Color team reviews

A Blue Team checks the win strategy before or as the RFP lands. A Pink Team reviews the outline, storyboards or early draft for structure and coverage. A Red Team reads a complete draft against Section M and scores it the way the evaluators will. A Gold Team gives the final executive sign-off. Some companies add a Green Team for price and a White Team for production.

The names and timing vary between companies, so agree on what each review checks before the first one is scheduled.

Reviewers should be people who did not write the section, they should get the solicitation, the compliance matrix and clear scoring instructions in advance, and their comments should be specific and fixable. The reviews go on the proposal schedule early, with enough time after each one to act on the comments.

Reviews fail when the draft is not ready, when reviewers comment on style instead of scoring, when the schedule leaves no time to fix findings, and when no one checks that every comment was resolved.

Write down the purpose of each review before the bid starts: what material reviewers will see, what they are asked to judge and what output is expected. A short charter per review keeps reviewers focused and keeps the schedule honest when the deadline is near.