How bad are debriefings? Bad. Really bad.

I’m happy to announce the release of our latest Insider Report exploring debriefings and bid protests.

The report explores the quality of debriefings contractors receive when they lose a bid. I wasn’t surprised that most respondents to our survey graded the quality of debriefings as poor, but I was astounded at how strongly people feel that way.

Only two respondents out of the 155 rated the quality of debriefings as excellent, while 47 rated it poor. Another 45 rated the quality as somewhat poor.

In our research, we surveyed government contractors and asked them a variety of questions about debriefings, what information they find most valuable and the alternatives open to them when debriefings are unsatisfying.

Of course, bid protests are the most common alternative. And what was interesting here is that many see protests as damaging the relationship between contractor and customer, but they still plan to protest anyway.

We also go into greater detail on processes contractors are using the gather lessons learned from unsuccessful proposals and how they apply those lessons moving forward.

The report shines a light on what has been seen as a growing challenge in the industry. It was the complaints I heard from many companies about debriefings that led us to do this study.

We hope it shines a light on this problem. We also hope sharing details on how companies gather and use information gleaned from debriefings, bid protests and other means will be valuable.

I’m sure all companies have a process for gathering lessons learned, but by reading about what other companies do, you can validate what you are doing and perhaps find some ideas that you can apply.

This is our second Insider Report of 2016 and our 13^th report since launching the Insider membership program in 2013. We have more in the works for this year. One will look at spending trends and another will update one from 2014 where we explored how the government customer feels contractors are performing.

The reports are free to WT Insider members, so if you aren’t a member you should click here for details on how to join.

As always, I look forward to any feedback you might have on the Debriefings and Bid Protest report, and we are open to any suggestions for future reports.