Color Teams & Independent Assessments
Color Team Review Support
Pink and Red color reviews are two of the formal proposal reviews in the systematic and incremental review process in all best practice proposal development processes. The sequential proposal reviews build in quality incrementally. Quality is an inherent component of each incremental proposal element, and increases sequentially throughout the process, from kick-off through to the final proposal.| Review | Participants | Objectives |
|---|---|---|
| Pink Team review | External team | • Audit compliance with RFP • Determine if proposal tells a winning story • Identify unsubstantiated assertions |
| Red Team review | External team | • Verify responsiveness to the RFP • Review technical & management validity • Assess clarity of themes and messages |
The Pink and Red review teams provide an independent assessment of the proposal, assuming the role of the customer in finding problems, and then ‘not-the-customer’ by providing fixes to problems. Color review team members must have proposal and, preferably, subject matter knowledge and be objective.
We can provide independent color team leads and reviewers for Pink and Red color teams who can review all the proposal volumes, e.g., executive summary, technical, management, and cost volumes. We can also provide independent gap-assessments in the early stages of your proposal development process to ensure you are on-track to delivering a winning proposal.
Color Team Review Process
Each color review requires the proposal team to send read-ahead material to all the reviewers, including the RFP and a paper describing the win strategy. On the day of the review the proposal team briefs the review team, describing the program background (history, mission requirements, customer hot buttons, and the competition), and the review process (schedule, use of comment forms and the scoring criteria). The review team lead provides the review assignments to the team, with guidance from the Proposal Manager and Program Manager.The read-ahead and briefing of the review team is important to ensure the value added of the review results, since color reviews are critical to the generation of a winning proposal. The time spent in preparing the review team for an effective review is as important as selecting the right people for the team.
Pink and Red reviews have different criteria, as described below.
Pink Team Review
The Pink Team reviews annotated mockups (AMUs):- Is each AMU telling part of a winning story?
- Is the overall response complete and credible?
- Does the proposal correlate easily with the RFP?
- Do the graphics convey clear (and relevant) messages?
- Is the win strategy apparent and reflected in the bullets and graphics?
- Are the claims and assertions in each AMU consistent and effectively supported by facts?
- Is the proposal missing anything?
- Most importantly, how do we fix it?
The Pink Team review lead makes sure the color review team understands and implements the specific review requirements and provides a checklist of review elements to ensure they consider all requirements.
Red Team Review
The Red Team review team has two distinct roles:- They must be the customer: review the proposal for compliance to instructions and score the proposal against the evaluation criteria. This will surface areas where the proposal is unclear or unconvincing.
- They must also not be the customer: tell the proposal team how to fix the problem areas.
The Red Team review lead must ensure that the review team realizes that the Red Team is a compliance review, not a design review, i.e., it is not an opportunity to change the technical approach.
The Red Team review criteria include:
- Is the proposal complete and fully responsive to the solicitation?
- Is it easy to find our specific responses to the solicitation instructions?
- Is it easy to assess and evaluate our response against the criteria?
- Is it a pleasant and interesting read?
- Does the proposal present a clear and consistent story?
- Is the technical approach credible?
- Does the management approach seem reasonable and appropriate?
- Do the technical, management, and cost baselines support each other, or do they appear to undermine each other?
- Are the messages compelling, and does the proposal sell?
- Are all claims and promises substantiated with facts?
- Are discriminators highlighted and effectively used?
- Does the proposal talk to the evaluator, i.e., addresses benefits?
- Does the proposal effectively convey “Why us?”
