Glossary

Shipley Proposal Process

The terminology and step-by-step method Shipley created for planning, developing, and reviewing a proposal, including Black Hat and Color Team reviews, the compliance matrix, capture plan, bid/no-bid decision, and the Seven Characteristics of an Effective Proposal. Shipley created this process and the industry uses it; a reader who searches any one of these terms is searching the standard itself, not one firm's version of it.

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Shipley Proposal Process
Small Business Programs
Solicitations
Action Plans
Specific tasks with deadlines assigned to individuals or teams during the capture phase, typically tracked in an action plan log.
Shipley Proposal Process
Annotated Outline
A proposal outline with embedded RFP references so writers can see relevant requirements for each section.
Shipley Proposal Process
APMP Body of Knowledge
The collected best practices of proposal management professionals — 51 topics across 7 categories.
Shipley Proposal Process
Association of Proposal Management Professionals
Global professional association for proposal and BD professionals. Founded in 1989 by Shipley Associates.
Shipley Proposal Process
Bidder Comparison Chart
A tool used to compare an organization's capabilities against competitors' likely capabilities, typically built against the customer's stated issues or requirements.
Shipley Proposal Process
Bid/No-Bid Decision
A milestone that validates whether the company is positioned to win based on capture data collected to date.
Shipley Proposal Process
Bid Readiness
The state of having gathered enough capture intelligence, such as customer insight, teaming, staffing, and price-to-win understanding, to justify committing resources to a compliant, competitive proposal.
Shipley Proposal Process
Black Hat Review
Analysis of competitors including their strengths, possible teaming, discriminators, potential solutions and strategies, and knowledge of the customer.
Shipley Proposal Process
Blue Team
Reviews initial capture plans to evaluate knowledge of customer and opportunity. Occurs early in the lifecycle.
Shipley Proposal Process
Business Development Capability Maturity Model
Shipley's organizational assessment measuring maturity across Customer, Leadership, People, Process, and Support.
Shipley Proposal Process
Business Winning Process
Shipley's methodology: seven phases (0–6) from Market Segmentation through Post-Submittal Activities.
Shipley Proposal Process
Capture Plan / Capture Strategy
A plan developed by the Capture Manager and management team laying out the process to win a specific bid.
Shipley Proposal Process
Color Team Reviews
Structured proposal review process (Shipley methodology). Teams include Blue, Pink, Red, Gold, White Glove, Green, and Black Hat.
Shipley Proposal Process
Compliance Checklist
A tool that captures every requirement in a solicitation that the proposal must address, used to verify nothing has been missed before submission.
Shipley Proposal Process
Compliance Matrix
A mapping of all RFP requirements to the proposal outline, ensuring every requirement is addressed.
Shipley Proposal Process
Compliance vs. Responsiveness
Compliance = meeting stated requirements. Responsiveness = going beyond to address the spirit and intent.
Shipley Proposal Process
Customer Concerns / Hot Buttons
Issues, problems, or pain points the government customer is experiencing. Capture teams identify these to shape solutions.
Shipley Proposal Process
Customer Focus
A writing and communication approach that is directly organized around the customer's stated needs, issues, and the benefits they will receive, rather than a company's own internal capabilities.
Shipley Proposal Process
Customer-Focused Proposal
A proposal addressing the customer's stated problem and showing how your solution meets their specific goals.
Shipley Proposal Process
Debrief
Post-award meeting with the customer to obtain evaluation feedback. Critical for lessons learned.
Shipley Proposal Process
Discriminator
A feature of your proposal that sets your team apart from competitors AND is desired by the customer.
Shipley Proposal Process
Elevator Speech
Concise 30-60 second persuasive summary of your offering for capture, BD, and oral presentations.
Shipley Proposal Process
Executive Summary
Customer-focused summary of the essential proposal contents — not an introduction.
Shipley Proposal Process
Four-Box
A proposal-writing structure that organizes a section into four parts: an opening summary, an introduction, the body, and a closing summary.
Shipley Proposal Process
Gate Review
Structured decision point to assess bid status and determine if a pursuit should continue or be terminated.
Shipley Proposal Process
Ghost the Competition
Proposal technique where you highlight a competitor's weakness to emphasize your strength, without naming the competitor.
Shipley Proposal Process
Gold Team
Senior leadership review and authorization to submit. Conducted after Red Team edits.
Shipley Proposal Process
Green Team
In-house cost review of pricing against technical, management, and other non-price sections.
Shipley Proposal Process
Kickoff Meeting
The meeting that launches proposal development, typically held once the bid decision is made and the solicitation is released, aligning the team on schedule, compliance approach, and roles.
Shipley Proposal Process
Lessons Learned Review
Also called a White Hat Review: an after-action review of the capture or proposal process, conducted once the effort is complete, to improve future pursuits.
Shipley Proposal Process
Mockup
A page-by-page layout of a proposal section, showing page allocations, headings, themes, and visual placement before the section is fully drafted.
Shipley Proposal Process
Oral Proposal Planner
A Shipley planning tool proposal managers use to organize an oral presentation or sales briefing so it aligns with the written proposal.
Shipley Proposal Process
Pink Team
Reviews storyboards, outline, discriminators, and features/benefits before the first draft is written.
Shipley Proposal Process
POWeR
Shipley's proprietary writing approach for proposal sections: Plan, Organize, Write, examine, and Revise.
Shipley Proposal Process
Proposal Development Worksheet
A Microsoft Office-based storyboard tool Shipley uses to map out a proposal section's content and structure before drafting begins.
Shipley Proposal Process
Qualify Opportunity
Process of reviewing an opportunity for fit with strategic plan, capability, resources, and profitability.
Shipley Proposal Process
Red Team
Predicts how well your near-final proposal would score when evaluated by the customer.
Shipley Proposal Process
Requirements Traceability Matrix
A matrix, often built alongside the compliance matrix, that traces each solicitation requirement to the exact section, page, and paragraph where the proposal addresses it.
Shipley Proposal Process
Response Matrix
A matrix aligned with the compliance matrix that tracks exactly where in the proposal each compliance requirement has been addressed.
Shipley Proposal Process
Seven Characteristics of an Effective Proposal
Shipley's framework: Compliance, Responsiveness, Strategy, Competitive Focus, Writing Quality, Visualization, and Page/Document Design.
Shipley Proposal Process
Theme Statement
A short, written statement at the start of a major proposal section that ties the section's content to a customer benefit and the proposal's win strategy.
Shipley Proposal Process
Value Proposition
A customer-focused statement describing how specific parts of an offer will positively affect the customer's business or mission.
Shipley Proposal Process
White Hat Review
Lessons learned review focusing on improving future submissions.
Shipley Proposal Process
Work Breakdown Structure
A hierarchical breakdown of all the work required to deliver a project's scope, used to organize cost estimates, staffing, and schedule.
Shipley Proposal Process