Color team reviews (Pink, Red, Gold)
Color team reviews are the proposal industry's staged quality gates: Pink Team reviews the early draft for approach and coverage, Red Team scores the near-final draft as the evaluator would, and Gold Team gives executive approval on the finished, priced proposal.
The color system (from Shipley-style methodology) forces distinct review questions at distinct moments. Pink asks 'is this the right response?' while change is cheap — structure, win themes, compliance coverage. Red asks 'how would the evaluator score this?' against the actual criteria, ideally by reviewers who didn't write it. Gold asks 'do we stand behind this offer?' — leadership sign-off on solution, price, and risk. Additional colors exist (Blue for strategy, Green for pricing, White Glove for final production), but the discipline matters more than the palette: reviews scheduled against the deadline calendar, scored against the RFP's own rubric, with findings triaged rather than debated. Compressed timelines make automated first drafts valuable precisely because they buy review cycles.
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