Your first 30 minutes in WinLayer

Go from a new workspace to one evidence-backed pursuit decision. You do not need to learn every tool first.

Your goal for this session: teach WinLayer what your company can credibly win, review one strong match, and explicitly choose Pursue, Watch, or Pass. WinLayer recommends; your team decides.

Start in Guided Plan. The First Outcome path stays on screen while you move from company evidence to a ranked brief, a human pursuit decision, assigned work, and the first reusable deliverable. Each completed step is derived from saved workspace records.

The five-stage workflow

Stage	You do	WinLayer gives you
`1 · Set up`	Describe the company, capabilities, targets, and goals.	A company-specific matching strategy.
`2 · Discover`	Review ranked contracts and early signals.	Fit evidence, timing, and why each item surfaced.
`3 · Decide`	Choose Pursue, Watch, or Pass.	A clean pipeline with an explicit human decision.
`4 · Execute`	Assign capture work, deadlines, and response tasks.	A coordinated plan instead of scattered notes.
`5 · Learn`	Record outcomes and inspect reports.	Better future ranking and an explainable growth record.

0–8 minutes: create the first real pursuit

Open Guided setup. WinLayer shows a genuine actionable opportunity when one is ready; otherwise it shows your company-profile preview and says that source syncing is still in progress.
Choose the closest industry baseline or add a precise six-digit NAICS code. The fit preview reacts without requiring the full company profile.
Confirm target agencies, then select only government purchasing programs (often called contract vehicles) and business statuses the company can verify today. If none apply or you are unsure, skip the step; WinLayer keeps the opportunity visible and flags when a qualified teaming partner may be needed.
When an actionable sourced opportunity is available, drag the same live card from Radar into Pursuing. That gesture writes the real pursuit decision. If current feeds have no qualified object, finish setup once: WinLayer opens a profile-backed starting brief, keeps syncing in the background, and adds future matches to Find contracts without inventing one.

Name, workspace, role, and the initial growth priority come from the authenticated account and workspace. Refine company identity, past performance, capacity, alerts, and strategy later in Company profilewhen those details become useful.

8–18 minutes: understand one match

Open Guided Plan and begin with “Your next best move.” If no sourced match is ready yet, review the explicit coverage gap and return to Find contracts as sources populate the ranked market queue.
Open the opportunity and read the match reasons, timing, issuing agency, set-aside, and source evidence.
Ask: can we deliver it, are we eligible, is there enough time, and is the likely value worth the capture effort?
If the evidence is thin, watch the item or improve the company profile before committing.

Two different numbers: fit measures alignment with your company. Preliminary PWin is a decision aid based on available evidence. Neither guarantees an award. See the scoring model.

18–23 minutes: record the decision

Pursue when the evidence supports spending capture time now.
Watch when the opportunity is relevant but timing, eligibility, value, or evidence is not ready.
Pass when it does not deserve more team attention. A clear no-bid is a useful outcome.
Open My pursuits to confirm the item is in the right lane.

23–30 minutes: create the first work plan

For a pursued opportunity, open Build response.
Create or review the capture brief, evidence, win themes, compliance work, and proposal tasks.
Use Tasks and deadlines to assign the next action and due date.
Return to Home. The next-action queue should now tell the team what needs attention.

What “done” looks like

The company profile reflects what you actually sell and where you can compete.
When a sourced match is available, at least one opportunity has a human decision: Pursue, Watch, or Pass. Until then, the starting brief names the coverage gap rather than fabricating a contract.
A pursued item has an owner and a next action with a deadline.
Everyone can trace the recommendation back to evidence.
The First Outcome value ledger shows which decisions and deliverables actually exist; modeled time returned remains clearly labeled as an estimate.

Next: improve noisy results with the profile-tuning guide, then use the full workspace guide as the reference for each tool.