Every government contractor has a go/no-go process. Very few have a fast one. The typical pattern looks like this: multiple RFIs and solicitation arrive in eBuy daily. A BD analyst scans these opportunities, seeing if they qualify for a decision review. If so, they read and summarize the entire document, lasting upwards of 30 minutes to an hour based on experience, prepare a summary slide, schedules a meeting, presents to leadership, debates for an hour, and produces a decision. Total elapsed time: 1 to 3 days. For an opportunity you end up declining, that's 1 to 3 days of senior staff time you'll never get back.
There's a better way. A well-structured go/no-go gate review should take 2 minutes per opportunity — not because you're cutting corners, but because you're answering exactly the right questions in exactly the right order.
The 15-point go/no-go framework
Every bid/no-bid decision at the triage stage comes down to 15 questions. If you can answer them in a standardized format, the decision makes itself.
Gate 1: Eligibility (30 seconds)
These are binary filters. If the answer to any of them is "no," stop immediately.
- Set-aside eligibility: Is this set aside for a category we qualify for (8(a), SDVOSB, WOSB, HUBZone, small business)?
- Vehicle access: Do we hold the required contract vehicle (OASIS+ pool, Alliant 3, GSA MAS SIN, SeaPort-NxG)?
- Clearance capability: Can we meet the facility and individual clearance requirements?
- NAICS/size standard: Are we small under the applicable NAICS code and size standard?
Gate 2: Strategic fit (45 seconds)
These determine whether the opportunity aligns with your business.
- Customer relationship: Do we have an existing relationship with this agency/office? Is this a known customer?
- Scope alignment: Does the work match our core capabilities, or would this be a stretch?
- Value fit: Is the estimated contract value in our sweet spot? Too small to matter? Too large to be credible?
- Geographic fit: Can we staff the place of performance? Is it onsite, hybrid, or remote?
- Incumbent intelligence: Who's the incumbent? Is this a recompete? Do we have a realistic path to win?
Gate 3: Execution feasibility (45 seconds)
These determine whether you can actually deliver a competitive proposal and perform the work.
- Key personnel availability: Do we have (or can we find) the required key personnel before the proposal is due?
- Past performance fit: Do we have references that meet the recency, relevancy, and value thresholds?
- Evaluation criteria alignment: Are the evaluation factors weighted toward our strengths?
- Timeline feasibility: Is there enough time between now and the due date to write a competitive proposal?
- Price competitiveness: Can we price this competitively given our rate structure and the contract type?
- Teaming requirements: Do we need a teaming partner, and if so, do we have one lined up?
How this works in practice
With a structured Opportunity Snapshot in front of you, every one of these 15 questions can be answered by looking at a specific field. Set-aside is in the Key Details. Clearance is in the Key Details. Key personnel requirements are in their own section with qualifications spelled out. Evaluation criteria are ranked with relative importance noted. The due date is highlighted in red at the top of the page.
A capture manager who has done this a hundred times can scan a snapshot and mentally check all 15 boxes in about 2 minutes. The ones that pass all three gates go into the "pursue" pile. The ones that fail Gate 1 get an instant no-go. The ones that pass Gates 1 and 2 but have questions in Gate 3 get a 5-minute discussion at the team standup.
The math that makes this urgent
If your team evaluates 20 opportunities per week and spends an average of 30 mins per evaluation using the traditional read-everything approach, that's 20 hours per week — 0.5 FTEs doing nothing but reading RFPs. If 75% of those results in a no-go decision, you've spent 15 hours producing the word "no."
With the structured triage approach, those same 20 opportunities take roughly 40 minutes total (2 minutes each). Even adding a 30-minute standup for the borderline cases, you've reduced 20 hours to about 2 hours. The other 18 hours go back to your team for the work that actually wins contracts: capture planning, customer calls, teaming conversations, and proposal writing.
Start triaging faster
RFP Snapshot generates structured Opportunity Snapshots from any federal solicitation in under 3 minutes, giving you every data point in this 15-question framework in a standardized format. Upload your first RFP and make your bid/no-bid call with confidence.