Comeback Playbook Checklist™
An Advisory✚ Tool from The Institute for Digital Transformation
Comeback Playbook Checklist™
This checklist grew out of a real fight to recover our own intellectual property. We lived through silence from a vendor, missed deadlines, broken promises, and a legal battle simply to regain what we already owned. That experience forced us to rebuild a critical part of our business from the ground up and redesign how we evaluate every major agreement.
The Comeback Playbook Checklist turns that entire journey into a clear, repeatable review you can run before you sign your next big company deal. No theory, no fluff. Just the questions, safeguards, and deal terms we wish we had enforced on day one, distilled from the ten part Comeback Playbook story we first told as a LinkedIn newsletter series.
Protect your IP before you sign the next “perfect” deal
Ideal Scenarios for using the Comeback Playbook Checklist™
You are negotiating a new vendor or platform agreement that touches your core IP, data, or methods.
You are entering a “strategic partnership” or joint venture where the other party is much larger than you.
You are granting exclusivity and want to be sure you can still operate if the partner stalls.
You are licensing your framework, tool, or survey to a distributor or reseller and need strong safeguards.
You are renewing a contract that never lived up to the promise and want tougher performance triggers this time.
See the risks.
Protect what you built.
Results from the Field
“The checklist turned a gut feeling into a structured review. It gave us the confidence to slow the deal and fix what mattered.”
What you can use this checklist for
✅️ Stress test new vendor and platform agreements before you commit.
✅ Protect your IP and data in partnerships, joint ventures, and co branded offerings.
✅ Align your leadership team on what “good” looks like in a deal before anyone signs.
✅ Expose vague promises and hidden assumptions before they turn into costly surprises.
✅ Turn verbal assurances into written milestones, evidence of progress, and clear consequences.
✅ Design a practical “exit path” so your IP and operating freedom come home quickly if priorities change.
This is not a generic contract template. It is a structured review built from the scars of a real small business and large enterprise partnership gone wrong.
➤ Opportunity and power map
➤ Readiness questions for your partner
➤ IP and data protection safeguards
➤ Commercialization and launch checkpoints
➤ Performance milestones and “prove it” evidence
➤ Reversion and step in triggers
➤ Governance, reporting, and escalation prompts
➤ Exit and clean up questions t
Use it as a structured walk through with your leadership team, your legal advisor, and any external advisors who help you evaluate risk.
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To purchase just the Comeback Playbook Checklist, click here.
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