Pipeline Tracker

A practice always knows which proposals are due this week. What it loses track of is everything else: the lead somebody heard in March, the RFP that was never answered either way, the pursuit three people are quietly working on that nobody decided to chase. The log starts at the first mention, because that is when the spending starts.

Workflow

Step 1. Establish the pipeline as it stands

Ask, in one message:

1. Every pursuit anyone is spending time on, official or not: the client, the project, and how you first heard of it.
2. For each: where does it stand? Just heard / deciding whether to chase / decided go / proposal in progress / submitted / interview / waiting / won / lost / went quiet.
3. Which have a go or no-go decision actually on record, made by a named person on a date? "We sort of drifted into it" is an answer, and it gets logged as no decision.
4. The dates you have: first heard, RFP issued, due, decision expected.
5. Is pursuit effort tracked anywhere — hours, or even a rough sense of who is spending time on what?
6. Where should the log live? One dated file; same path every run after.

Step 2. Record each pursuit from its earliest moment

One entry per pursuit, appended, never rewritten:

Pursuit	Client	First heard	Source	Stage	Go decision	By, date	Due	Effort so far

The rules that make it a method:

• The entry starts at the first mention, not at the RFP. The cost of a pursuit starts accruing at the coffee where somebody said "you should go for this", and a log that starts at the RFP hides the qualifying spend.
• A stage change is a new dated line, never an edit. The history of a pursuit — how long it sat at each stage — is the data; overwriting it keeps the conclusion and deletes the evidence.
• "No go decision" is a recorded state, not a blank cell. It is the single most important thing this log makes visible.

Step 3. Record every outcome with its reason

Won, lost, dropped, or went quiet — every pursuit ends, and the ending gets a line:

Pursuit	Outcome	Date	Reason	Reason's source	Effort total

The reason's source matters as much as the reason: a client debrief is a fact, "we think it was fee" is a guess, and the log marks which is which. For losses, ask the two questions worth recording: was it ever winnable — was the job wired for someone else before the RFP went out — and what did the debrief actually say, if anyone asked for one. If nobody asked, log that; the unasked debrief is a habit the log can surface.

Went quiet is an outcome that is not final. Record the elapsed time since the last movement and the last thing that happened. Never declare a quiet pursuit dead; report how long it has been quiet and let the practice decide when to ask or let go.

Step 4. Read back

At whatever rhythm the practice sets, in this order:

• Consuming effort, no go decision on record. First, every time. Each one with its effort so far and its elapsed time. These are the pursuits where the money is going while nobody has decided it should. Point at go-no-go-review for each.
• Deadlines, nearest first, with what remains to be done against each.
• Waiting, by elapsed time since last movement, longest first.
• The recorded history: won and lost, with reasons, as counts of what actually happened. By source, by client type, by whatever cut the practice asks for — presented as history, never as a predictor.
• Effort against outcomes: what pursuits are costing, in whatever unit the practice tracks, including the ones that ended in nothing.

Report elapsed time everywhere and predict nowhere.

Step 5. Write the log

One dated file for the whole pipeline, appended to rather than rewritten. Ask where it lives on the first run and use the same path after. At year end, the outcome reasons and the effort totals are the input to lessons-learned and to the next year's go-no-go discipline.

Rules

• Log from the first mention, never from the RFP.
• Append; never rewrite an earlier line. A stage change is a new dated entry.
• "No go decision" is a recorded state and leads every read-back.
• Every outcome records a reason, and every reason records its source: debrief, or guess, attributed.
• Never supply a benchmark, a target, or a probability.
• Never forecast. A projection is a named person's estimate with a date.
• A quiet pursuit gets elapsed time, not a verdict.
• Effort spent on lost and dropped pursuits is reported, not buried; it is the number that improves the next go decision.

Anti-patterns

• Starting the log at the RFP and losing the qualifying spend.
• A weighted pipeline. Multiplying a fee by a guessed percentage produces revenue that does not exist, with decimals.
• Editing a pursuit's stage instead of appending the change.
• Recording a loss without asking whether anyone requested a debrief.
• Declaring a quiet pursuit dead instead of reporting how long it has been quiet.
• Letting "we always chase everything from this client" stand in for a go decision. Log it as what it is: no decision.
• Using the win-rate history as a forecast for next year.
• Tracking only the official pursuits because the unofficial ones are not real yet. They are the ones spending unbudgeted time.

Resources

None. This skill is one file. The log is written at the path you choose on the first run and appended to after.