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Capability Matrix

How to generate and read a Capability Matrix, an AI-scored fit assessment against your Company Profile, from Market Research or an opportunity record.

Written by Matt Miller

Overview

The Capability Matrix rates how well your organization fits an opportunity, based on your Company Profile and the rest of your workspace data (past performance, capabilities, certifications). It's scored 0-4 per capability area, giving you an early read on fit before you commit to pursuing.

This is different from the Compliance Matrix. The Compliance Matrix tracks solicitation requirements once you're building a proposal. The Capability Matrix is a fit assessment, meant to help you decide whether an opportunity is worth pursuing in the first place, and it can be generated before the opportunity is even in your pipeline.

You can access the Capability Matrix two ways:

  • During Market Research, on any opportunity you're evaluating, before it's added to your pipeline

  • From the opportunity record, in the Capability Matrix tab, once it has been added to your pipeline

Generating a Capability Matrix from Market Research

While viewing an opportunity in Market Research, open Ask AI in the right-hand panel to start a Nexus AI chat scoped to that opportunity. Prompt it directly, for example: "Build a capability matrix from the solicitation documents for this opportunity."

Nexus AI will confirm before generating (Approve / Reject), since building a capability matrix takes a few minutes. Once approved, the matrix streams into the chat as a table showing:

  • Capability Area, with a short explanation of why it matters to this opportunity

  • RFP Section it's tied to

  • Rating (out of 4)

  • Our Fit: a written justification based on your Company Profile and workspace data

This gives you a fit assessment before you decide whether to Add to Pipeline at all.

Generating a Capability Matrix from the Opportunity Record

Once an opportunity is in your pipeline, open its record and select the Capability Matrix tab. If none has been generated yet, you'll see a No Capability Matrix Yet state. Click Generate Capability Matrix to open a window listing the solicitation documents available to analyze, pulled in automatically and pre-selected. You can deselect any you don't want included, or add more via Add Attachment, which lets you pull from a SharePoint Site, SharePoint Folder, a Link, Google Drive, or upload a file directly.

The window shows a running count of how many documents are selected (e.g., "7 selected"). Once you're satisfied with the document set, click Generate to build the matrix by analyzing those documents against your company's capabilities, past performance, and content library.

Understanding the Capability Assessment

At the top of a generated matrix, the Capability Assessment summary shows:

  • Total capability areas assessed

  • Strong (3-4): areas where you have solid, current experience

  • Weak (1-2): areas with limited or past-only experience

  • None (0): areas with no experience

  • Unrated: areas that haven't been scored, often because there isn't enough information in your Company Profile to rate them

A color-coded bar visualizes the overall distribution. The rating scale is:

  • 0 = No experience

  • 1 = Personal experience

  • 2 = Parts / past experience

  • 3 = Today for some customers

  • 4 = Today for this customer

Reviewing the Capability Matrix Table

Each row shows:

  • Capability Area, with a short description of what it verifies

  • Type: Business or Core

  • Rating: 0-4, or N/A if there isn't enough information to rate it

  • Our Fit / Justification: the AI's reasoning for the rating, based on your Company Profile and other workspace data

  • Reference: the solicitation section the capability area is tied to

  • Evidence: linked supporting evidence count, where available

  • Actions to view or delete (trash icon) the row

From this view you can also:

  • Add Capability Area to manually include one that wasn't captured automatically

  • Export XLSX to download the matrix

  • Clear to remove all rows and start over

  • Regenerate to re-run the assessment, useful after updating your Company Profile or capabilities

Why This Matters

A low or unrated score on a critical capability area is an early warning sign, either you have a genuine gap, or your Company Profile and Capabilities records don't yet reflect experience you actually have. Either way, it's worth investigating before committing capture resources to the pursuit.

Best Practices

  • Run a Capability Matrix during Market Research to help inform your bid/no-bid decision before adding an opportunity to your pipeline

  • Keep your Company Profile and Capabilities records current, this assessment is only as accurate as that underlying data

  • Investigate N/A and Unrated results, they often mean your Company Profile is missing relevant detail, not that you lack the experience

  • Regenerate the matrix after significant Company Profile updates so scores stay current

  • Use the Reference and Evidence columns to sanity-check a rating before trusting it

Expected Outcome

A clear, evidence-backed view of how well your organization fits an opportunity's requirements, helping you make a faster, better-informed bid/no-bid decision.

Have a question not answered here? Use the chat bubble in the lower right corner of NextStage or email hello@nextstage.ai.

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