The Q2 FY kickoff Monday-morning triage
Eight federal RFPs dropped into the queue over the first weekend of Q2 FY. The 25-minute drill that sorts them into respond-today, respond-this-week, and wait-for-the-amendment.
Monday, 8:04 AM Eastern. Eight RFPs in the inbound queue. Two federal prime, three federal sub, one state, one county, one private. A normal first Monday of federal FY Q2 — the October post on the federal fiscal calendar walks through why this pattern hits every year.
Here’s the 25-minute drill we run on the team calendar every Monday. Today’s eight, for illustration.
Minute 0–5: fingerprint each RFP
For each inbound document, three questions:
- Is this a real opportunity or a market-research RFI? Three of the eight today are RFIs dressed up as RFPs. They go into a separate queue — intel, not response.
- Is this from a known buyer? Four of the eight are from buyers we have past-response history with. Those get flagged for the capture lead.
- Is there an addendum/amendment likely? Federal prime contracts almost always amend once before the question deadline. Two of the eight have a Q&A deadline more than 10 days out — we will not write the first paragraph of either until the amendment drops.
Five minutes. Eight RFPs fingerprinted.
Minute 5–15: the bid/no-bid pre-screen
The full bid/no-bid decision framework (here’s the scoring rubric) is a 30-minute decision. On Monday morning we run a pre-screen to cull the obvious no-bids.
Pre-screen criteria:
- Small-business set-aside we’re not eligible for. Out. One today.
- Certification we don’t hold and can’t acquire in time. Out. One today (required SCIF access for a DoD contract).
- Geography we don’t serve. Out. Zero today.
- Single-award, we have no relationship with the buyer, and the incumbent is clearly positioned. Out unless we have a specific reason to pursue. One today — federal sub, well-known incumbent, we have no wedge.
Three of the eight hit the pre-screen cull. Those become a one-sentence “no-bid, reason X” entry in the log. We don’t pretend we considered them — we considered the pre-screen criteria.
Minute 15–20: assign ownership for the remainder
The five survivors get named owners. Two federal prime go to our federal lead. One state RFP goes to state lead. One federal sub goes to the SE who owns that buyer. One private RFP goes to whoever is available with capacity.
The assignment is made in the tracker, not in Slack. Slack assignments evaporate.
Minute 20–25: schedule the bid/no-bid reviews
For each surviving RFP, a 30-minute bid/no-bid review goes on the calendar. The goal is to close out all five bid/no-bid decisions by Wednesday EOD, so the capture period starts Thursday on the ones we pursue.
Federal Q2 specifically: the proposal-due dates cluster three to five weeks out. A bid/no-bid made by Wednesday gives the capture lead 2.5–4 weeks, which is on the low end of healthy but workable. A bid/no-bid made Friday gives 2–3.5 weeks, which is where response quality starts to degrade.
What’s different from Q1
Compared to Q1 triage (notes from January), Q2 amendment windows are narrower and volumes are higher. We shorten the pre-screen and pre-book capture calendar time for our federal lead for the next three Mondays. A held slot we might not use is cheaper than a slot we wanted and couldn’t get.
The takeaway
Monday morning in federal Q2 is the highest-leverage 25 minutes in the week. A good triage turns eight inbound RFPs into five real pursuits by Wednesday. A bad triage turns eight into five hurried responses and three “we forgot about that one” emails on Thursday.