and reporting approach that sponsors and finance will accept as credible.
- Define a pilot activation package (scope, timeline, price/model) to prove value for sponsors.
- Create sample sponsor report templates and a measurement playbook tailored to the customer's KPIs.
- Customer to identify 1-2 sponsor partners willing to participate in a pilot and share creative/spec requirements.
- Seller and customer to finalize pilot commercial terms and success criteria for the sponsor activation pilot.
- Review Walkthrough Outcomes & Targeted Adoption Metrics
- Introductions & Meeting Objective
- Define measurement cadence and guardrails to iterate quickly based on real-world results.
- Clarify operational responsibilities (marketing, ops, ticketing) for launch and ongoing adoption activities.
- Marketing owner to produce the first 8-week campaign assets and channel plan; seller to provide creative templates and sponsor co-brand specs.
- Ops to define staff scripts and in-venue placement plans for app acquisition incentives and report back with cost estimates.
- Set up weekly measurement meetings for the first 12 weeks post-launch and configure dashboards to track agreed KPIs.
- One-sentence Replays: Current State, Consequence, Future State
- Obtain executive sign-off to proceed to a pilot or define required changes to reach a go/no-go decision.
- Confirm pilot success criteria, timeline, and cross-organizational owners to enable rapid implementation.
- Establish governance cadence (weekly/biweekly) and executive contacts for escalation and sponsor communication.
- If approved, seller to produce a pilot Statement of Work (scope, deliverables, timing, commercial terms) within 5 business days.
- Customer exec to designate a single pilot sponsor owner and a technical liaison for integration onboarding.
- Schedule the first pilot kickoff and steering meeting with confirmed owners and attendees.
- Produce one clear sentence for current state, consequence, and future state that the entire room signs off on.
- Agree on 1-2 concrete, measurable walkthrough scenarios and the persona(s) to drive them.
- Collect commitment on required data/artifacts and delivery dates so the walkthrough can be evidence-based.
- Confirm who from the customer will attend the Solution Experience and who owns pre-work items.
- Customer to provide agreed data extracts (ticketing, concessions, CRM engagement metrics) and venue maps by the committed date.
- Seller to build initial ROI/calculation template using provided metrics and circulate before the walkthrough.
- Assign owner for each pre-work artifact (data, sponsor creative, sample POS flows) and confirm delivery timelines.
- Schedule the scenario-led walkthrough once artifacts are delivered and validated.
- Recap Preconditions (Current State, Consequence, Future State)
- Validate that the platform, in the customer's context, demonstrably produces the defined future state outcomes.
- Obtain explicit customer confirmations or clarifications at each validation breakpoint to prevent later surprises.
- Agree on a preliminary incremental impact estimate (per-fan revenue, DAU lift, sponsor KPIs) for the shown scenario.
- Identify any critical integration or data gaps that would prevent achieving the demonstrated outcomes.
- Articulate Current State (One Sentence)
- Top-line Proof Summary
- Audience Segments & Incentives
- Activation Walkthrough (Multiple Placements)
- Scenario Introduction & Success Criteria
- Measurement & Attribution Design
- Campaign Calendar & Channel Mix
- Pilot Scope, Success Criteria & Timeline
- Surface Consequence (Quantify Impact)
- Live Fan Journey Walkthrough - Revenue Flow
- Define Future State (One Sentence Outcome)
- Risks, Dependencies & Mitigations
- Pilot Activation Plan & Commercial Implications
- Operational Playbook: Event Day Journeys & Staff Roles
- Proof: Data & Measurement Demonstration
- Sponsor Activation Walkthrough (embedded in scenario)
- Decision & Next Governance Steps
- Validation & Sign-off Criteria
- Confirm Walkthrough Scenario(s)
- Measurement & Iteration Plan
- Data & Artifact Checklist
-
Solution Scope
Define modules (app features, loyalty, mobile ordering, gamification), integrations, responsibilities, timeline, and measurable deliverables.
Scope Configuration
- Branded Fan Mobile App Build
- Mobile F&B Ordering Integration
- In-Seat Upsell & Seat Upgrade Purchases
- Loyalty Points Engine & Redemption
- Gamification Campaign Engine Deployment
- Unified Fan Profile Data Layer
- Ticketing System Integration
- POS Transaction Integration
- Sponsorship Digital Ad Inventory Deployment
- Real-Time Push Notifications & Geofencing
- CRM Sync and Segment Activation
- Fan Analytics & Revenue Dashboard
- Mobile Wallet Ticketing and Passes
Scope Questions
Branded Fan Mobile App Build
- Do you want a native branded mobile app as part of this scope?
