Lisa Pafe

Lisa Pafe is vice president at Lohfeld Consulting Group, CPP APMP Fellow and PMI PMP. She has 25-plus years of capture and proposal experience. Lisa is president of APMP-NCA and was VP and Speaker Series chair for two years each. Her experience includes: VP of corporate development, Ace Info Solutions, Inc.; president of Vision Consulting, Inc.; VP of business development, GovConnect; and director of marketing, MAXIMUS. She holds a BA from Yale University, MPP from Harvard University and MIS from GWU. Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn .

Articles by Lisa Pafe

• How good are your proposals?

  Friday, April 24, 2020

  Is a winning proposal a good proposal? Some argue that by definition, yes, a win is a good proposal. However, we all know that a proposal can be the winner for reasons unrelated to proposal quality — such as a price shootout. Therefore, when we look back at our win-loss track record, we miss a lot of important data if wins and losses are the only measures of successful performance. As a result, we may reuse a poor-quality proposal or dismiss a losing proposal that has some successful elements.

• COVID-19: What can federal contractors do?

  Friday, April 17, 2020

  Everyone involved in federal procurement — acquisition professionals, federal contractors, and others — has been busy rearranging personal affairs. Making sure you, those you love, and everyone in your community is safe is what should be the primary concern. But once the dust settles, the short- and long-term impacts will become apparent. While we can't predict the full extent of the impact at this time, change is happening. Here are some best guesses.

• Beware the dangers of groupthink for proposals

  Wednesday, March 11, 2020

  Proposal color team reviews don’t work. Why? In many cases, proposal reviewers make two critical mistakes: 1. They read the proposal as if it was a novel, instead of scoring and rating it according to the evaluation criteria. 2. They get tired of arguing about their comments, so they come to consensus — which really means they succumb to groupthink. These mistakes often result in a proposal that not only fails to offer a value proposition rich in discriminating strengths, in some cases it is non-compliant.

• 5 tips to improve past performance ratings

  Friday, July 19, 2019

  Contractors often struggle to define a discriminating value proposition. While a value proposition is certainly comprised of your service or product solution, it also incorporates your past performance. A proposal demonstrates to the government a company’s prospective ability to perform the work. How does the government gain confidence in your prospective ability to deliver your solution at high quality and low risk? By examining your past performance both on relevant contracts as well as trends across time.

• Opportunity alert: OASIS Unrestricted On-Ramps

  Friday, June 28, 2019

  OASIS is a Multiple Award (MA), Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract classified as a Tier 3, Best-in-Class (BIC) contract providing solutions for complex professional services requirements. OASIS also helps agencies meet their government-wide spend under management (SUM) goals. GSA issued a Pre-Solicitation Notice on June 26 stating that the final OASIS Unrestricted On-Ramp solicitation will be available on or about July 8. The notice further stated that GSA intends to add 40 contracts to each of the three on-ramp Pools. With only weeks remaining, it is time to get ready. Here are five things you can do now to maximize your chances of success.

• Opportunity alert: A flurry of OASIS on-ramps

  Thursday, April 18, 2019

  After several months in a holding pattern due to U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) solicitation protest B-408685.18, the General Services Administration (GSA) issued an update to the long awaited on-ramps to the existing One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services Small Business (OASIS SB) pools on April 17. GSA states that they anticipate releasing OASIS Small Business (SB) Pools 1, 3 and 4 and 8(a) sub-pools in late April 2019. Based on GSA Interact OASIS milestones provided in March 2019, the unrestricted on-ramps are likely to follow a couple of months later.

• The great proposal: Solutioning to strengths when faced with a recompete

  Friday, February 22, 2019

  The great proposal did not start out great. In the beginning, 15 months prior to RFP release, there were the usual problems we faced when preparing for a recompete. Red flags included project startup issues that resulted in mediocre CPARS ratings, difficult client relationships, competing stakeholder demands, customer turnover on the acquisition side, and no dedicated Capture Manager or Capture Plan. Since this recompete represented the company’s largest federal contract, the CEO knew she had to take action.And that’s when the trajectory, which had been turning towards a possible proposal loss, started to reverse course.

• How ready is your capture?

  Friday, January 18, 2019

  Assessing the quality of a capture effort is a difficult task. Any assessment is simply a snapshot in time; your capture could get better… or it could get worse. A capture readiness assessment should look at the snapshot, but also look at trends. Using our 12 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), you can analyze where your capture effort is today, identify areas for improvement, and then chart whether your capture trends upward in readiness for the win.

• Opportunity alert: GSA CAMEO Recompete

  Friday, August 24, 2018

  Get ready for the General Services Administration’s (GSA) CIO Application Maintenance, Enhancements, and Operations (CAMEO) Recompete effort. GSA held an Industry Day Aug. 7 to introduce the procurement, which as they reiterated, is early in the process and industry feedback is welcome. The program is generating a lot of attention, with more than 230 companies attending Industry Day.

• Set your sights on USDA Centers of Excellence bids for Q4 and beyond

  Monday, August 20, 2018

  In December, the White House announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) would serve as the first of GSA’s Center of Excellence (CoE) for IT Modernization. USDA is at the forefront for implementing the Trump administration’s IT Modernization Plan with a series of acquisitions covering multiple skill sets, technology stacks, and application portfolios. USDA plans to make an award by the end of Q4 FY 2018.

• Are these personalities ruling your color team reviews?

  Tuesday, February 20, 2018

  ​There are anywhere from four to 16 different personality types, depending on your Google search results. In the context of proposal color team reviews, proposal managers and review team leads have probably encountered quite a medley of nonconstructive participants who seem to do everything in their power to impede progress.

• Are your proposal review teams derailing the win?

  Monday, January 22, 2018

  It's time for another proposal color team review. The proposal manager is faced with one of these all-too-familiar scenarios.

• Opportunity alert: NOAA NEMITS IDIQ

  Tuesday, October 17, 2017

  If you pursued the Department of Commerce (DOC) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) NOAALink program — whether successfully or unsuccessfully — over the course of its nine-year acquisition history, be aware that NOAALink 2.0 has been laid to rest.

• SeaPort-NxG: Major changes ahead require a revamped win strategy

  Tuesday, October 03, 2017

  ​SeaPort-e is a Multiple Award Contract (MAC) that contractors either love or hate. For most of the 3,196 award holders, the Navy's flagship vehicle has generated little if any revenue. For the select few, such as Booz Allen Hamilton, SAIC, CSRA, BAE and General Dynamics, the $51 billion engineering professional services vehicle has been a reliable revenue generator. Less than 20 percent of prime contractors have received any awards (this is true for both the large and small business tracks).

• IAC-MAC: Are you ready for one of the year’s biggest IDIQs?

  Tuesday, September 26, 2017

  The Department of Defense (DoD) will release the final RFP for the Information Analysis Center Multiple-Award Contract (IAC-MAC) on Oct. 3. This $28 billion IDIQ was one of our top 20 opportunities for FY17, but final RFP release slipped to the first quarter of FY18.

• Do you understand how to show you understand? Part 2

  Tuesday, July 11, 2017

  Describing potential risks and proposed mitigations is an excellent way to show proposal evaluators you understand project complexities. In Part 1 of this series, I discussed six common pitfalls to demonstrating understanding and how to avoid them.

• Do you understand how to show you understand? Part 1

  Tuesday, June 13, 2017

  ​RFPs regularly ask bidders to demonstrate understanding. The understanding section(s) is challenging to write. Your understanding sets the stage for the solution you propose and its substantiated benefits. A mediocre understanding reduces customer confidence in your ability to perform the work.