SERVICE / CAPTURE STRATEGY

CAPTURE STRATEGY.

Capture is the work done before the request arrives. It answers whether an opportunity is worth pursuing, and what your response will have to prove if you go.

WHAT CAPTURE ACTUALLY IS

Capture is decision work, not writing. It starts while an opportunity is still forming and ends when the solicitation is released and the response plan takes over. Done well, it means the eventual proposal is assembling evidence that already exists rather than inventing a position under deadline.

DueStar works only from information you are permitted to use: published solicitations and forecasts, prior awards and public agency records, buyer documents your team already holds, and the knowledge inside your own company. There are no backchannels, no claimed relationships and no suggestion that influence changes an evaluation.

RESEARCH THAT LEADS TO A DECISION

THE BUYER: What the organization buys, how it has structured similar contracts, what its published documents say about priorities, constraints and evaluation habits.
THE REQUIREMENT: The likely scope, the eligibility conditions that tend to appear, the licenses, bonding and experience thresholds that would apply to your company.
THE FIELD: Who has held comparable work, what the public record shows about how it was structured, and where your strengths are genuinely different rather than simply asserted.
YOUR POSITION: What evidence you can already prove, what you would need to develop, and what you cannot support at all in the time available.

PURSUE, CONSIDER OR PASS

Each opportunity receives a reasoned recommendation with the facts behind it. Pursue means the eligibility conditions look satisfiable, the evidence exists or can be developed, and the capacity is there. Consider means something specific is unresolved, and the recommendation names it along with what would settle it. Pass means a barrier is real, and we say so rather than absorbing weeks of effort into a response that cannot compete.

The decision is yours. DueStar provides the analysis and the consequences of each option; your team weighs it against commercial priorities we do not control.

GAPS, TEAMING AND POSITIONING

Where a requirement outruns your current evidence, the gap is documented rather than glossed. Options usually include developing evidence you have but have never written down, confirming whether an equivalent is permitted, or teaming with a partner who holds what you do not. Teaming introduces its own conditions, so the terms and the evidence each party must supply are identified before anyone commits.

Positioning follows from the facts. Win themes are statements your company can substantiate with named projects, qualified people, documented methods or verifiable performance you hold. A theme that cannot be evidenced does not go into the plan, because an evaluator is asked to score proof, not adjectives.

THE CAPTURE PLAN AND THE HANDOVER

A written pursuit profile: buyer, likely scope, expected timing and the decision already taken
Eligibility checklist with each item marked supported, to confirm, or gap
Evidence register naming the projects, people and documents the response will draw on
Teaming or subcontracting questions to resolve, with an owner and a date
Win themes with the specific proof attached to each
Milestones through release, including required registrations and meetings

When the solicitation is published, the capture plan becomes the starting point for proposal development instead of a blank page. The compliance matrix is checked against what capture predicted, differences are flagged early, and the evidence already gathered moves straight into drafting.

Capture improves the quality of the decision and the preparation behind it. It does not influence an evaluation, and no engagement guarantees an award. Scope is agreed before work begins.