- Which platforms should the app support at launch?
- Do you currently have an app or codebase we should reuse or replace?
- List the top 5 must-have user flows for the app (e.g., login, ordering, loyalty, tickets, notifications).
- What is your target launch window or deadline?
- Who will own app content and maintenance after launch (team/role)?
Mobile F&B Ordering Integration
- Do you want in-app F&B ordering for pickup, express pickup, delivery to seat, or all?
- Which POS or F&B systems must be integrated?
- What average and peak order volumes should integrations support (orders/hour)?
- Do you require menu & inventory sync (real-time) and modifiers support?
- How will in-venue fulfillment be handled (existing staff, dedicated runners, third-party)?
- Are there tax, tip, or payment processor requirements we must support?
In-Seat Upsell & Seat Upgrade Purchases
- Do you want fans to purchase seat upgrades or premium seat upsells via the app?
- Which ticketing provider manages seat inventory and must be integrated?
- Will upgrades require real-time seat inventory checks and seat swaps?
- What pricing and payment flows are required (dynamic pricing, promo codes, split payment)?
- Who will own approvals, refund rules, and customer support for seat changes?
- What acceptance criteria will determine the feature is launched successfully (e.g., conversion %, revenue per event)?
Loyalty Points Engine & Redemption
- Do you want a points-based loyalty program, tiered membership, or both?
- What actions should earn points (attend games, purchases, social, referrals)?
- How should points be redeemed (discounts, exclusive offers, F&B, merchandise, experiences)?
- Do you require rules for expiration, tier promotion, and fraud prevention?
- Will loyalty identities be linked to ticket buyer records, email, phone, or anonymous device IDs?
- What KPIs will determine loyalty success (retention lift, repeat purchase, ARPU)?
Gamification Campaign Engine Deployment
- Which gamification types are you planning to run (predictions, leaderboards, scavenger hunts, badges)?
- Do you need season-long campaigns or short-term event-specific activations?
- What reward types will be offered (loyalty points, merch, sponsor experiences)?
- What targeting criteria should campaigns support (seat location, ticket tier, past purchases)?
- Who will be the campaign owners and approvers (marketing, sponsorships, ops)?
- How will success be measured for gamification (engagement rate, conversions, sponsor activations)?
Unified Fan Profile Data Layer
- Which data sources must be unified (ticketing, POS, CRM, web, app, third-party)?
- What unique identifiers do you currently have (email, phone, ticket ID, loyalty ID)?
- Do you have consent and privacy requirements (GDPR, CCPA, marketing opt-in) that affect data sync?
- What sync frequency do you require for the profile layer (real-time, hourly, daily)?
- Are there downstream systems that require push or pull access to unified profiles (CRM, ad platforms, sponsor dashboards)?
- Do you have data retention, anonymization, or PII minimization policies we must enforce?
Ticketing System Integration
- Which ticketing provider(s) are in use and require integration?
- Do you need real-time inventory and order status sync or periodic reconciliation?
- Will single sign-on or identity linking between ticketing and app be required?
- Are there seat map or venue geometry integrations required for in-seat services and wayfinding?
- What level of API access does your ticketing provider allow (public APIs, enterprise APIs, none)?
- Who manages ticketing-related customer support and dispute resolution?
POS Transaction Integration
- Which POS vendors and payment processors need to be integrated?
- Which transaction fields are required in the integration (line item, basket, modifiers, tender type)?
- Do you require revenue attribution to campaigns, sponsors, or loyalty redemptions in transactions?
- What is your expected daily transaction volume and peak throughput requirements?
- Will POS integration be real-time (API) or batched (file exports)?
- Are there PCI, tokenization, or other security requirements for handling payments?
Sponsorship Digital Ad Inventory Deployment
- What types of digital sponsorship inventory do you want to offer (in-app banners, interstitials, sponsored gamification, push sponsorships)?
- Do sponsors require measurement by impressions, clicks, activations, or downstream conversions?
- Will sponsor creative be hosted by your team, delivered via ad server, or uploaded to our platform?
- Do you need brand safety, scheduling windows, or geo/time targeting for sponsor inventory?
- How will sponsor billing and verification be handled (impression reports, audit windows)?
- Are there existing sponsor commitments or SLAs that must be mapped into the deployment?
Real-Time Push Notifications & Geofencing
- Do you plan to use push notifications for marketing, operational alerts, or both?
- Will geofencing be used (stadium perimeter, concourse areas, sponsor zones)?
- What opt-in rates and consent flows exist today for push and location services?
