Chet’s Blog

The “picture above” was taken off of the beach at the northern tip of Anna Maria Island, FL.  A flock of Pelicans sit on a small sand bar discussing the news of the day (mostly about fishing spots). They are all members of a deserted proposal team in bad need of a consultant to get them off of the island.

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Branding is a capture method that reaches into each of your company’s new business development activities.  The result of a branding approach is immediate client recognition for each of these activities as a part of your company’s approach. This blog contains a list of the branding activities that should be a part of your Branding Plan for all new business development programs.

Datawrite suggested Branding Plan Elements

• Schedule of events for branding activities
• Corporate portal format allowing tailoring for a specific bid
• Orals format and documented training exercises
• Proposal format including Splash Pages
• Customer “Call Plan” format
• Client take aways from a program specific Solutions Bank
• Client Specific advertising (e.g. Defense News)
• In place plan for teaming arrangements including bogies and costing guidelines
• Site Visit check lists and report structure

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MANAGEMENT AND COST BASELINES ACTIVITIES

The management team’s first responsibility is to create a baseline which

corresponds to the needs of the technical baseline.  The program

organization can then begin to function during the proposal in their new

roles.  Program assignments and leadership role assignments aid in the

responsibility structure which is critical to the success of proposal

preparation.  Experienced team members or consultants establish a Work

Break Down Structure (WBS) and a Master Milestone Schedule.  These program

tools are the glue which bind all program tasks dictated in the Statement

of Work (SOW) and ultimately tell the story of how the program goals will

be achieved.  Preliminary WBS’s and schedules form the backbone of the

STORYBOARD DEVELOPMENT.

 

In the event that the customer issues a Statement of Objectives (SOO), the

team has the flexibility to use it as the structure on which to build a

Contractor Statement of Work (CSOW).  The CSOW should retain the same

numbering and nomenclature scheme as the SOO since the government will

grade according to its directives.  Imagine if a bidder came up with a

completely different structure and numbering scheme.  The evaluators would

have a much easier time awarding points to a competitor that followed their

scheme.

 

The following is a quote from the U.S.  Army PEO STRI Program Executive

Office for Simulation, Training, & Instrumentation concerning SOOs

(http://www.peostri.army.mil/STRIAM/SOWGENERATOR/): This document

introduces a new concept called the SOO which shifts the responsibility for

preparing the SOW from the government to the solicitation respondents.

Following recent DoD direction to lower government costs by encouraging

innovative contract options and flexible design solutions, the SOO captures

the top level objectives of a solicitation and allows the offerors complete

freedom in the structure and definition of SOW tasks as they apply to the

proposed approach. However, the requirement, content and purpose of the SOW

in the contract remain unchanged… The key is to keep the SOO clear and

concise and to provide potential offerors with enough information and

detail to structure a sound program, designed to be executable and satisfy

government objectives. The SOO is used, along with other information and

instructions in the RFP, by offerors, to develop the contract work

breakdown structure, statement of work, and other documents supporting and

defining the offerors proposed effort. SOO content depends both on the type

of program and on the program phase. It is possible that a ‘mature’

program, such as one which has been fielded for some time, could require

slightly more detail in the SOO to properly integrate with other, ongoing

parts of the program. The SOO is replaced at contract award in the contract

by the proposed SOW.

 

So, although the SOO is only offered as guidance, the wise bidder expands

on its structure to define their particular approach.

 

Once these the SOW and the WBS tools are in place the Management baseline

can proceed.  At this point there are several other base line ingredients

to design and capture including the: Program Organization, Program

Schedule, key personnel, past performance and management processes.  Each

of these key areas can be worked well in advance of the final RFP release. 

If they are, you will find your company in an excellent position to

concentrate on any new direction the final RFP may take.

 

PROCESS FACILITATING: Baselining is like a long trial for a group of

sequestered jurors.  Don’t pick sides, don’t alienate, demand the best

performance, find out what people have to offer and what they need to allow

them to make the greatest contribution (writing help, computer access,

etc.):  it’s a “Stone Soup” process.

 

 

COST BASELINES NEED TO BE AUDITABLE The cost baseline uses the same tools

as the management baseline:  Work break down structure (WBS), WBS

Dictionary and Statement of Work (SOW).  It is the proposal management

group’s job to use these documents to structure the proposal for the best

cost.  This means two things: One, each of the items in the WBS must be

addressed in the SOW and Technical Volume, and two, there must be ample

detail in the WBS and SOW to describe the costed elements of the proposal. 

