A delivery and investment method that divides work into phases separated by decision gates, releasing funding stage by stage as evidence accumulates. Discipline on paper; only as strong as its weakest gate.
The stage-gate idea is staged commitment: pay for the next tranche of certainty, not for the whole journey. What organisations often build instead is a corridor of ceremonies through which approved projects travel undisturbed.
Last reviewed 3 July 2026 · Free and ungated
Operators who have run staged portfolios can tell you whether your gates are filtering or performing.
Get independent perspectivesA stage-gate process breaks an initiative into defined stages (concept, feasibility, development, testing, launch, or equivalents) with a gate before each. Every stage has deliverables; every gate has criteria and a decision authority; funding is released one stage at a time. The design goal is to spend the least money required to resolve the largest remaining uncertainty.
Run honestly, stage gates change portfolio economics. Weak initiatives die at early gates, cheaply, releasing money and people while they can still be redeployed, and leadership gains a legitimate way to fund exploration without committing to delivery. The kill rate is the health indicator. A portfolio where nothing dies after the first gate is not blessed with exceptional judgement; it is running an approval pipeline dressed as a filter.