- What frequency caps, suppression windows, or personalization rules should apply to messaging?
- Who will own message content, scheduling, and emergency override capabilities?
- Are there integrations required with third-party messaging services or CDNs?
-
Mutual Commit
Resolve commercial terms, SLAs, launch timing aligned to season/venue schedules, and governance for data sharing and sponsorship measurement.
Agreement Modules
- Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
- Master Services Agreement (MSA)
- Statement of Work (SOW)
- Service Level Agreement (SLA)
- Pricing & Commercial Terms
- Payment Schedule & Invoicing
- Data Sharing & Processing Agreement (DPA)
- Security & Compliance Addendum
- Integration & API Access Agreement
- Sponsorship Measurement & Reporting Agreement
- Launch Timing & Season Alignment
- Governance & Roles (RACI)
- Acceptance Criteria & Success Metrics
- Pilot / Proof-of-Value Agreement
- Change Order & Scope Management
- Escalation & Dispute Resolution
- Renewal & Expansion Option
- Termination & Exit Plan
- Third-Party Vendor Coordination Agreement
- Marketing & Promotional Asset Ownership
-
Deployment
Operationalize rollout with readiness checks, enablement, and outcome validation.
-
Pre-Deployment Readiness
Confirm API access, data mapping, test environments, promotional assets, and owners for acquisition and in-venue activations.
Readiness Questions
Quick introductions — who are we talking to?
- What's your role and primary responsibility for fan engagement or revenue?
- Which type of organization best describes you?
- Which season or event window is your ideal target for a launch (pick the top two)?
- What are the top 3 outcomes you are pushed to deliver this year?
- Who else on your team should be involved in this conversation?
What’s the one thing about your current digital approach that still surprises you?
- How would you briefly describe the fan experience today from the moment a fan thinks about attending to the moment they leave the venue?
- Which existing digital touchpoints do you actively control today?
- What metrics or reports do you currently have that quantify per-fan spend and engagement?
Why keep doing things the same way?
- If you continued to rely primarily on tickets and concessions, what would happen to your revenue goals next year?
- Where do you feel most frustrated when trying to activate fans digitally—technology, operations, content, or buy-in?
- How long have those frustrations been present, and what attempts have you made to fix them?
- Which assumptions are you currently making about fan behavior that might be limiting innovation?
- When you imagine a competitor or peer launching a successful app, what part of their approach do you most wish you could borrow?
Where is revenue quietly leaking?
- What is your current estimate for average per-attendee spend (all channels) at events?
- Which revenue streams do you believe have the largest upside with better digital engagement?
- What systems currently hold your transactional data (select all that apply)?
- Tell us about a recent example where a missed integration or data gap stopped a revenue opportunity—what happened?
- How confident are you that you can attribute an incremental dollar of spend to a specific digital activation today?
Who holds the keys and the veto stamps?
- If we needed a single sponsor-signoff, IT sign-off, and commercial sign-off to proceed, who would those people be?
- How does your internal procurement/contract process typically timeline from decision to signed agreement?
- Who on your team is responsible for data governance and privacy approvals?
- What concerns tend to cause the longest delays in decisions—budget, risk, technical fit, or sponsor alignment?
What would make sponsors stop asking for traditional packages and instead chase your digital inventory?
- What is the most frequent request you get from sponsors around digital activations?
- Describe one sponsor activation you’d classify as a clear success—what were the measurable outcomes?
- How granular do sponsors expect measurement to be (e.g., impressions, conversions, sales lift)?
- What would cause a sponsor to refuse a digital activation even if it drove revenue?
If we launched tomorrow, what would break first?
- Do you have sandbox/test environments for ticketing, POS, and CRM integrations today?
- Which APIs or integration points are likely to be the most time-consuming?
- Who owns API credentials and mapping inside your organization, and how quickly can they be made available?
- What operational processes (staffing, concessions workflow, delivery) need to change to support the new digital flows?
- How comfortable is your ops team with running pilots and iterative fixes during live events?
How do fans actually behave—versus how we hope they behave?
- When fans install an app today, what is the most common action they take first?
- What incentives have you tried to drive downloads and stickiness, and which performed best?
- How do you currently onboard new users—what channels and messaging work?
- What percentage of attendees do you estimate engage digitally during an event today?
What would success feel like 90 days after launch?
- Which of these short-term targets would make you call the launch a success?
- Give a concrete numeric target you’d want to hit for per-fan revenue uplift in the first season.
- What acceptance criteria must be true for you to greenlight full rollout after a pilot?
- Who will own ongoing measurement and the shared dashboard of success metrics?
What’s a small, low-risk test we could run that would prove the concept?
