## TL;DR
Fix this in the meeting prep briefer by acting on the exact message first: build the stakeholder map from contact titles plus reporting lines in the CRM, rank candidates by seniority and budget authority signals such as VP level or above and prior signer history, and name the top candidate as likely decision maker with the evidence listed. Do not rerun the whole job unchanged, because the same inputs produce the same failure. Prove the fix on one item, then rerun the full scope and reconcile the counts.

```text
Attendee research error decision maker not identified
```

## Use this when
- The operation in the meeting prep briefer fails with this exact message: Attendee research error decision maker not identified.
- The same failure repeats on retry with unchanged inputs.
- A call, review or send is blocked until this item completes.

## Not for this skill when
- The message is a permission or outage notice from the platform. Resolve that first, then return here if this error remains.
- The operation completes and you only disagree with its output. That is a quality review, not this failure.

## Steps
1. Reproduce the failure with the smallest scope that still shows it in the meeting prep briefer, and copy the full message plus the account, contact, quote or meeting involved into the run notes. Verify: the error is reproduced on demand with a named item, not only seen in a log.
2. Apply the specific fix for this error: build the stakeholder map from contact titles plus reporting lines in the CRM, rank candidates by seniority and budget authority signals such as VP level or above and prior signer history, and name the top candidate as likely decision maker with the evidence listed. Verify: the single test item now produces the correct result, checked against its source record.
3. Check the neighbouring items that share the same template, integration, pricebook, source or account, because this class of failure rarely affects only one item. Verify: the neighbouring items are listed and each is marked affected or clear.
4. Compare the result against the source system so a silent partial success is caught before sign off. Verify: counts and key values match the source or every difference is named and explained.
5. Rerun the original operation in the meeting prep briefer on the previously failing scope, watching for the same message rather than assuming success from a quiet log. Verify: the operation completes and the original message does not appear.
6. Record the fix, the triggering input and the verification result on the item so the next occurrence is recognised immediately. Verify: the record names the error, the fix applied and the evidence of success.

## Why it happens
The brief listed attendees only, and the economic buyer was never an attendee on the earlier calls, so no step looked beyond the invite.

## Variant phrasings

### Attendee research error decision maker not identified
The verbatim form searchers paste from the terminal or console. Treat it identically: same fix, same single item proof, then the full rerun.

### How to fix: how to fix attendee research error decision maker not identified fails
The how-to phrasing for the same failure in the meeting prep briefer. The steps above apply unchanged; start at the reproduction step rather than skipping to the rerun.

### Troubleshooting this failure in the meeting prep briefer
The symptom-first phrasing used when the console hides the full message. Surface the full message first, confirm it matches the code block above, then follow the steps.

Compatibility: the meeting prep briefer at current versions, plus the platform API or console the query names; no extra tooling beyond the source system access needed to verify counts.

## Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_mKWAqAaoWEEny8DwTe6JNQ