File: stage-1-02-interview-notes.md
Kestrel Medical: Interview Notes (Stage 1)
Test case. Gary's working notes from the interview with Sharon (stakeholder agent), 23-Oct-26. The word-for-word record is the Meeting Script.
Questions used
| # | Area | Asked | Covered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Question 1 + probe | Why / What | Problem and why now; probe on "undercut" | ✅ |
| Question 2 | What | Outcomes and numbers | ✅ (no win-rate number) |
| Question 3 | Who | Audience, decisions, format | ✅ partly |
| Question 4 | Why / Action | What to know, action, owner per outcome | ✅ |
| Question 5 | When | Year basis, growth base, next global date | ✅ partly |
| Question 6 | Where | Data, history, trust, why reports disagree | ✅ partly |
| Question 7 | Constraints | Privacy, global pack, charts | ⚠️ mostly open |
Key facts (Sharon's words)
- Lost three of the last five big tenders, each over five million dollars
- Gross margin about 41 per cent; global wants 43 per cent in 2027, plus 4 per cent revenue growth. Revenue flat last year
- Financial year January to December, set by global
- Reps say Kestrel is undercut 10 to 15 per cent "from what they're seeing"
- Losses: Southern Metropolitan Health Network, ED stretchers, 2024 ("I was told it was price"); Highlands Ambulance, powered stretcher renewal, 2025 ("about the stretcher as much as anything"); Western Plains Health District, acute care beds, 2025 (lost to Allied Clinical Supply, a distributor that bundles brands)
- Deb Harlow, bid manager: tender file and debrief letters. Tom Nguyen, finance: owns the Excel reports and the margin numbers
- Systems: SAP ERP, field service system, CRM (not trusted for win-loss), Excel, tender spreadsheet. Monthly reports from ERP extracts
- Three days a month reconciling thirty reports
- Pack for global first, screen in rep meetings second, not phone. Monthly
- Must speak to how Kestrel's market works, not global's standard view; automated and consistent
Corrections at playback
- Before: "discount and tender decisions are being made blind". After: Sharon believes it's price and wants the evidence to prove or disprove it
- Before: "My proposed target is better than half in 2027, for Deb to confirm". After: no target; left for Deb Harlow
- Before: "Target all of them" (monthly reports). After: one agreed set of numbers, with Tom checking the reports against it; target open
Gary's reading
- The real problem is a discount decision being made on belief. The debriefs may show product fit or bundling, not price. If so, more discount costs margin and still loses
- The Top 5 balances the margin side (gross margin, big-deal discount) against the win side (tender win rate), so the dashboard shows the trade-off rather than one side of it