Decision Gate ReviewsDavid Bol May 30, 2013

Presentation Outline

1. Understand the role of Executive Teams in the decision gate

decision and review process.

2. Examine each decision gate to better understand roles,

inputs, and questions to be asked/answered and decisions to

be made (outputs).be made (outputs).

3. Preview tools that help in facilitating high-quality decision

gate reviews:

a) Checklists

b) Flow diagrams

2

Business Capture Leadership Roles

Defining leadership roles and responsibilities for

pursuit decision gates is a critical success factor in

the overall business development process.

Leadership Role: Executives

Primary Responsibility

• Key Stakeholder for three

Gate Reviews (Preliminary

Bid, Validate Bid, and

Submit Proposal Decision)

Support Responsibilities

• Assist in developing the PTW

(price-to-win) strategy

• Assist in answering

questions and sign off on Submit Proposal Decision)

• Prepare for and conduct

negotiations

questions and sign off on

final revisions to cost and

technical volumes of the

proposal

• Assist in communicating and

celebrating the WIN

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Leadership Role: Vice Presidents

Primary Responsibilities

• Identify potential opportunities and

assess strategic fit and risk, initial pursuit

costs, and PTW assessment

• Build customer relationships and

understanding of programs

Support Responsibilities

• Assist in identifying and analyzing a potential

opportunity and gathering intelligence about the

customer and the competition.

• Assist the capture manager in determining customer

requirements and issues, assessing your competitive

position and influencing the procurement.

• Assign capture/opportunity manager and

identify management and technical leads

• Manage utilization of capture and

proposal resources

• Communicate and celebrate wins and

learn from debriefs of losses

• Assist the capture manager in defining the conceptual

solution and the PTW targets.

• Assist the capture manager in forming the core capture

team, managing the capture and proposal resources,

and supporting the proposal process.

• Assist the capture manager in preparing for the

preliminary and final bid gate reviews, orals and/or

demonstrations.

• Assist the contracts manager and executive officer in

negotiations and contracting.

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Leadership Role: Account / Capture ManagerPrimary Responsibilities

• Initiate, tailor, update, and manage the capture process

and plan

• Form the core capture team, and oversee use of capture

and proposal resources

• Determine customer requirements and assess

competitive position

• Determine and finalize the win strategy, discriminators,

price to win (PTW), and the solution

Support Responsibilities

• Assist the proposal manager in organizing the proposal team

and managing the proposal plan and resources

• Assist the proposal manager in developing storyboards from

the capture plan

• Assist the executive officer in conducting negotiations

• Assist everyone in celebrating wins and learning from

debriefs on losses

• Assist the project manager in transitioning to contract

• Initiate teaming and finalize the teaming agreements,

small business plan

• Make presentations at gate reviews, color reviews, and

proposal orals

• Write DRAFT Executive Summary

• Collaborate with the proposal manager on all phases of

proposal planning and execution

• Collaborate to ensure that all aspects of the cost and

technical volumes are consistent

• Deliver proposal, respond to questions, and oversee final

proposal revisions

• Assist the project manager in transitioning to contract

execution

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Decision Gates and Reviews

Executive Decision Gates and Reviews allow your

company to focus on the best opportunities to

pursue.

How Decision Gates Fit Within the Business

Development Lifecycle

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How Decision Gates Fit Within the Business

Development Lifecycle

� Decision Gates are supported by Color Team Reviews.

� Each Review and Gate has a specific purpose.

� Inputs and Outputs of Gate Reviews must be established and � Inputs and Outputs of Gate Reviews must be established and

managed.

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Effective Decision Gates and Reviews

� Require focus on the right topics.

� Require knowledgeable reviewers.

� Reinforce intelligent process

application.application.

� Help make decisions that have

positive impact on downstream

activities.

� Track progress using automation

tools – accountability.

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Preparing for Decision Gate ReviewsKey Executives and Stakeholders

� Be familiar with the sections of the Capture or

Opportunity Plan.

� Review the Capture Plan for the specific opportunity

in advance.

� Reserve the time to be fully engaged—make the gate � Reserve the time to be fully engaged—make the gate

review a priority.

� Prepare tough—but fair—questions in advance.

� Develop your own set of questions appropriate to

your executive responsibilities.

� Develop gate review checklists to gain ideas for your

questions.

� Quantitative data should inform decisions, but don’t

ignore intuition, determination, and gut reactions.

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Preparing for Gate ReviewsCapture/Opportunity Managers

� Update the Capture Plan.

� Schedule the Gate Reviews.

� Distribute the Capture Plan to attendees in

advance.