These items include hardware, software, engineering services, engineering

design, logistics, test and other work to be accomplished on the program.

 

The WBS and SOW need to be tightly laced throughout the other volumes of

the proposal.  How is this accomplished?  Remember your Outline and Cross

Reference Matrix?  Go to it like the grail and spend the time to fill in

the column for SOW and WBS references.  When you have accounted for every

line item in those documents against a paragraph in one of the proposal

volumes, you will know that you have done your job.

 

 

The WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE (WBS) If you structure your proposal so that

the evaluators can easily find your responses, you will probably have a

well-structured WBS.  On occasion the RFP will offer the first three levels

of the structure eliminating some of the guess work, but when they don’t,

rely on Mil-Std 881 and your baseline documents.

 

FRANK SAYS:  If the RFP offers guidance:  FOLLOW IT!  Don’t go off in your

own direction because you think that your company has a smarter way of

doing business.  Remember, the evaluators will have to compare your

approach to the competitors.  If the competitor followed the guidance and

made it easier for them to score they will get the point and your company

will not.

 

The MIL-HDBK-881 gives the following definition: A work breakdown structure

(WBS) provides a consistent and visible framework for defense materiel

items and contracts within a program. This handbook offers uniformity in

definition and consistency of approach for developing the top three levels

of the work breakdown structure. The benefit of uniformity in the

generation of work breakdown structures and their application to management

practices will be realized in improved communication throughout the

acquisition process.

 

Below the third level you are on your own but it is best to use the MIL-STD

for guidance.  The other levels should follow the flow of your baseline

definitions.  In the hardware world this might mean breaking down modules

into sub-components and Lowest Replaceable Units (LRUs).  Build hardware

and software trees that reflect your builds down to the lowest level that

you can identify them.  These trees should then be reflected in the WBS.

 

FRANK SAYS: Mirror your hardware and software trees (from your baseline

document) in the WBS for total proposal auditability.  The more things tie

together the more credible they are.  While you’re at it, mirror your

organization structure for engineering, logistics, training and other

organizations into the WBS too.  If you’re selling services show how they

break down by discipline.

 

Tips & Tricks: Always break your structure down to the lowest level that it

can be best costed.  If two vendors or team members are responsible for

cost within a single block, break it down again until each cost element is

discrete.

 

The government wants the cost elements for its products broken down to

match CLINs.  Here is what MIL STD 881 defines as non-product elements that

should NOT be costed: Do not include elements which are not products. A

signal processor, for example, is clearly a product, as are mock-ups and

Computer Software Configuration Items (CSCIs). On the other hand, things

like design engineering, requirements analysis, test engineering, aluminum

stock, and direct costs, are not products. Design engineering, test

engineering, and requirements analysis are all engineering functional

efforts; aluminum is a material resource; and direct cost is an accounting

classification. Thus none of these elements are appropriate work breakdown

structure elements.  SPECIFICATION TREE Another important part of your

baseline is the Specification Tree.  This tree allows the bidder to

organize functional requirements by system components.  By starting your

tree early you can see where extra resources may be needed to further

define your technical approach.  Here is what MIL STD 881 has to say about

the specification tree: A specification tree, developed by systems

engineering, structures the performance parameters for the system or

systems being developed. It subdivides the system into its component

elements and identifies the performance objectives of the system and its

elements. The performance characteristics are explicitly identified and

quantified. Completed, the data listing represents a hierarchy of

performance requirements for each component element of the system for which

design responsibility is assigned. Because specifications may not be

written for each product on the work breakdown structure, the specification

tree may not match the work breakdown structure completely.

 

AUDIT YOUR WORK The cost baseline relies on the structuring of the

technical and management baselines.  Without auditability in your cost

structure you have no chance of convincing the client that you can do the

job.  Cost, therefore, must be managed hand-in-glove with the rest of the

proposal development.  The most important feature of the baseline exercise

is to develop an analysis that supports a winning cost.  This analysis can

then be broken down into bogies for each part of the program (design,

development, test and manufacturing efforts).

 

If you are the vice president or director of marketing it is your business

to research the client’s budget and the approximate amount available for

the solicitation.  From that information you and your team can determine a

point on the curve where the best cost, the winning cost, should be.

 

The Program Manager is responsible for parsing out cost bogies to each

vendor, team member and internal department to ensure that they have the

correct goal for their estimates.

