Can we use our own gate criteria?

Yes. The gates carry the questions your team decides to ask. MERIT keeps them consistent across pursuits and drafts the fields it can support with a source.

Does a gate review slow the pursuit down?

It moves the effort earlier. The review runs from a prepared draft rather than a blank form, and the pursuits that would have consumed a month before being dropped get stopped in the first week instead.

What happens to a pursuit we no-bid?

It stays on file with the reasoning attached. When a similar requirement appears — often the same program on its next cycle — the team starts from the analysis it already did.

Gate Reviews

Decide what to pursue before the pursuit decides for you.

A gate review is a structured check on fit, risk, coverage, and evidence, held before the team invests another month. MERIT keeps the questions consistent from pursuit to pursuit, drafts the fields it can support with a citation, and keeps every bid and no-bid decision on the record.

What changes

Every pursuit answers the same questions before it consumes capture hours.
Gaps and risks are named early, while they can still be closed.
Bid and no-bid decisions leave a record the team can revisit.

Pursuits advance because nobody stopped them.

Commitment tends to accumulate quietly. A pursuit gets read, then discussed, then drafted, and by the time anyone asks whether it is really winnable, the team has already spent the month it was trying to protect.

Without a consistent review, the standard moves with the mood of the meeting. Strong pursuits and weak ones get the same benefit of the doubt, and the reasoning behind a no-bid is gone by the time it would be useful.

Sunk cost decides: Effort already spent becomes the argument for spending more.
Inconsistent standard: Each pursuit is judged against whatever came up in that meeting.
Unrecorded reasoning: A no-bid decision leaves nothing behind to learn from.

Commit deliberately, or stop early and keep the month.

At the end of a gate the team has three honest options: advance with the gaps assigned and dated, hold until named items close, or no-bid and record why. All three are useful outcomes. Only the unexamined advance is expensive.

Because the reasoning stays attached to the pursuit, a no-bid is not a dead end. When the same program comes round on its next cycle, the team starts from the analysis it already did rather than from the solicitation.

Advance with owners: Move forward with the open gaps assigned and dated.
Hold on conditions: Pause until named items close, rather than drifting forward by default.
No-bid on the record: Capture the reasoning so the next similar pursuit starts ahead.

What each gate has to answer before a pursuit moves.

Gates run in sequence — each only makes sense once the previous is answered. Every one has an owner and a piece of evidence that has to be on the record before the pursuit advances.

Fit: Does this match what our company can credibly deliver? Owner: BD lead. Evidence: Company profile match, with the missing requirements named
Customer: Do we understand the buyer and our standing with them? Owner: Capture lead. Evidence: Past performance with the agency and known relationships
Coverage: Can we cover the requirement, alone or with partners? Owner: Capture lead. Evidence: Teaming and staffing coverage against the scope
Competitiveness: Can we win this against the likely field? Owner: Executive sponsor. Evidence: Incumbent position, discriminators, and pricing posture
Commitment: Are we prepared to fund the proposal effort? Owner: Executive sponsor. Evidence: Bid decision, recorded with the reasoning behind it

Questions teams ask

Can we use our own gate criteria?: Yes. The gates carry the questions your team decides to ask. MERIT keeps them consistent across pursuits and drafts the fields it can support with a source.
Does a gate review slow the pursuit down?: It moves the effort earlier. The review runs from a prepared draft rather than a blank form, and the pursuits that would have consumed a month before being dropped get stopped in the first week instead.
What happens to a pursuit we no-bid?: It stays on file with the reasoning attached. When a similar requirement appears — often the same program on its next cycle — the team starts from the analysis it already did.