- Which of these pilot scopes feels most realistic for your next event?
- What sample size (events or attendees) would you consider sufficient to validate the pilot?
- What internal resources can you commit to a pilot (hour/week or roles)?
- What would make you stop a pilot early—list the failure triggers you care about.
What commitments will we need to move past discussion into a plan?
- Which of these deliverables can you guarantee within the first 30 days of engagement?
- What internal approval or sign-off must happen before we begin integrations?
- What timeline constraint—season start, venue renovation, sponsor activation—absolutely cannot be missed?
- If we leave this meeting with three action items, what must each of them be to keep momentum?
-
Deployment Enablement
Schedule sprints, coordinate vendors, assign owners, and execute promotional and in-venue campaigns to drive app adoption.
-
Validation Checklist
Verify integrations and QA, run pilots for ordering/gamification flows, and confirm tracking for per-fan revenue and sponsor KPIs.
Validation Questions
Starting Point: One-Minute Snapshot
- Which team, program, or venue are we focusing on in this conversation?
- What prompted this discussion right now—pick the top drivers
- What target launch window should we be working toward?
- Who will act as the day-to-day project lead from your side? (name/role)
- Have you previously deployed a fan app or engagement platform? Briefly describe what worked and what didn’t.
Who's Really Calling the Shots?
- If one person could approve this project today, who would it be — and what's the single reason they haven't signed off yet?
- Which internal roles must be aligned before launch?
- Which stakeholder holds final say over data sharing and sponsor measurement?
- Are decisions tied to a specific calendar (fiscal quarter, season opener, sponsor renewal)? Please select all that apply.
- Roughly who controls the budget for platform, integrations, and launch marketing (role/title and approximate range)?
- Where have you seen internal alignment break down on past digital initiatives?
Where the Money Slips Through
- Which revenue line would you most regret leaving untouched this season because of weak digital engagement?
- What is your best estimate for current average per-attendee or per-fan revenue (choose range)?
- Which of these revenue streams are currently captured in a digital, trackable way?
- Where do you believe the biggest opportunity is to increase revenue per fan (be specific: e.g., mobile ordering attach rate, sponsor conversion, off-event engagement)?
- Do you have historical conversion or attach-rate figures for ordering, merchandise, or seat upgrades? If yes, please summarize.
- If we demonstrated a reliable X% lift in per-fan revenue in a pilot, what investment or commercial model would feel reasonable to you? (range or structure)
What Fans Actually Do (vs. What You Think They Do)
- What’s one thing leadership assumes fans are doing in your app or digital channels that you can’t prove today?
- How do you currently identify and segment fans across your systems?
- What are your current engagement baselines for app usage on event-days and off-days (DAU/MAU or active users)?
- Describe the single most common friction fans report when they try to order, redeem, or engage digitally.
- Do you run experiments (A/B tests, localized pilots) to validate features? If yes, share an example that surprised you.
- Which fan segments are highest priority to grow or monetize right now?
Sponsor Pressure: Are You Meeting It?
- When a sponsor asks for measurable digital ROI, what do you typically deliver?
- Which sponsor KPIs do your partners ask for most often?
- Share one sponsor activation that exceeded expectations and one that under-delivered—what separated the two?
- How are sponsor campaigns tracked today (automation, manual, third-party load)?
- Would sponsors pay a premium for verified per-fan conversions or attribution? If yes, estimate the premium range
The Hidden Technical Roadblocks
- If one integration will quietly derail this project, which is it—and why hasn't it been resolved already?
- Which ticketing and POS systems does your property use today?
- Do you have APIs or middleware that let us extract or write the data we need (e.g., orders, ticket IDs, loyalty connections)?
- Are there legal, privacy, or compliance rules that will shape what data we can use (e.g., GDPR, CCPA, FERPA, sponsor contract clauses)?
- What engineering or vendor resources can you commit to integrations and testing (FTEs, contractors, existing integrator)?
- What would make integrations feel low-risk to your team (sandbox access, data mapping templates, vendor-managed build, guaranteed SLAs)?
What We've Been Tolerating
- What manual workaround are you most tired of explaining to new staff or sponsors?
- How many staff hours per week go to manual sponsor reporting, order reconciliation, or promo management (best estimate)?
- Which processes are most fragile and likely to fail on a high-attendance event night?
- Do you have persistent data quality issues (duplicates, missing ticket IDs, inconsistent identifiers) that block personalization?
- How do these tolerances affect how you feel about owning the fan relationship long-term?
Fast-Forward: A Win You Would Notice
- If we could prove measurable lift within 90 days, what would that proof need to include to convince leadership?
