/eol-stakeholder-sequence

EOL Stakeholder Sequence Example — Industrial

Product: NFA-200 series retrofit controller (Northfield Automation) Level: 3 — Heavy · Stops: 11 Context: ~120 installations, 8 channel partners, service contracts through 2028, UL 508A and CE certified, spare parts in the field. The NFA-500 is not a drop-in. The internal driver is manufacturing wanting the line back — customers are not asking for this.

Note on what's being sequenced: these conversations lead to an End-of-Sale announcement with no EOL date, because there's no validated retrofit path yet. That shapes several stops — most visibly Executive leadership, where the ask is to accept EOS-now instead of the EOL they requested.

## EOL Stakeholder Sequence: NFA-200 Series Retrofit Controller

**Level**: 3 -- Heavy
**Stops in scope**: 11
**Stops deliberately skipped**: None

### Sequencing Principle

Talk to the people who can kill the plan before you talk to the people
who have to execute the plan. Each conversation informs the next.

---

### Stop 1: Legal (contracts)

**When**: Before anything else

**Why this stop matters for EOL**:
- Service terms run past the sunset

**What you need FROM them**:
- Latest service agreement end date?
- Do any agreements auto-renew?
- What parts obligations do contracts create?

**What you owe TO them**:
- Full installed base and contract list
- Three weeks for the audit

**Red flags to watch for**:
- Agreements extending past 2028
- Perpetual or evergreen service terms

**Output of this conversation**:
- Confirmed obligation end date per account

### Stop 2: Regulatory and Compliance

**When**: In parallel with Legal

**Why this stop matters for EOL**:
- Certification status affects customer compliance

**What you need FROM them**:
- Does EOS affect UL or CE marking?
- Which customers run validated processes?
- What change-control documents do they need?

**What you owe TO them**:
- Draft timeline and product disposition
- Notice before any public statement

**Red flags to watch for**:
- Customers needing filings to change controllers
- Certification lapsing on discontinued product

**Output of this conversation**:
- Change-control package and customer list

### Stop 3: Finance

**When**: After Legal confirms obligation dates

**Why this stop matters for EOL**:
- Service wind-down revenue is multi-year

**What you need FROM them**:
- Service revenue through 2028?
- Carrying cost of spares inventory?
- Budget for retrofit assessments?

**What you owe TO them**:
- Obligation end dates from Legal
- Last-time-buy demand estimate

**Red flags to watch for**:
- Spares inventory already written down
- Service margin depends on this line

**Output of this conversation**:
- Approved wind-down financial plan

### Stop 4: Operations and Supply Chain

**When**: After Finance

**Why this stop matters for EOL**:
- Parts coverage sets the service commitment

**What you need FROM them**:
- Can we hold spares through 2028?
- What is the final component buy?
- When must the last build run?

**What you owe TO them**:
- Firm last-time-buy window
- Demand forecast from Channel

**Red flags to watch for**:
- Components already end-of-life upstream
- No room to store 2028 spares

**Output of this conversation**:
- Final build plan and spares commitment

### Stop 5: Executive leadership

**When**: After Stops 1-4, with evidence in hand

**Why this stop matters for EOL**:
- They asked for something we cannot do

**What you need FROM them**:
- Approval for EOS-now, EOL-later
- Funding for the retrofit path
- Acceptance of service through 2028

**What you owe TO them**:
- Why a full EOL date cannot be committed
- What EOS delivers: the manufacturing line
- Cost of the alternative they asked for

**Red flags to watch for**:
- Pressure to announce an EOL date anyway
- Retrofit funding deferred indefinitely

**Output of this conversation**:
- Signed decision: EOS date, no EOL date

### Stop 6: Sales

**When**: After executive approval

**Why this stop matters for EOL**:
- Field promises never reach contracts

**What you need FROM them**:
- What has anyone promised about NFA-200 longevity?
- Which accounts planned NFA-200 expansions?
- Any open quotes to honor?

**What you owe TO them**:
- Firm last-time-buy window to sell against
- NFA-500 positioning and retrofit story
- Honest line on mounting incompatibility

**Red flags to watch for**:
- Multi-site standardization promised on NFA-200
- Expansion projects already in customer budgets

**Output of this conversation**:
- Last-time-buy target list and open commitments

### Stop 7: Channel partners

**When**: Before any public notice

**Why this stop matters for EOL**:
- They cannot hear this from customers

**What you need FROM them**:
- Current NFA-200 inventory held?
- Which customers are mid-project?
- Final order quantities needed?

