Strong interview process, one major blank, created a full strategy deck — do I still have a chance?

Hey everyone, Hoping for some outside perspective because I’m in the waiting stage of a senior interview process and my brain is starting to spiral. Role: Senior GTM / business development leadership role Context: The company is building a brand new function and needs someone who can design it from scratch — structure, systems, workflows, alignment with sales and marketing, etc. Here’s the anonymised version of what happened: ⸻ Stage 1 – Recruiter Got fast traction. Moved to the hiring manager almost immediately. ⸻ Stage 2 – Hiring Manager Before the call, I created an interactive deck outlining: • how I’d build the new function • workflows • compensation models • cross-department alignment • a development framework • ways to fix their current challenges It was fully tailored to what they described, not generic. The interview went well except for one moment: He asked a specific operational question and I completely blanked — not once, but a few times. Even when he rephrased it, I still couldn’t get my brain to fire. Stress + interview fatigue hit me hard. But despite that, he kept the conversation going and still moved me forward. He later asked for more detail on how I’d actually execute everything I proposed, so I created some flow charts showing how the systems would connect in real life and sent them as follow-up. ⸻ Stage 3 – Very Senior Leader This went much better. We connected well, went deep into structure, strategy, culture, and org design. He was positive and engaged. ⸻ Stage 4 – Another senior executive More direct, but still a good conversation. He said next steps might include an in-person meeting, but they need internal alignment first. ⸻ My background (very generalised): • I’ve built and led teams before • I’ve managed multi-region or international functions • Strong GTM alignment experience • Comfortable building zero-to-one systems • People-first leadership style • Showed a lot of proactive work and thinking in the process ⸻ Now I’m waiting The process moved quickly at first, and now it’s been quiet for a few working days. Normal, I know — but the blanking moment is eating at me, even though they still advanced me after it. ⸻ My questions: • Would a hiring manager still progress someone if the blank was a dealbreaker? • Have you hired someone who blanked once but was strong overall? • Does creating detailed plans and frameworks help or risk overdoing it? • Based on this story, do you think I have a decent shot? Would love to hear from hiring managers or people who’ve been through something similar. Thanks.