A stage gate is an investment decision point at the end of each pipeline stage, with four possible outcomes in BRI Associates' articulation: Continue to the next stage, Pivot the hypothesis, Pause investment, or Stop the project. It is the mechanism for staged, incremental commitment of resources — releasing more investment only as a strategy hypothesis accumulates the evidence a larger commitment requires. Stop and Pause are first-class outcomes, not failures: they are how a portfolio concentrates resources behind its strongest opportunities.
Each gate decision draws on both the project's own evidence and the broader portfolio context — relative strength and resource trade-offs across projects. The criteria and evidence standards at each gate are configurable per portfolio and per project class. For the full treatment, see the Innovation Methodology pillar at /supporting/methodology. Related Terminology Index entries: Stage-Gated Innovation; Stage; Pipeline; Evaluation Criteria Framework; Survival Rate.