- Which three metrics would you show first to prove success?
- For each chosen metric, what minimum improvement counts as a win (either % or absolute change)?
- Who must sit in the results review (roles), and how will decisions be made from that review?
- What cadence and level of detail do you need in pilot reporting (daily dashboards, weekly summaries, end-of-pilot deep-dive)?
- If the pilot hits targets, what immediate next steps would you expect (scale to venue, commercial change, additional modules)?
What's It Going to Take for Change?
- What's the smallest, lowest-risk pilot you would sign off on today that would still feel like meaningful progress?
- Which modules should be included in that pilot?
- Which promotional levers will you commit to drive downloads and engagement during the pilot?
- Which external parties must be aligned for the pilot to run (vendor names, sponsor contacts, integrator)?
- What are the non-negotiable acceptance criteria for the pilot to be declared successful (operational and commercial)?
- What realistic timeline would you give us for approvals and kickoff if the pilot is agreed today?
-
-
Success
Review outcomes vs. targets, capture learnings, and maintain a shared channel for issues and enhancement requests to grow engagement and revenue.
Success Reviews
- Outcomes vs Targets Review
- Lessons Learned & Operational Retrospective
- Sponsor Performance & Commercial Review
- Governance, Escalation & Shared Channel Standup
- Growth Roadmap & Quarterly Business Review (QBR) Planning
Issues & Enhancements
- Activate a shared channel and triage workflow for immediate use.
- Product to add top 5 enhancements to the roadmap with ETA and resource needs.
- Sponsor Metrics Recap
- Provide sponsor-ready performance summaries that clearly demonstrate ROI.
- Resolve any attribution discrepancies that would affect sponsor billing or renewal decisions.
- Identify 1-2 upsell experiments and agree next steps to present to sponsors.
- Analytics to produce sponsor-ready one-pagers and send to commercial leads.
- Commercial lead to schedule sponsor review calls within two weeks.
- Marketing to prepare activation concept decks for proposed upsell experiments.
- Governance Structure & Roles
- Create a documented governance charter with named owners and cadences.
- Agree SLAs for incidents and enhancements and publish them to stakeholders.
- Welcome & Objectives
- Customer success to create the shared channel and invite stakeholders.
- Ops to publish SLAs and escalation matrix in the project wiki.
- PMO to implement the prioritization template and schedule monthly triage meetings.
- Performance-to-Opportunity Map
- Approve a 90-day growth roadmap with prioritized initiatives and committed owners.
- Secure resource and budget commitments necessary to execute the roadmap.
- Establish QBR cadence and a repeatable reporting template to track progress.
- Marketing to produce campaign briefs and expected impact estimates for approved initiatives.
- Finance to confirm budget allocation for the roadmap and notify stakeholders.
- PM to publish the 90-day roadmap in the shared workspace and schedule the first QBR.
- Validate whether each KPI meets the previously agreed acceptance criteria.
- Confirm the integrity of measurement and surface any data gaps requiring immediate fix.
- Identify and assign owners for remediation or formal acceptance within the week.
- Capture 3 immediate actions that will materially change KPI trajectory (if needed).
- Owner to provide corrected data exports and updated dashboards within 3 business days.
- Engineering to open tickets for any missing event tracking and estimate fixes.
- Product/Marketing to draft 2 rapid experiments to recover underperforming KPIs.
- Context & Timeline Recap
- Create a durable lessons-learned artifact capturing top 10 insights.
- Agree on 3 process changes (with owners) to prevent repeat issues.
- Produce a prioritized backlog of enhancements mapped to impact and owners.
- Program manager to publish the lessons-learned document and distribute to stakeholders.
- Assign SOP owners and publish revised runbooks within 10 business days.
- Prework Check
- What Went Well
- Proposed Growth Experiments & Timeline
- Incident & Enhancement SLAs
- Attribution & Measurement QA
- What Broke & Why
- Targets & Definitions Recap
- Shared Channel Setup & Rules
- Resource & Budget Alignment
- Sponsor Feedback & Commercial Impact
- Success Metrics & Reporting Plan
- KPI-by-KPI Results
- Activation Experiments & Upsell Opportunities
- Process Improvements & SOPs
- Change Control & Prioritization Model
- Data Integrity & Tracking Validation
- Agree Sponsor Deliverables & Reporting Cadence
- QBR Cadence & Stakeholder Invitations
- Prioritized Enhancements Backlog
- Cadence & KPI for Governance Effectiveness
- Root Cause Analysis: Wins & Gaps
- Decision & Next Steps