What does each color review cover?
Each review has one job. Pink checks the strategy and outline before writing, Red checks the draft against every requirement, and Gold checks that the final version is ready to submit.
| Review | When | Question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Pink Team | Outline complete, roughly 30% into the writing window | Is our approach and structure right before we write? |
| Red Team | Full draft complete | Does the draft answer every requirement in the compliance matrix? |
| Gold Team | Final draft, before submission | Is this ready for an executive to approve and submit? |
Who should be in the room for each review?
Reviewers should be people who did not write the sections they review. On a small team, that means three to five people: someone acting as the evaluator, someone checking compliance against the matrix, and a decision-maker for Gold.
- Pink: capture lead, the solution owner, and one person playing the evaluator
- Red: reviewers assigned sections they did not write, each with the compliance matrix rows for those sections
- Gold: the executive who owns the submission decision, plus the proposal manager
How do you run color reviews on a small team?
Compress the format, not the discipline. Keep the gates, shorten the meetings, and make every comment a specific, actionable instruction tied to a requirement.
- Schedule review dates backward from the submission date before writing starts
- Give reviewers the compliance matrix, not just the draft
- Require comments as instructions: "Section 2.1 does not address requirement L.4.2", not "make this stronger"
- Assign every comment to an owner with a due date, and close them before the next gate
What are the most common color review mistakes?
The most common mistakes are skipping Pink Team, reviewing without the compliance matrix, and letting Red Team comments slide past the next gate. Each one turns a review into a meeting instead of a quality gate.
- Skipping Pink because the deadline is tight, then re-writing after Red
- Reviewers reading the draft cold, without the solicitation or matrix
- Comments that are opinions rather than instructions tied to requirements
- No recovery time between Red and Gold, so fixes never land