� Be prepared to answer tough, detailed questions

regarding the opportunity.

� Provide a balanced description of the

opportunity—do not oversell a poor opportunity

or be unwilling to take on a challenge.

� Don’t take decisions personally! Check your ego at

the door!

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� Use the Qualify Gate to verify the opportunity fits your strategic direction

and capability.

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and capability.

� Use the Pursuit Gate to determine if a formal capture should be initiated.

� Use the Preliminary Bid Gate to verify you are positioned to win before

committing to an expensive proposal effort.

� Use the Bid Validation Gate to ensure “show stoppers” are addressed.

� Use the Submit Gate to ensure conformance with company policies and

quality standards.

Gate 1: Qualify Decision

Occurs at the end of the Opportunity Positioning Phase.

Determines whether or not an opportunity is sufficiently

defined and needs further effort now to fully determine its

fit with your capabilities and objectives for further pursuit.

Objective 1. Determine if opportunity fits with strategic and operational plans.

2. Establish there is an approved customer project with a budget and an owner.

Decisions • Who will the own the opportunity and serve as lead?

• Proceed to Opportunity Assessment Phase to further qualify the opportunity?

Owner/Organizer Opportunity or Marketing Lead

Stakeholder Identify key stakeholders for each line of business

Gate 1: Qualify Decision (What)

Attendees Generally marketing leadership with senior BD/Capture team

Input Qualify Decision Briefing Package

Resources Allocated If needed:

• Staff support to Marketing Lead

• Opportunity research funding (Business Analysis/ Competitive Intelligence analysts)

Award Update 1. Initialize Award status to Exploratory

2. Update to Qualified, Canceled, or No-Bid

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Objective 1. Determine if opportunity fits with strategic and operational plans.

2. Establish there is an approved customer project with a budget and an owner.

Gate 1: Qualify Decision (How)

Primary Input From Capture Plan

(Capture Manager)

Decision Questions (Decision Maker)

Opportunity Overview � Is the opportunity real? Is it funded?

� Does the potential project have an owner? Do you know the owner?

� What is the customer’s perception of your company?

Business Case � Is the opportunity in a high probability quadrant (Current Service/Current Client) for you?

� Do you have adequate business development resources to aggressively develop the � Do you have adequate business development resources to aggressively develop the

opportunity?

� Do we want to win? Are there acceptable profit margins or other strategic reasons for

wanting to win?

� Does the opportunity conflict with other work being performed or anticipated?

Opportunity Fit with Company Plans � Does this opportunity support your strategic plan? Group Annual Operating Plan?

Marketing Plan?

Positioning Overview � Does the prospect know you are considering this opportunity?

� Are you an incumbent?

� If not, have you been actively calling on the customer?

Background, Mission, and Roles � Do you thoroughly understand the customer’s mission?

Competing Teams and Approaches � Do you know who the potential competitors are likely to be? Can you team with a

competitor if necessary?

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Gate 2: Pursuit Decision

Occurs at the conclusion of the Opportunity Assessment

Phase, providing a decision on whether or not to

establish a capture team and move forward to the next

phase, Capture Planning.

Objective 1. Determine if a win is attainable at a desired price to proceed to Capture Planning Phase.

2. Confirm/adjust initial win strategy.

3. Assess Price to Win (PTW) analysis and strategy.

Decisions • Whether to proceed to Capture Planning Phase to further plan and execute capture.

• Determine funding level for remaining phases and total pursuit.

• Assignment of Capture Manager and identification of Project and Proposal Managers, Tech Lead, and

Core Capture Team.

Owner/Organizer Marketing Lead

Key Stakeholders TBD

Gate 2: Pursuit Decision (What)

Attendees Marketing Lead, Capture Manager, Business Capture Center Director

Input Pursuit Decision Briefing Package (Extracted from Capture Plan), Capture Budget Request

Resources Allocated • Core capture team staffing

• Core capture team funding

• Core capture team facilities and materials (as needed)

Award Update 1. Update Award status to Capture, Canceled, or No-Bid

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Objective 1. Determine if a win is attainable at a desired price to proceed to Capture Planning Phase.

2. Confirm/adjust initial win strategy.

3. Assess Price to Win (PTW) analysis and strategy.

Gate 2: Pursuit Decision (How)

Primary Input From Capture Plan

(Capture Manager)

Decision Questions (Decision Maker)

Strategy and Solution Overview � Do you have a credible win strategy that can be clearly articulated?

� Do you have a conceptual solution with clear discriminators?

Decision Makers, Issues/Hot

Buttons

� Do you know the key decision makers and their issues and hot buttons?

� Do the key decision makers know you?

