Brief · Use case · Corporate Development
Partnership Launch Plan.
LivePlanPlan the first year of a commercialization partnership, from term sheet to the first joint launch activity, with gates and owners.
Partnership Launch Plan is a ready-made use case for Corporate Development. It ships under the Plan template.
For corporate development leads. You get the objective and critical path, the milestones with exit criteria and owners, the gates and who decides, what could derail the partnership and the first move. Dates are cited or marked as gaps.
Add it to your library to reuse from New → From template. Edit the saved copy in your library on the service form.
The decision
What is the plan for the first twelve months of a commercialization partnership for a digital therapeutic, from signed term sheet to the first joint launch activity?
The steps of the plan
A partnership plan covers what happens between the term sheet and the market: the contract, the regulatory and data arrangements, and the way the two companies will work together.
| Step | What it involves | The clock or source |
|---|---|---|
| Contract the partnership | Turn the term sheet into an agreement that settles control, exit and the split of the work. The framework for choosing between building, borrowing and buying treats an alliance as a way to borrow capabilities.1 | Capron and Mitchell, Build, Borrow, or Buy. |
| Settle the regulatory and data roles | Who holds the regulatory file for software with a medical purpose, and which party is controller and which is processor for personal data under the GDPR.2,3 | MDCG 2019-11 on software qualification and classification, and the EDPB guidelines on controller and processor. |
| Set up how you will work together | Create the alliance governance and the knowledge management the partnership needs. A study of 1,572 alliances in 200 corporations found that the most successful alliance programs sit in companies with a dedicated alliance function.4 | Dyer, Kale and Singh, How to Make Strategic Alliances Work. |
| Prepare the first joint activity | Plan the first launch activity both companies take part in, with its owner on each side and its date. | Your own plan; durations marked as estimates. |
What the plan does
The partnership has a structure, and the plan names it. The plan says which of the three routes in the build, borrow or buy framework this is, and what it gives up in control compared with building or buying.1
Roles that cannot be left until after the launch. Who holds the regulatory file and who controls the data are decided in the contract, because both are costly to change later. The plan puts those steps before any joint activity.2,3
An alliance needs a home. The authors of a study of 1,572 alliances report that companies with a dedicated alliance function had a long-term alliance success rate 25 percent higher than companies without one, according to summaries of the article. The plan names who owns the partnership on each side.4
How it could fail. The pre-mortem probes the failures this plan invites: a regulatory file that does not transfer, a data arrangement that does not match how the product works, a partner whose priorities shift, or a launch activity that depends on a date the partner does not control.
Recommended length
Comprehensive
Several parties are involved and decisions have to be taken along the way. Comprehensive adds the gates, the responsibility table and the risk map.
You can pick another length on the form. The other two stay available.
Assumptions the plan checks
The plan states the assumptions its dates rest on and says which one would move the finish if it failed. Examples for this plan:
- The partner holds the regulatory documentation the product needs, and it can be used for the launch.
- The data arrangement matches how personal data actually flow through the product.
- Each side names one accountable owner for the partnership.
Standards, guidance and sources
Structure and governance
Regulatory and data roles
The decision practice behind the memo itself is on the template page.
What gets flagged
Any date that depends on the partner, any regulatory or data role not yet settled in the contract, and any figure about alliance success that rests on a summary of the article.
What arrives
- The objective
- The sequence
- Gates and decisions
- Who is needed
- Dependencies and external clocks
- What could derail it
- The first move
What it will not do
It does not promise dates. Each duration is sourced or marked as an estimate, and an unpublished deadline is a gap.
It does not draft the contract, and it is not legal advice on the term sheet.
It does not guarantee the dates. The durations are sourced or marked as estimates, and the plan says which.
It does not invent an agency’s deadlines. A deadline that is not published is a gap.
It does not run the plan. It gives an owner the first move and the criteria for the next gate.
References
- [1] Capron, L. and Mitchell, W. Build, Borrow, or Buy: Solving the Growth Dilemma. Harvard Business Review Press, 2012. Read from the INSEAD description; the book was not read.
- [2] Medical Device Coordination Group. MDCG 2019-11: Guidance on qualification and classification of software in Regulation (EU) 2017/745 and Regulation (EU) 2017/746. October 2019. The group has issued a revision; check the current version.
- [3] European Data Protection Board. Guidelines 07/2020 on the concepts of controller and processor in the GDPR. Version 2.1, adopted 7 July 2021; minor corrections 20 September 2022.
- [4] Dyer, J. H., Kale, P. and Singh, H. How to Make Strategic Alliances Work. MIT Sloan Management Review, 2001;42(4):37–43. Figures as given in publisher pages and summaries; the article was not read in full.
Links checked 9 October 2026
These are the sources the template drew on. None of their authors or issuers has reviewed it.
About the Brief service
A Brief is a written answer from one specialist, at the depth you asked for. It arrives with its sources, and it closes by saying plainly what would change the conclusion. Nothing is hidden behind a summary, and anything the expert could not source is marked as a gap rather than filled in.
To edit a saved template, open New → Brief → From template, or the library rail on the service form.