Go/No-Go Worksheet for New PMs on Enterprise Campaigns (Light Version)
A short fillable worksheet for individual contributors approaching their first go/no-go conversation on an enterprise campaign — built to expose estimation bias before sign-off.
Six lines that make a campaign greenlight defensible
A junior PM walking into a greenlight without a worksheet is being asked to argue a case they don't have evidence for.
Individual contributors at enterprise companies are often handed a campaign greenlight conversation a week before it happens, with no structured prep. The worksheet below is a fast corrective: six fields, fillable in 30 minutes, that you bring into the room. It exists specifically because the estimation pattern — forecasts wrong in the same direction every time — gets through enterprise gates when no one in the room has the evidence to push back on it.
Use this worksheet for campaigns under twelve weeks. For longer or more complex programs, graduate to the moderate retrospective version.
The six-field worksheet
0 / 6- Original committed launch date. What the team is asking the gate to approve.
- Last three campaigns' average slip. From this team, in days. If the data isn't tracked, that's your first finding.
- Adjusted realistic launch date. Original date plus the average slip. This is the date you advocate for.
- Top two slip drivers from the last three campaigns. Specific, named — 'legal review,' 'partner asset delivery,' not 'unforeseen issues.'
- Mitigation in place for each driver. What's different this time. If nothing is different, the slip will repeat.
- One condition that would convert this go to a no-go later. A tripwire. Documented today, reviewed at the next checkpoint.
- Day -7Pull the dataGet original-vs-actual launch dates for the last three campaigns from this team. 30 minutes.
- Day -5Fill the worksheetAll six fields. If a field can't be filled, that's a finding for the gate, not a reason to skip it.
- Day -2Pre-shareSend the worksheet to the program manager and at least one steering attendee 48 hours before the gate. The pre-read is what makes the conversation tractable.
- Day 0GateWalk through the worksheet. The committed date should be the adjusted realistic one. The tripwire is documented in the meeting minutes.
This is a deliberately light worksheet. The discipline is in using it consistently, not in making it more elaborate. For the version that adds full retrospective analysis, see the moderate version; for the executive-facing greenlight question that complements this from the other side of the table, see the preventive question for marketing executives.