career bridge
The bound and the protected
Take the draft to both groups, ask what they would actually do rather than whether they like it, and answer every objection in writing.
You have a draft. It is currently a document written by one person who agrees with it. Policy that has never met resistance is untested, and the two groups whose views you need hold opposite interests and are almost never in the same room together.
What you do
Take the draft to both sides and let it be argued with. Find at least three people it would bind: somebody building these systems, somebody procuring them, and somebody in a small organisation with no compliance function, because rules only large firms can absorb quietly concentrate a market. Ask them not whether they like it but what they would do in response, which is a different and far more revealing question. Then find people it is meant to protect, or those who represent them, and ask what they would need to know or to be able to do for it to help them at all. Expect the two groups to name entirely different problems. Record every objection and classify each one: the ones where the draft should change, the ones where the cost is real and worth paying anyway, and the ones where somebody would simply prefer no rule at all. Write the reasoning for each, because a consultation that changes nothing is a consultation in name only, and one that concedes everything protects nobody. Then produce version two with a short response document saying what changed and what did not.
Done when
- At least three parties it would bind have said what they would actually do in response.
- Someone representing those it protects has said what they would need for it to help them.
- Every objection is recorded and classified: change it, cost worth paying, or preference for no rule.
- Version two exists and differs from version one traceably to specific objections.
- A response document states what changed, what did not, and the reasoning for both.
What you end up with
Version two of the instrument plus a response document: every objection recorded, classified and answered, with each change traceable to a specific one.
If you get stuck
The common failure is consulting only the people it binds, because they are easier to find and more articulate about cost. That produces something comfortable and weak. The other failure is treating every objection as either industry capture or plain truth. Most are neither. They are people telling you what they will really do, which is the most useful thing you will hear, and it belongs in the draft.