Course content
A walk through the twelve lessons, grouped into five movements from Foundations to Judgment.
What follows is a map of the course. Twelve lessons, grouped into five movements — Foundations, The Transaction, Delivery, The Long Run, and Judgment.
Foundations is a single lesson — Lesson 0 — that sets out why this industry behaves differently from classic enterprise software. Fragmented stakeholders, public failure modes, fixed deadlines, asymmetric risk. Everything that follows depends on a shared understanding of those constraints.
The Transaction — Lessons 1, 2, and 3 — looks at what clients are actually buying, what vendors are actually selling, and how to design the deal so that those two things line up. Most projects fail before delivery begins, in the gap between what was agreed on paper and what was intended in the room.
Delivery — Lessons 4, 5, and 6 — covers what happens once contracts are signed. Complexity accumulation and pace, the particular demands of operating for live sport, and the way accountability forms around data once systems are exposed to real decisions.
The Long Run — Lessons 7, 8, and 9 — takes the view from months and years rather than weeks. Service as the primary interface after go-live. What happens when a single mega client becomes company-defining. And the cycles by which organisations move between building internally, buying externally, and pulling capability back in.
Judgment — Lessons 10 and 11 — closes the course. When to propose, when to hold back, and how vendors survive and grow across cycles, mistakes, and market shifts. The accumulation of small decisions, and the importance of endings.
The twelve lessons
This lesson sets the foundation for the entire course. It explains why selling B2B technology in sports and media behaves differently from classic enterprise markets. It introduces the structural constraints that shape every deal, including fragmented stakeholders, public failure modes, fixed deadlines, and asymmetric risk. The goal is to align expectations before moving into buying behaviour, delivery, and growth.
This lesson looks at the client side of the transaction. It explains what organisations believe they are buying when they engage a vendor, including outcomes, risk transfer, reassurance, and political cover. It clarifies why technical specifications rarely tell the full story, and why vendors who misunderstand client intent struggle even with strong products.
This lesson shifts perspective to the vendor side. It examines what vendors truly sell beyond software or services, including responsibility, availability, judgment under pressure, and operational presence. The lesson helps vendors understand the gap between how they describe their offer and how it is experienced once the system is live.
This lesson focuses on deal design. It explains why many projects fail before delivery begins, due to misalignment between what the client is buying and how the deal is structured. It covers scope, pricing, risk allocation, governance, and flexibility, showing how contract design influences delivery behaviour and long-term trust.
This lesson explores why technically sound systems often underperform in real environments. It looks at complexity accumulation, delivery pace, organisational absorption limits, and coordination failures. The lesson helps vendors recognise when problems are systemic rather than technical, and how to respond without defaulting to product fixes.
This lesson examines what changes when technology is exposed to live sport conditions. It covers fixed start times, public visibility, emotional pressure, and limited recovery options. The focus is on design and operational choices that support resilience, recoverability, and credibility when failure is visible and time cannot be extended.
This lesson looks at how accountability forms around data once systems are live. It explains why data issues rarely surface where architecture diagrams suggest they will. The lesson covers ownership, trust, escalation, and blame dynamics, helping vendors understand where responsibility actually sits when data drives public decisions.
This lesson focuses on the phase after go-live. It examines how service becomes the primary interface between vendor and client, how definitions of success shift over time, and how partnership language evolves under sustained pressure. The lesson helps vendors navigate expectations without over-promising or disengaging.
This lesson explores what changes when vendors work with very large clients. It explains why mega clients can be company-defining, accelerating maturity, credibility, and growth. It also examines the structural risks they introduce, including product drift, power asymmetry, reputation coupling, and internal strain. The focus is on engaging with scale without losing control.
This lesson looks at recurring client behaviour over time. It explains why organisations move between building internally, buying externally, partnering, and pulling capability back in. The lesson helps vendors recognise these cycles, avoid misreading them as success or failure, and position themselves with clarity as strategies shift.
This lesson addresses a common tension vendors face around proposing ideas. It explores when initiative adds value, when it creates friction, and when restraint protects credibility. The lesson focuses on timing, context, client structure, and earned permission, helping vendors choose when to push, when to wait, and when to focus on delivery.
This final lesson steps back from individual deals and clients. It looks at how vendors survive and grow over long periods, across cycles, mistakes, and market shifts. The lesson focuses on judgment under pressure, credibility as a long-term asset, the accumulation of small decisions, and the importance of endings. It closes the course with a realistic view of what lasting success looks like in sports and media technology.