Feature Deep-Dive
Review Management
Pink Team, Red Team, and Gold Team proposal review software built for Shipley methodology. Replace email attachments and tracked changes with structured workflows, inline commenting, and full accountability.
What are Pink, Red, and Gold Team reviews?
In government proposal methodology — particularly the Shipley process — color team reviews are structured stages that validate proposals before submission. Under FAR Part 15, evaluators assess proposals against L (instructions), M (evaluation criteria), C (compliance), and J (attachments) requirements. Color teams simulate that evaluation internally so you catch issues before the government does.
Pink Team
Reviews outlines and storyboards, not full prose. Validates structure, win themes, and approach before writers invest in drafting. Catches strategy issues early.
Red Team
Reviews complete drafts from the evaluator's perspective. Assesses compliance, clarity, competitiveness, and responsiveness to requirements.
Gold Team
Final compliance check, formatting consistency, and submission readiness. The last polish before you submit.
Pain points of current review processes
Most GovCon teams run reviews via email attachments, Word tracked changes, and scattered comments. The result: lost feedback, no accountability, and last-minute scrambles.
- Email attachments create version chaos — which file is current?
- Tracked changes get lost when merging or converting formats
- Comments scattered across documents with no resolution tracking
- No visibility into who owns which feedback or whether it's addressed
- No link between feedback and compliance requirements
How ProposalMatrix structures reviews
Each review cycle has a clear status: not started, in progress, or complete. ProposalMatrix guides your team through the right sequence for your pursuit type.
- Pink Team: Reviews outlines/storyboards — catches strategy issues early
- Red Team: Reviews complete drafts — evaluates from evaluator's perspective
- Gold Team: Final compliance check, formatting, consistency
- Each cycle tracks status: not started, in progress, complete
Template-aware review structure
Full Proposal pursuits get all three review types (Pink, Red, Gold). Task Order pursuits use a single streamlined "Review" cycle. Quick Turn can enable review if needed, but defaults to minimal overhead for RFIs and sources sought.
Inline commenting with severity levels
Reviewers add comments directly in context. Each comment has a severity level so authors know what to prioritize: critical (must fix), major (should fix), minor (nice to fix), or suggestion (optional).
Severity levels
Critical, major, minor, and suggestion — aligned with how evaluators score proposals. Critical items block submission; major items should be addressed before Gold Team; minor and suggestion can be triaged based on time.
Comment resolution workflow
Every comment follows a resolution workflow: open → in progress → resolved. Authors see all feedback in context, mark comments as in progress while addressing them, and resolve with full audit history. No more lost comments or unclear ownership.
Open → In progress → Resolved
Full accountability. Proposal managers can see which comments remain open, who is responsible, and when each was resolved. Supports compliance with internal quality gates and audit requirements.
Requirement-linked comments
Tie feedback directly to specific compliance requirements from your RFP. When a reviewer adds a comment, they can link it to a requirement in the compliance matrix. This creates traceability: you know exactly which L, M, C, or J requirement each piece of feedback relates to. It helps authors prioritize critical compliance issues and gives proposal managers visibility into coverage gaps.
Review summary dashboard
Pursuit managers get a single view of all review cycles across their pursuits. See which cycles are not started, in progress, or complete. Track open vs. resolved comments, identify sections with critical feedback, and monitor progress toward submission.
At-a-glance status
No more chasing reviewers or guessing status. Everything is visible in one place — cycle completion, comment counts, and critical feedback by section.
Review workflow FAQs
Common questions about Pink, Red, and Gold Team reviews
Stop leaving compliance to chance. Start using ProposalMatrix.
Government proposals are won on compliance and lost on missed requirements. ProposalMatrix gives your team AI-powered compliance tracking, evidence-backed drafting, and structured Shipley review workflows to submit compliant, competitive proposals — every time.