I went straight to LinkedIn, identified the Deputy CIO — figured he controlled the budget. Spent about three weeks messaging up the chain. We got a meeting, but procurement flagged us immediately. Took six months just to get a pilot conversation started.
Budget-first logic misreads how government procurement authority actually flows.
I mapped the agency over about six weeks — identified a program officer who'd publicly presented at a conference, built rapport there, and used that to get a meeting. We got a 30-minute intro call, but it stalled after that.
Disciplined single-thread entry with real tradecraft, but no multi-stakeholder map behind it.
I mapped three entry points simultaneously — a program officer, two operational analysts, and the contracting lead. Others went straight to the top. I spent six weeks working all four in parallel. We got a meeting with the acquisition office. The program officer never responded.
Correctly models the agency as a system — demand, requirements, and acquisition targeted in parallel.