 

After the Cost Kick-off the bogies are released and a milestone is set for

collecting the estimates.  All estimates must be accompanied by

justifications that match the WBS Dictionary definitions.  If a bid comes

in above the boogie the justifications must include detailed rationale so

that the Program Manager can manage the cost problems early in the game.

 

This approach eliminates last minute high estimates from being thrown over

the wall at the last minute and blowing the cost strategy.  Although this

may sound like a simple approach, it is almost never followed.  And when it

isn’t, unpleasantness is almost always the result.

 

SUMMARY

 

The challenge of the baseline meetings brings out the creative best in a

team.  Strategies will fall out of the sessions so that meaningful

storyboard writing can begin.  Other important program decision points will

also surface, including the need for additional team members and long-lead

item identification.  It is the beginning of the creative process and a

win for your company.

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TECHNICAL BASELINE PLANNING ACTIVITIES

The technical baseline process is the first step in matching your solutions

to the government requirements.  This process uses structured engineering

capture sessions that result in products including a spread sheet of all

preliminary approaches and substantiating data and a red lined

specification.

 

The technical baseline will involve all engineering disciplines from both

the company proposal team and team members.  Creating baselines is the

second responsibility of the proposal team after strategy development. 

Each member will have the opportunity to suggest risk analyses and

trade-off studies that will support the final approach.  These studies will

become the backbone of the technical volume, proving to the evaluator that

your company took the best of all possible technical directions.  This

System Engineering approach will also substantiate reliability,

maintainability and supportability of the baselines.  This Technical

Baseline Meeting Template consists of a participant guide, methodology, and

a meeting subject guideline.

 

TECHNICAL BASELINING MEETING PARTICIPANTS

To create synergy and to gain the best ideas for your technical baseline

you must select the right meeting participants.  The following minimum

participation should be available for the sessions: 1.  Program Manager 2. 

Chief Engineer 3.  Proposal Manager 4.  Technical Volume Manager 5. 

Marketing representative 6.  Engineering 7.  Hardware (Mechanical) Engineer

8.  Software Engineer 9.  System Engineer 10. Test Engineer 11. Specialty

Engineering 12. Reliability/Maintainability 13. Human Factors 14. Safety

15. Logistics 16. Training

 

MEETING METHODOLOGY 

Use of a standard format for these meetings gives participants a

consistency of approach.  Keep it simple but also keep it isolated.  You’ll

need to set up a schedule that allows each of your subject matter experts a

minimum of two hour sessions.  During this time they will address the

approach they envision for their part of the solution.  These presentations

allow the rest of the baseline team to come up to speed before addressing

each individual requirement.

 

MEETING OBJECTIVES

The facilitator’s job is to draw out information from the group that can be

used in the storyboard process.  One of the best ways to achieve this is to

put three columns on the flip chart: one for the requirement, two for the

approach and the third,The substantiating data for that approach.

 

Beginning with the subject matter expert’s brief, the facilitator captures

the salient approaches on the chart. Afterwards, the facilitator goes

through each of those captured and exercises the group to see if there is

one, agreement and two, substantiating data for that approach.  Here are a

list of possible considerations when developing solutions to particular

requirements: 1.  Define Product Assemblies/Subassemblies 2.  Detail

internal and external product interfaces 3.  Identify COTS/GOTS/NDI 4. 

Identify Make or Buy decisions 5. Identify areas of technical risk 6. 

Identify competitor strengths in similar product. 7.  Identify and assign

action items.

 

When a sticking point occurs, the chief engineer will draw an assumption

and the team will move forward.

 

Once the approaches have been agreed to, the facilitator has the chart

keyed into an Excel spread sheet.  This piece of the baseline can now be

used by the final Bid/No Bid Committee to decide one or more of the

following: 1.  The current team has the expertise to make a credible

solution for the bid 2.  The current team lacks a particular ingredient to

the solution 3.  There are uncommitted subcontractors to fill the gaps in

the approach 4.  The solution cannot be met with the team regardless of

additional subcontractors or vendors. 5.  To achieve the bid the team must

act as a subcontractor to another prime.

 

 RED LINING THE SPECIFICATION 

Often during the baselining process it is agreed that certain technical

parameters contain high risk.  When answers to questions from the

government do not mitigate these risks it may be wise to red-line the

specification.  When these decisions are made it is important to capture

justifications for each red lined requirement.