Contractor Role and Responsibilities � Do you have a clear understanding of its anticipated role?Contractor Role and Responsibilities � Do you have a clear understanding of its anticipated role?

� Are there any potential conflicts of interest for you?

Competing Teams and Approaches � What approaches are competing teams likely to take?

Your Competitive Position � How well do the opportunity requirements match your competencies?

Your Solution Overview � Has an Integrated Solution Worksheet been developed? Are there any significant gaps?

Risk Assessment � Is the performance risk level acceptable to you?

Leveraging Your Strengths � Have actions been identified to make you more deserving of a win? Is progress being made in

executing these actions?

Mitigating Your Weaknesses � Are there plans in place to mitigate your weaknesses?

Price-To-Win Analysis � Do you have sufficient knowledge of the prospect and the competition to develop a realistic

price-to-win?

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Gate 3: Preliminary Bid Decision

Occurs at the end of the Capture Planning Phase

and determines if sufficient Probability of Win (P-

Win) and capture preparations have been

completed to move to the Proposal Planning Phase.

Objective 1. Determine if sufficient Probability of Win (P-Win) and capture preparations are completed to move

to Proposal Planning activities.

Decisions • Whether to proceed to Proposal Planning Phase.

• Confirm/adjust win strategy, pricing, solution, win themes, and discriminators.

• Adjust, as needed, funding for all remaining phases.

• Assignment of remaining proposal team.

Owner/Organizer Capture Manager

Key Stakeholder TBD

Gate 3: Preliminary Bid Decision (What)

Attendees Capture Manager, BD Center Director, Group VP, BD VP

Input Preliminary Bid Decision Briefing Package (Extracted from Capture Plan), Proposal Budget Request

Resources Allocated • Core proposal team staffing (internal and external)

• Core proposal team funding

• Proposal team facilities and materials (as needed)

• Review team funding and staffing

Award Update 1. Update Award status to Bid, Canceled, or No-Bid

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Objective 1. Determine if sufficient Probability of Win (P-Win) and capture preparations are completed to

move to Proposal Planning activities.

Gate 3: Preliminary Bid Decision (How)

Primary Input From Capture Plan

(Capture Manager)

Decision Questions (Decision Maker)

Deliverables and Schedule � In the absence of a DRFP or SOW, do you have a clear understanding of the

deliverables and schedule? If so, how?

Evaluation Process � Are you sure of the evaluation process to be used? If so, how does it know?

Competitor Overviews � Do you have an accurate picture of the prospect’s perception of competitors?

Bidder Comparison � Has an objective Bidder Comparison been completed?Bidder Comparison

Teaming and Subcontracting � Do you have firm commitments from needed teammates?

Past Performance Baseline � Do you have strong, relevant past performance? Prospect agrees?

Management Solution � How does your management approach provide added value?

Technical Solution � How does your technical solution provide added value and discriminators?

Gap Analysis � Can all remaining gaps be filled? How?

Discriminators, Themes � Do discriminators meet the test of being of interest to the customer and unique?

� Can the customer justify our selection based on our discriminators and cost?

Price-To-Win Analysis � Has the price-to-win been determined? Acceptable to your management?

Capture /Proposal Schedule and Status � Is the customer adhering to the expected schedule? If not, why?

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Gate 4: Validate Bid Decision

Occurs at the conclusion of the Proposal Planning Phase,

shortly following the release of the final RFP. We evaluate

our win strategy, the latest competitive intelligence,

business potential, and risk to make a decision on whether

to continue proposal development.

Objective 1. Determine if sufficient P-Win and proposal readiness actions have been completed to develop a

winning proposal.

2. Confirm that there is sufficient business case and risk mitigation to justify proposal development.

Decisions • Whether to proceed to Proposal Development Phase.

• Confirm/adjust win strategy, pricing, solution, win themes, and discriminators.

• Adjust, as needed, funding for remaining phases.

• Resolution of proposal staffing and any other critical issues.

Owner/Organizer Capture Manager

Key Stakeholder TBD

Gate 4: Validate Bid Decision (What)

Attendees Capture Manager, Legal/ Contracts, PTW Lead, Proposal Operations Mgr., BD Center Director, Technical

Lead, BD VP

Input Validate Bid Decision Briefing Package (Extracted from Capture Plan), Updated Proposal Budget (if

applicable)

Resources Allocated • Proposal team staffing (internal and external)

• Proposal team funding

• Review team funding and staffing

• Proposal team facilities for FPR (as needed)

Award Update Update Award status to Proposal, Canceled, or No-Bid

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Objective 1. Determine if sufficient P-Win and proposal readiness actions have been completed to develop a

winning proposal.

