Like many A/E firms, Kennedy/Jenks Consultants (K/J) has a well-conceived, insightful go/no-go form. And like many A/E firm leaders, Lori Chicoyne knows when to use the form to her advantage.

“It’s mainly there as a guide, but sometimes, when I know in my heart of hearts that going after something is wrong, I’ll break out the form to help make my point,” laughs Chicoyne, Boston-based business development director in the firm’s Industrial/Environmental Business Unit.

Go/no-go forms like the one K/J employs are considered a staple and an important tool to help firms pursue opportunities they should pursue and avoid those that are a waste of time and money. Even firms that don’t
religiously complete go/no-go forms for every opportunity benefit from the issues they raise and the questions they ask.

For example, the K/J form requests three reasons the client would select the firm, as well as three weaknesses and a strategy for overcoming them. It then asks for a one-sentence strategy for winning the job, which serves as either a theme to follow throughout the proposal process or an indicator that there is no winnable strategy.

The form also contains seven True/False questions. If three or more responses are false, the form “encourages” a no-go if the cost to submit is more than 10 percent of the potential revenue.

The final section is quantitative, scoring the firm 0 – 5 on six different criteria, including relationship with the client, and the firm’s positioning on the project. For example, “current satisfied client” earns a 5, while “never worked with or met the client and/or overcoming a negative past” tallies a 0. Or, “we wrote the RFP” is worth 5 and “did not know the RFP/RFQ was coming out” counts for 0.

It also scores the firm on the project manager, qualifications, competition, and business case (profit
potential, strategic client, etc.). A score of 22 to a perfect 30 suggests a “go.”

As helpful as the form is, Chicoyne says the real strength in the San Francisco-headquartered firm’s go/no-go process is the varying viewpoints involved.

“The business unit has nine key market sectors and a national market sector leader for each, and we have
client managers for each key client,” she says. “When a major opportunity comes along, it becomes a highlevel, intellectual conversation among people with different perspectives.

Our client manager will have some insight from the client side, while the market sector leader may have some knowledge from a national viewpoint that neither I nor the client manager would know.”

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