 

CREATE A JUSTIFICATION TABLE

Create a red line specification table using your compliance matrix.  Create

a column for the RFP value and one for the red lined value.  Most

important, have a column for the justification.  In this column cite

specifics about the values achieved by your solution.  Be sure to ghost a

weakness in any other competitor who may blindly claim to meet the

specification as is.

 

SUMMARY

This chapter discussed the mechanics of the baseline meeting.  The

facilitator is responsible for keeping the meetings on track and following

up on action items. Results should be carefully documented and entered into

the proposal plan.  All of the information gathered will become a part of

the STORYBOARD DEVELOPMENT process.

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Branding your company’s proposal requires a look
and feel that reflects your solution.  Using a web based program portal as a
part of your proposal significantly enhances this branding.  Here is a
method of showing continuous progress on the
proposed program activity even after the proposal
has gone in for evaluation.  And it doesn’t count
against page limitations.

The program portal will give a final branding to your
approach.  It will update the progress of your approach
allowing the government to follow the development of the
features that you proposed.

The portal design begins with
a simple drill down diagram. Working with
engineering, logistics and management, you and
your Information Technology group will be able to
access the data most critical to the programs
success.  This information will be split into
different screens.  The box at the top of the
example(Figure 1)represents the Home Screen and
portal into the rest of the web site. Buttons on
the screens represent links to program specific subjects and
data.  These lower level screens allow drill down
to even more specific data like the availability
of critical or long lead parts.

Figure 1.  A Drill Down Chart is the First Step in
Building a Program Portal for Your Proposal.

Once you have developed the drill down chart, you can
work with the Information Technology Group to
design the web pages and to further refine the
links. Adhere to the color palette that you follow
in your proposal.  Use a portion of the cover art
to achieve branding between the proposal and the
portal web pages.

The program portal allows a client to see real time
status of maintenance and parts availability (in
this example).  If an aircraft were unavailable
the client would be able to see exactly where it
is in the maintenance cycle.  The client could
further deduce if the maintenance is on
schedule and therefore, if your management of
the program is working. A portal is only as good
as the data in it.  So once you launch a portal it
will need to be kept up to date by your team.
Like any other recurring task, key personnel must
be accountable for data updates.  The upside is,
that once the portal is working you have continual
client visibility.  It is one great sales device
that just keeps giving.

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Military Sales Campaign Management – Features of a Good Campaign
A Campaign is a carefully orchestrated series of events led by a master facilitator that result in relationships that will yield ongoing future opportunities.  A good campaign gives your company the advantage over your competitors.  In DoD business there is always a winner and loser.  The tips in this primer will help your company end up as the winner every time.
Campaigns for military contracts take patience and persistence.  Unlike commercial campaigns that can hinge on a single quick sale, military sales by the necessity of competitive solicitations last years.  Among the differences are: Contacts are Civil Servants and the military for DoD components; budgets have been set for one or more years in advance; it takes from two to five years to follow a campaign and win a competition for the final contract, and; the Government runs on ethics and principals that are very stringent and are backed by law; requirements and evaluation criteria are set in stone once the final RFP is issued.  Campaign management works to shape the requirements through to the draft RFP release.  The steps that allow this shaping are the most critical to the campaign’s success.  They include the introduction of the technical lead to the customer, the forming of relationships and the homework to present a credible, low risk technical solution. These are all elements of the Campaign Plan.
The following Plan features are addressed in this primer:
•    Growing Customer Relationships
•    Developing the Call Plan
•    Opportunity Assessment Activities
•    Parallel Advertising Campaign
•    Maintaining the Common Database
•    Risk Analysis Theme
•    Graphics that Define Your Solution and CONOPS
•    Solution Processes (templates or spiral development)
Growing Customer Relationships
Relationships, relationships, relationships- At every step of the Campaign Plan there exists the opportunity to further your relationship with the customer.  Each contact is precious and must be handled individually and captured in your database for the best results.  People don’t like thinking of themselves as part of the Government’s blank face.  They each see your opportunity in a different way and they must always be approached on that basis.  This is also the most satisfying part of the job.  When you bring things down to personal relationships, the work is much more satisfying and allows you to have that optimism that is necessary to win a contract with any command.
Like BRANDING, keep the same faces to your customer during the campaign.  Form a team that will make visits and correspond with the customer.  The more that you are recognized, the closer the relationship becomes.
Coax the client along – always respond to issues based on the clients concerns and objectives.  Persistence and aggressiveness must be balanced with common sense.  No one likes to be exercised every other day without a good reason.  Find a pace and stay substantive.  Measure the frequency of your call plan between email, calls and visits.  There is an art to this.  It takes a feel based on individual relationships.  It is a recurrent theme for each of the steps.  To a certain extent it can be learned, but a little talent doesn’t hurt either.