**What you owe TO them**:
- Advance notice before public announcement
- Approved messaging and a Q&A
- Inventory protection or buyback terms
- Warranty and service obligation clarity

**Red flags to watch for**:
- Partner holding significant unsold stock
- Partner mid-bid on an NFA-200 project

**Output of this conversation**:
- Partner order commitments and messaging pack

### Stop 8: Service organization

**When**: After Operations confirms spares

**Why this stop matters for EOL**:
- They carry the 2028 commitment

**What you need FROM them**:
- Field tech coverage through 2028?
- Repair capability without new parts?
- Which sites need site-specific plans?

**What you owe TO them**:
- Confirmed spares commitment
- Training on NFA-500 retrofit work

**Red flags to watch for**:
- Techs retiring before the obligation ends
- Repair depends on a discontinued component

**Output of this conversation**:
- Staffed service plan through EOSRV

### Stop 9: Three key accounts

**When**: Under NDA, before public notice

**Why this stop matters for EOL**:
- Their lines depend on this controller

**What you need FROM them**:
- What would a retrofit cost your operation?
- What downtime window is even possible?
- What would you need to say yes?

**What you owe TO them**:
- Early, direct notice from a human
- Free retrofit assessment
- Clear statement: your units keep running

**Red flags to watch for**:
- Retrofit requires a production shutdown
- Customer assumed lifetime support

**Output of this conversation**:
- Per-site retrofit constraints and objections

### Stop 10: Engineering

**When**: In parallel with Stops 6-8

**Why this stop matters for EOL**:
- Safety patching outlives maintenance

**What you need FROM them**:
- Can we patch safety issues to 2028?
- What firmware work must finish first?
- Is the retrofit bracket designable?

**What you owe TO them**:
- Firm phase dates
- Retrofit scoping decision

**Red flags to watch for**:
- Toolchain for NFA-200 firmware unsupported
- Nobody left who knows the codebase

**Output of this conversation**:
- Safety patch plan and retrofit feasibility

### Stop 11: Marketing

**When**: Last internal stop, before announcement

**Why this stop matters for EOL**:
- Wording carries legal weight here

**What you need FROM them**:
- What literature references NFA-200?
- Distribution list for the notice?

**What you owe TO them**:
- Legal-approved language, especially on service
- Regulatory input on certification claims

**Red flags to watch for**:
- Draft implying an EOL date we did not set
- Marketing softening the incompatibility line

**Output of this conversation**:
- Approved notice and distribution plan

---

### Parallel vs. Sequential Guidance

**Must be sequential**:
- Legal before Finance: obligation dates set the revenue model
- Finance before Operations: budget sets the spares commitment
- Stops 1-4 before Executives: the ask needs evidence
- Executives before Sales and Channel: nothing external without approval
- Operations before Service: spares define the service promise

**Can run in parallel**:
- Legal and Regulatory: different questions, different people
- Engineering and Stops 6-8: no dependency
- Sales and Channel: same week, coordinated messaging

### Assumptions to Validate
- Assumes no service agreement extends past December 2028
- Assumes all 8 partners are current and none are being added
- Assumes component supply supports a build through March 2027
- Assumes executives will accept EOS without an EOL date

What to notice

• Legal and Regulatory run in parallel as separate stops. Same department in some companies, different questions entirely — one reads contracts, the other reads certifications. Splitting them is the adjustment the skill calls out.
• Executives sit at Stop 5, not Stop 1. They asked for a full EOL. Going in with four conversations' worth of evidence turns "we can't do that" into "here's what we can do, here's what the thing you asked for costs, and here's how you still get your manufacturing line back."
• Channel gets the richest "what you owe" list. Advance notice, messaging, Q&A, inventory protection, warranty clarity. Partners have their own customer relationships at stake — under-serve them and they protect themselves at your expense.
• The key-account ask is about constraints, not consent. "What downtime window is even possible?" gets you the retrofit reality. "Are you okay with this?" gets you a complaint.
• Marketing is last and constrained. In a regulated context the announcement wording carries legal weight, so Marketing receives approved language rather than drafting it — and the red flag is explicitly them softening the incompatibility line.