Overview
This article walks through the four inputs that have the biggest impact on the quality of your Pink Team draft in Proposal: Compliance, Solution, Writing Plans, and Focus Documents. Get these four right, and the system has the guardrails it needs to generate content that actually reflects your strategy and the solicitation.
Think of GovDash as a brand-new teammate. Give it clear boundaries, the right context, and the right reference material, and it can produce real value on day one.
Before you start: what GovDash gives you up front
When you open an opportunity in Proposal, the Solicitation tab shows the core information about the opportunity, the solicitation package, and the document types associated with it. On the first pass, GovDash automatically generates two artifacts for your team to review:
A compliance matrix mirroring the solicitation.
An annotated outline you can edit, reorder, and expand.
Your job from here is to refine those starting points using the Core Four before you hit Generate Proposal.
The Core Four
Each area below tells the system something different. Compliance sets the guardrails. Solution provides your strategy. Writing Plans steer the tone and emphasis. Focus Documents tell the system where to look first.
Core 1: Compliance
Compliance is the baseline: the requirements you must address to get the proposal out the door. The system uses your compliance setup as the primary guardrail when generating content.
What you'll see
The Compliance view mirrors your annotated outline. Open any section to see exactly which solicitation content is being passed through, including:
Source document, page number, paragraph, and line.
Classification (instruction to offerors, task area requirement, evaluation criteria).
Pulled-in shall / will / must statements.
How to modify citations
Open an outline section and scroll down to Citations.
Click + Modify Citations. You'll see your annotated outline on the left, the citations being passed through in the middle, and the full solicitation document on the right.
Use the cursor to highlight any additional content you want included as a compliance boundary for that section.
Adjust the classification (instruction, task area, evaluation criteria) as needed.
Use Search Through Document (like Ctrl+F in Word) to jump straight to a section instead of scrolling.
Tip
Use the eye icons to show or hide task areas and evaluation criteria while you work. If you want to merge sections (for example, combining capability and experience content into one), edit the outline first, then highlight the matching citations so everything routes to the new combined section.
Core 2: Solution
The Solution tab carries over your work from Capture. If you ran capture on this opportunity, your capture plan is already here. If you didn't (say it's a last-minute bid), you can build it directly in Proposal.
What to populate
Win themes that will be woven throughout the draft.
Approach and level of effort.
Answers to the solution questions most relevant to this opportunity.
How to use Suggest Answer
For any field you don't have answers to, use Suggest Answer. The system pulls from your data library and contract inventory, generates a response, and lets you insert it back into the field with one click. You can also attach a document (for example, an email from the customer), and the system will adopt that information the same way as text you typed yourself.
Tip
Suggest Answer is powerful, but your interviews with the customer and your subject matter expertise are what win proposals. Lead with your own input, and use Suggest Answer to fill the gaps.
Core 3: Writing Plans
Writing Plans are section-level guardrails that point the system at the core themes you want it to hit. Keep them high level: a short list of bullets, not a draft of the section.
Building a writing plan
Open the outline section you want to plan for.
List the four or five core points the system must hit (recruiting strength, retention, communication approach, past performance angles, etc.).
If you're stuck, ask the system directly. For example, "What are five core areas I need to hit on when writing a management plan?" Then refine the response.
You can also write custom plans, like "Highlight our ability to recruit staff that fully meet the solicitation's requirements in 30 days or less."
Tip
Treat the system like a new teammate writing their first management plan. They'll ask, "What should I emphasize?" The writing plan is your answer.
Core 4: Focus Documents
Focus Documents tell the system which content in your library is most relevant to a section. The system will read those documents first before searching the rest of your data library and contract inventory.
How to add a focus document
Open the outline section.
In the Focus Documents area, search your data library.
Attach the most relevant references, like a boilerplate management plan, a corporate experience write-up, or a past performance narrative. Whatever you'd hand a new teammate first.
After Focus Documents are attached, the system still draws from the full data library and contract inventory, but it weights the documents you flagged.
Other Outline Controls
While you're in the outline, you have full control over how each section is structured:
Reorder, add, or delete sections using the six-dot drag handle.
Section title, reviewer, section type, and language type are all editable. Hover the eye icons for descriptions of each section type and how each language type is used.
Page limit vs. page target. Page limit is the hard requirement from the government. Page target is what you actually want written, useful when you have five pages available but only want two or three of content.
Past performance. Attach the past performances you want the system to use for this bid.
Labor categories and key personnel. Add categories (e.g., Proposal Manager, APMP-certified, manages proposals), mark them as key if you want to attach a resume, then assign people from your personnel records. Use Adjudicate Personnel to check requirements against a candidate, or let the system recommend personnel from your People tab.
Generating the Pink Team draft
Once Compliance, Solution, Writing Plans, and Focus Documents are dialed in, hit Generate Proposal. The system will show you:
Estimated page count.
Past performances being passed through.
Key personnel being passed through.
Solution data in scope.
Confirm, and the system will apply every guardrail you set (citations, solution data, writing plans, and focus documents) to produce your Pink Team draft.
What's next
From here, the Word Assistant takes over for the review and recovery process. To learn more about using the Word Assistant, check out our support article here.