1. Start with the buyer’s required work
Extract the mandatory deliverables and the published evidence instructions from the current pack. Keep eligibility requirements, delivery requirements and scored questions in separate columns: meeting one does not demonstrate the others. Preserve any stated limits on example count, recency, format or referee details.
Do not create your own pass mark or assume a portfolio page will satisfy the buyer’s instructions. The matrix is an internal preparation tool. The final response must use the required format, answer the actual questions and stay within the published limits.
2. Describe what your team actually did
For each candidate project, record the client, dates, your contractual role and the deliverables your team owned. Distinguish work led in-house, work delivered by a named partner and work completed by the buyer or another supplier. A strong brand design case does not, by itself, prove that you conducted the research or built the website.
Make evidence specific enough to check: an agreed research report, an approved identity system, a launched website, a migration record or a handover document. Use only material you have permission to share. Keep confidential evidence in the appropriate controlled response rather than publishing private client data on your website.
3. Separate results from attribution
Pair each outcome with its source, measurement period and limits. ‘Delivered 24 templates accepted at handover’ is different from ‘increased applications’. If you describe a change in applications, explain the data and period, and avoid attributing the entire change to your agency where other factors or suppliers contributed.
Do not fill an empty outcome field with an invented percentage. Where results cannot be disclosed or measured, state the limitation and use appropriate evidence of delivery instead, subject to what the buyer asks for. A precise bounded claim is more useful for your decision than an impressive number you cannot defend.
4. Make partner coverage explicit
If the brief needs a specialist, record its proposed role, relevant evidence, availability and the delivery boundary. Check the pack’s requirements for subcontracting, consortium responses and reliance on another organisation. A general relationship or an unconfirmed introduction is not an agreed delivery model.
Avoid counting the same capability twice. If your agency owns strategy and identity while a partner owns development, show the join: who manages discovery, approves interfaces, resolves defects and accepts the integrated result? Confirm permission to use the partner’s case and team details before treating them as bid evidence.
5. Use a small, honest fit matrix
Imagine an exhibition brief asking for visitor research, identity design, installation and maintenance. Your published case demonstrates identity and interpretation panels, while the client separately appointed a fabricator. That case supports two parts; it does not establish that your agency can fabricate, install and maintain the whole exhibition.
Label the remaining rows as evidence available, evidence to confirm or gap. Those are internal workflow labels, not a buyer’s score or a probability of winning. Resolve essential gaps through a confirmed model and compliant evidence, or decide not to bid. Do not hide the gap behind a broad ‘full service’ label.
6. Reuse the evidence, not a generic answer
Maintain a small library with a project owner, approved wording, source material, permissions and a review date. This reduces repeated fact-finding without encouraging identical responses to different buyers. Recheck the facts, team availability and permission whenever a project is reused.
Finish by listing the strongest example for each required capability and the unresolved limitations. Use that record alongside budget, capacity and eligibility checks. The goal is a defensible bid decision—not making every opportunity appear suitable.
Put the method to work
The free CSV is a blank planning template, not a procurement form. It has no macros, needs no account and does not send your working information to NoticeSift.
Download the agency case-study evidence matrix (.csv)Continue with the related bid preparation guide or the full guide collection.
Prepared with AI assistance. These are NoticeSift’s suggested working methods, not legal advice or a guarantee of eligibility or contract award. Hypothetical examples are not live opportunities. Follow the current buyer instructions. Read our method or suggest a correction.