Developing the Call Plan- know who you are calling and why. A strategic approach to follow-up is all important when forming a trusted relationship with your customer. Use metrics to plot the course of future calls.  Be sure to match command budgets with your company’s revenue goals and growth targets.  The customer will recognize your vigilance when it comes to keeping your solution within budget.
Use calls to meet more contacts in the command.  Ensure technical personnel are well versed on the ideas and level of design disclosure that you wish to divulge at each meeting. Set performance levels to your design to influence the final specification.  Carefully explain with white papers and graphics how this performance level will meet the needs of the customer’s with CONOPS.
Always relate these design sessions to low risk design and production standards.  Also relate success you’ve had on past and present contracts with that or other commands in developing products or systems similar to the one you are pitching. Past Performance is a lead evaluation factor.  Ensure that you have run all of the traps with your your past and current programs to the Contractor Performance Assessment Report System (CPARS).
As you weave this campaign on the way to a draft RFP release, keep building your relationships with the command’s management and technical team.  Once they begin to rely on you and recognize that your past performance is up to snuff, you will have built a trust that is your responsibility to maintain.  During your calls, always clearly state capabilities based on scientific facts and back up approaches with the same substantiating data that you will use in your Proposal!
The transition of the campaign to a written proposal must be seamless.  All too often the customer will pick up a proposal and it will not reflect what they had expected to see given campaign meetings with industry.  Evaluators should be able to see the thrust of your campaign in all levels of strategy within the proposal.
Opportunity Assessment Activities:
During the campaign you must punctuate your schedule with two equally important activities.  These are ongoing activities necessary before the release of the RFP.  They are:
1-    Rolling Strategy Development and Strategy Reviews, and
2-    Rolling Competitive analyses
Strategy development is accomplished in teams of like disciplines.  Requirements are matched to approaches that have well defined solutions and offer measurable benefits to the customer.  These strategies are always considered in light of known competitive capabilities.
Your competitive analysis will start with your teams understanding of competitor capabilities and past performance.  As time goes on you will gather more information.  This will come from contacts and even their advertising campaigns.
Using your core Campaign Team begin a rigorous ongoing opportunity Assessment.
Do not wait for the draft RFP to be released to hold a Black Hat Review and see if you can compete – make that decision early on.  Are there variables?  Sure there are.  The government could remove a potential money making component from the bid.  Part of your relationship with the command will be to know about these problems and to negotiate them down or away before the final RFP is released.
Parallel Advertising Campaign
Maintain capabilities and customer interest through escalating strategic advertising in appropriate media.  Use high level graphics drawn from your ultimate solution to keep new customer interest.
Maintaining the Common Database:
All notes and discussions put into the Campaign Data Base.  No call or email reply from the customer should be wasted.  They are all learning experiences that will help to piece together the command’s needs. The perfect way to communicate all client data to the entire team is through a common database.  Having separate static spreadsheets cannot compete with a Siebel-like campaign management capability which works for all tiers of campaign involvement. See Siebel Campaign Management.
Risk Analysis Theme
The customer should be aware of your Risk Analysis Board and their activities regarding your approach.  This is an excellent way to ghost possible weaknesses in a competitor’s approach early in the game.
Graphics that Define Your Solution and CONOPS
Visualizing your solution and how the end product will integrate and perform with other components is the most effective way to sell your solution.  Begin by conceptualizing a single high level drawing that captures all of the highlights of your approach.  This is often called a “win diagram, a why us diagram or an elevator drawing.”  Include a “Focus Box” containing your lead features and benefits.  The drawing should also capture the Concept of Operations (CONOPS).  This drawing will become invaluable as the campaign grows.  In its final refined rendition it can be used at the beginning of your Executive Summary and Technical Volume.  It should be proprietary and not released to advertising.
Other individual graphics can be captured to examine detailed capabilities of your approach.  If convincing, these diagrams could appear in your customer’s Industry Day package in one form or the other.
All of these early graphics will iterate over the campaign period.  They become a lynch pin of your proposal effort and ensure that everyone has the same idea of what you are proposing.  They will also spark reviews and new ideas from within your team.  Communications and relationships go hand in glove for a winning team.
Approach that Includes a Process (templates, spiral development, and more)
Back in the eighties I had the pleasure of visiting Mr. Willis J. Willoughby Jr. at his office in Crystal City.  After using his templates as a guide for proposal responses I decided to meet with the man for whom they were named and try to learn if they would be applied to other bid types such as services and task order contracts.
I was led into his office just after lunch.  It was all done in dark wood and leather chairs like the lair of Sherlock Holmes.  Mr. Willoughby was a straight shooter and very open to innovation using the process that was named after him.  The templates weren’t meant to stifle creativity but to set a pattern of events that if adhered to would lower the risk inherent in weapons system and especially airframe development. They are a matrix of the most critical events in design, test and production of the industrial processes. The templates are used by program managers to identify critical engineering processes and how to control them.
By using these templates as the basis for the risk analysis needed in the proposal effort, you had an authoritative metric for the proposal evaluators to gauge your solution.  They are still very useful along with Total Quality Management, Acquisition Streamlining and others.