2. Confirm that there is sufficient business case and risk mitigation to justify proposal development.

Gate 4: Validate Bid Decision (How)

Primary Input From Capture Plan (Capture Manager) Decision Questions (Decision Maker)

Terms and Funding Commitments � Are the announced (RFP) terms as anticipated, and are they still

acceptable to you?

� Does the RFP show evidence of being influenced by

competitors?

� Based on the published evaluation criteria, can the prospect

justify selecting you?justify selecting you?

Technical Requirements/Verification � Are the technical requirements in the RFP as anticipated by you?

� Has your technical approach been reviewed and verified as

being acceptable to the prospect?

� Are team (teammate) roles clearly defined and formally agreed?

Business Solution � Does your business solution provide significant value and

return on investment to the prospect?

� Has a draft Executive Summary been prepared? Is it persuasive?

Cost Estimate � Has a bottom-up cost estimate been completed?

� Can the solution be profitably delivered within the price-to-win?

Issues and Recommendations � Have all your internal issues related to the opportunity been

addressed and resolved?

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Leading to Gate 5: Red Team Fundamentals

� Plan the Red Team review

• Select Red Team members early.

• Have them attend kickoff and serve on Pink Team.

� Prepare documentation for the Red Team and provide it to members

1 week ahead of the review.1 week ahead of the review.

� Organize the Red Team to mirror the customer evaluation—

structure, guidelines, operation.

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Red Team Fundamentals (Continued)

� Conduct the Red Team based on the RFP, using a structured

evaluation plan.

� Use both qualitative and quantitative scoring.

� Require a formal presentation of findings to the proposal team.� Require a formal presentation of findings to the proposal team.

� Organize and control responses, ensuring accountability.

Gate 5: Submit Proposal Decision

Occurs at the end of the Proposal Development Phase.

Verifies that all Red Team recommendations have been

addressed, the proposal meets standards, pricing is

acceptable, risks have been adequately addressed, and all

necessary internal approvals have been obtained.

Objective 1. Determine if Red Team recommendations have been addressed and proposal meets corporate

standards.

2. Confirm that pricing is acceptable and risks have been adequately addressed.

Decisions • Whether to submit the proposal to the customer.

• Confirm project management and staffing for project start-up.

• Confirm all preparations for orals, demo, FPR, and contract negotiations.

Owner/Organizer Capture Manager

Key Stakeholders TBD

Gate 5: Submit Proposal Decision (What)

Attendees Capture Manager

(Decision Gate to be held only if an issue is raised affecting submission)

Input • Submit Proposal Decision Briefing Package (if used)

• Final Proposal

• Updated Proposal Budget (if applicable)

Resources Allocated • Orals/Demo team staffing (internal and external)

• Orals/Demo team funding

• Funding and staffing for any FPR activities

• Negotiating team

Award Update 1. Update Award Status to Submitted, Canceled, or No-Bid

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Objective 1. Determine if Red Team recommendations have been addressed and proposal meets corporate

standards.

2. Confirm that pricing is acceptable and risks have been adequately addressed.

Gate 5: Submit Proposal Decision (How)

Primary Input From Capture Plan and Proposal

(Capture Manager/Proposal Manager)

Decision Questions (Decision Maker)

Proposal � Is the proposal compliant, responsive, competitive, and priced to

win?

� Does the proposal meet corporate quality standards?

Risk Assessment � Are there any unresolved elements of risk that could preclude

submitting the proposal?submitting the proposal?

� Will the proposal be evaluated as being low risk to the customer?

Negotiation Plan – The Customer � Is the contract likely to be awarded without negotiation? If so, are

you prepared to accept this?

� If negotiations occur, do you know who in the customer

organization will be leading them?

� Is the customer under any constraints (e.g., time) that you can

leverage?

Negotiation Plan – Our Team � Has a negotiating team been identified?

� Is your negotiating position clearly defined and agreed to by senior

management?

Closure Plan � Is your project manager ready to begin delivery

immediately upon award?

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Summary and Guidelines

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Page 26

Decision Gates

Specify Inputs and Outputs for Decision Gates

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What’s Next?

� Start by defining a gate review process

� Determine what works best in your

company – fit the process to your

environment

� Determine and document roles and � Determine and document roles and

responsibilities

� Make this a leadership priority

� Leverage automation tools

� It isn’t rocket science, but requires

discipline

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Contact Information

David Bol, Shipley Associates

Sr. Vice President Capture &

Proposal ConsultingProposal Consulting

dbol@shipleywins.com

(303) 805-9747

APMP Fellow

APMP Accreditated Professional

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