The paper contributes to the debate on the implementation of policy reforms developing a typology for implementation based on the initial agreement on means and goals at the time of reform design. It is argued that the volume and nature of knowledge gathering and stakeholder involvement required to gain approval of a policy and avoid the possibility of implementation failure should differ depending on the initial level of agreement, providing thus a more nuanced view on the importance of these factors than previous work. The argument is illustrated through a case study of the 2004 reform of the Mexican Technical Baccalaureate. This case study shows how knowledge gathering and stakeholder involvement affected both the design and implementation of a reform process and how political, social and cultural factors shape reform processes. (Contains 1 table.)