Slightly off-topic: A question about proposal responses

One of my readers asked me a question about proposal responses, especially in the Federal realm. As part of my job here, I've been involved in several Requests for Proposals (RFPs) - both developing the RFP and evaluating the responses.

The first and most important advice is the flip-side of the first and most important piece of advice for writing the RFPs themselves:

For the RFP writer: Only ask for the things you need

For the RFP responder: Make sure to address everything that's asked for following the instructions to the letter

This is really a matter of respect for everyone's time, right? I'm not able to go into details, but I can certainly say that I've seen many, many RFP responses that missed key sections or failed to follow instructions. That can put an evaluator in a very bad position - you can lose in the evaluation due to missing something small.

The next piece of advice dovetails with that. If there is a questions and answers period, use it. If you are unclear on anything: ask. If you think you know and it's pretty clear but you're not 100% sure: ask. If something doesn't seem to make sense: ask.

And last with respect to a written response: make sure it's internally consistent. I know that seems obvious, but again, timelines and numbers and narrative all need to tell the same story. So especially where different authors are responsible for sections - make sure they tell one holistic story.

If there are oral presentations, make sure you bring the right players, make sure they know each other and can look and act like a team. You can hide some amount of disconnect in writing that can't be hidden in person. I've actually seen teams practically arguing with each other mid-presentation.

Beyond that, there are point of personal preference that may just apply to me:

• It's easy to say you're "uniquely qualified", but you better show why
  
• If you're an incumbent and you're going to tell me how you'll improve next time around, it will meet some skepticism
  
• If you're an incumbent and you're going to change things significantly, don't overlook the transition to the new state
  
• If you're challenging an incumbent and you don't have the situation-specific details they do, acknowledge that but don't dwell on it
  
• If you're challenging an incumbent acknowledge that there will be a dip as you come in and explain how you will manage that
  
• Oh - and finally too many pretty pictures of your pretty corporate building just make me think your rates are too high - some is fine, but too much is too much
  

In the end, none of these things can make you win, but failing to do them can make you lose.

Don't let your problems become my problems...

Okay, so I was remiss in posting for a while. It's rough spending a couple weeks in Hawaii and then returning to two huge snowfalls. But no excuses - I'm here.

"Don't let your problems become my problems" - what does that mean?

It means:

• You need to own your issues
  
• You need to take your issues as far as you can before I get involved
  
• You can and should ask for help, but you will still own the issue
  
• If you can't own the issue and I have to, you may not like how I resolve it
  

A different way to consider it is this: there are different reasons to go up the chain with an issue. The key and common reasons are for awareness, for consultation, and for escalation. In a sense, these should form a pyramid.

Most commonly, you send things up the line to inform. "Hey, here's the status of the project." No action is needed, but it ensures you aren't violating the "No Surprises" rule. Less often than that, there's consultation. "Do you think we should do this in phases or a big-bang?" You still own the issue, and you have a decision to make and you want consultation on it. Finally, there's escalation. "The project team is unable to get consensus from the customers on the third requirement and we need you to contact a few people." The object of this rule is to keep these to a minimum.

Have you done whatever is possible within your scope to avoid escalating? If not, you are probably still in "inform" or "consultation" mode.

When this works right, you own your job, I know what's going on, and we both get to keep focus where it belongs.

The rules on my wall...

Nobody can be perfectly transparent, but I strive to be as predictable and transparent as possible. I want the people who work for me and around me to understand what I expect of them. To help with this I put a set of rules up on the wall in my office for everyone to see. And if those rules are followed, it's pretty hard to go too wrong.

• Think
  
• No surprises
  
• Spend more time fixing in than whining about it
  
• Plan to deal with exceptions
  
• Do your homework
  
• Don't let your problems become my problems
  

In upcoming posts I'll walk through each of these with some examples.

Oh - and I did leave out another rule: No Weaseling. I really should add it to the wall.