Confirm the three variables before an executive review

A business case usually rests on a handful of inputs. Before you present it to the economic buyer, get your champion to confirm those inputs in the story itself, then run the pre-presentation review so you walk in knowing what has been agreed.

Before you start. You need a value story on the deal and a champion willing to spend a few minutes in it.

The situation

The executive review is booked. Most of the variables in the case are still market estimates. If the economic buyer challenges one and you cannot say who confirmed it, the whole case loses credibility.

Why it matters

Every variable in a story carries a provenance badge with one of six states: market default, derived, seller-set, seller-confirmed, customer-explored and customer-confirmed. A number the customer confirmed reads differently in an executive review than one you typed in. Confirming is a separate gesture from editing, and it is the customer's confirmation that carries the weight.

Steps in valueIQ

Find the three variables that matter most. Deal page → Model Insights panel. The tornado chart orders drivers by impact. Then Customer Model → Variables tab: source chips show market_estimate or calculated for defaults and user_input or customer-confirmed for confirmed values. Toggle Show confirmed only to see the gap. Pick the three unconfirmed variables behind the biggest drivers.
Share the story with your champion, naming the three variables. Deal → Value Stories panel → open the story → Share. Enter the champion's email → Send invite. They receive a sign-in link, with a 6-digit code fallback in case a corporate link-scanner burns it. To send the email yourself, use Compose in mail app.
Let the champion confirm in the story. As an invited customer partner they click the variable and use Confirm value in the edit dialog. If they change the value, the edit applies live, and your later regenerations never overwrite it. The badge moves to customer-confirmed.
Watch the Share dialog. It updates in real time when the champion accepts. If the invite goes unclaimed, use Resend on the invite row.
Run the pre-presentation review. Story controls menu → Review before presenting…. For each variable you see the current reading beside the confirmed reading, a Diverging chip when the customer has moved away from what they confirmed, and the newest-to-oldest trajectory of what they explored. Use the toggle at the top to set the story's default reading to confirmed, so the number beside a "Confirmed by customer" badge can never reflect a later unconfirmed change.
Lock it. Controls menu → Lock for presentation. Seller-side edits freeze for 4 hours or until you release the lock. Customer-partner edits stay live.

What to say

To the champion, in the invite or a short follow-up:

"Three numbers carry most of this case: [variable 1], [variable 2], [variable 3]. Right now they are market estimates. Could you open the story, click each one and either confirm it or put in your actual figure? It takes a couple of minutes, and it means we walk into Thursday with your numbers rather than ours."

What good looks like

All three badges read customer-confirmed before the review.
No Diverging chip in the review dialog. If there is one, you can ask the champion why before the economic buyer does.
The exploration trajectory tells you something. A champion who pushed a variable up and settled lower has shown you where the ceiling is.
The story's default reading is confirmed, and the story is locked.