Rubber-stamp gates
Almost everything passes, so the real decision happens elsewhere — or never.
Free white paper · NPD Stage-Gate governance
Make every gate a real decision
The Modern Guide to NPD Stage-Gate Governance shows product, R&D and portfolio leaders how to stop weak projects early, fund strong ones fully and keep the pipeline within capacity.
- Five building blocks, each with design choices you can apply in your next planning cycle
- Six indicators that show whether your gates select projects or just hold meetings
- A 90-day rollout plan and a self-assessment you can run in under an hour
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The video series
Watch: how to make every gate a real decision
Why Stage-Gates stall
The problem is rarely the model. It is how the gates are run.
Most organizations do not need a new methodology. They need the gates they already have to produce real decisions, on time, with the capacity in view.
Pipeline gridlock
More projects are active than the organization can staff, so every project moves slower.
Late kills
Projects are stopped after development spend, when the evidence was available much earlier.
Paper governance
Gate packs are assembled in slides and spreadsheets for the meeting, then forgotten.
“A gate that never says no is not a gate. It is a milestone with a meeting attached.”
Inside the white paper
Five building blocks to industrialize your pipeline
1
Scale to risk. Full, standard and fast tracks, so small projects clear governance in weeks.
2
Scorecards. Must-meet knock-outs and anchored should-meet scores that turn opinion into evidence.
3
Decision rights. Gatekeepers who can commit the budget and people the next stage needs.
4
Portfolio link. Gates judge projects, quarterly reviews judge the whole pipeline against capacity.
5
Industrialize. One record per project, so gate packs come out of the platform in minutes.
Plus: six governance indicators, a 90-day rollout plan and a 15-point self-assessment.
Download the white paperThe core message
Four possible decisions, and only four
Every gate ends with one of four outcomes. Anything else — “continue”, “revisit next quarter”, “approved in principle” — means the gate did not decide.
Go
Resources for the next stage are committed now, not promised later.
Kill
The project stops. People and budget return to the pool.
Hold
Worth doing, but not now. It waits for capacity or for a trigger.
Recycle
Back to the current stage to close named gaps, with a new date.
About the author
Christophe Borlat
Associate & Product Specialist at PPM-Factory, Geneva, Switzerland
Frequently asked questions
Who is this white paper for?
Product leaders, R&D directors, portfolio managers and PMOs who already run a Stage-Gate process and want it to make better, faster decisions.
Is it tied to a specific tool?
No. The playbook applies to any Stage-Gate process. The last section shows how a PPM platform removes the manual work around it.
Which languages are available?
English, French and German. Switch language at the top of this page.
Make your next gate a real decision
Read the playbook, then see Stage-Gate governance pre-configured on PPM-Factory.