In Summary
Creating a campaign and managing it takes a master facilitator and a company with the vision to foresee the government’s future needs. Solutions are developed and presented to the customer in a way that fosters good relationships and allow the shaping of the solution.  The final RFP favors the results of a good campaign.

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First Draft Development
The plane finally landed in Atlanta.  It was two hours late due to a light malfunction in the cockpit control panel.  So, after a long week on the road Frank and I missed our connection to Tampa.  We were standing in line at Delta’s Customer Service Desk with a lot of other stranded types.  A line of thunderstorms was passing over the airport just to add to the mix of discomfort and futility.  Someone in front of us was using a hand held device to try to find a seat on another carrier.  A good use of line time.  Frank and I had our pocket spiral notepads and they only connected to our over stressed noggins.  “It’s time to take our endeavor to the next level,” said Frank.  I knew what he meant since we’d been through this before.  We both took a deep breath and started talking about what we would accomplish in the up-coming week.  Dutifully we noted our decisions down in the notepads which would never dump the information because of a bad battery.  And then before you knew it we were at the front of the line.  It actually interrupted our conversation.  We did get another flight home later that night but it was to another city where one of our wives was good enough to pick us up.  “It just takes a little patience and fortitude and you can make the best of any situation” summed up Frank.

INTRODUCTION – WRITING IS NEVER EASY
Here we go into the first draft development.  You’ve been patient with the process and now you’re ready to see the development of actual proposal pages.  The horrors and rigors of the storyboard review are behind us.  Now it seems like a great and rewarding experience.  Gone are the lunches that were brought in and gave everyone indigestion. No, now it looks like such a noble experience and we managed to gather a great deal of valuable data.  A few all steered Red Team designees came in to steer this formative stage of the bid.  Now we all know what should be in the first draft.  But writing is hard.  Getting your thoughts from the storyboards into text will take another level of discipline.

FRANK SAYS:
Frank warns that at this juncture people who are responsible for turning storyboards into draft will forget these valuable inputs (all scrawled nicely onto the original boards they got back after the Pink Team Review).  Frank says that without guidance they are likely to put the storyboards aside and start from scratch..

The whole draft development must be managed almost hourly.  So here we go….

PRODUCTION PLAN
Discuss production plans early.  Editors and illustrators need to know when the crunch times are on your schedule.  Although you will probably want authors to work on their computers storing draft directly to an assigned drive, there will be a cut over to production control before or after Red Team.  To ensure a smooth transition, you will want the final format template posted on the drive for authors to use.  You should also have a writing sample that reflects a strong proactive writing approach.  In short, the sooner you pave the road to production and the technical editors, the better.

FIRST DRAFT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
Everyone should be playing on the same page when you start writing draft from storyboards.  For this you must have a process.  Over the years I have used and revised processes to come up with the simplest most straight forward approach to this phase possible.  Again, you will want to go over this process at your Monday morning status meeting.  You will want to email it to the team and post it on the team file page.

TEXT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

The text development process allows for the orderly progression from storyboard sign-off to text writing.  It is a process guided by Proposal Management that includes guides and templates which have been placed on the team drive.  The process is broken down into the following subsections:
1-    Update/Review – the process for updating and re-scoring storyboards
2-    Plan for Writing – the process for pre-writing planning
3-    Draft Visibility – the process for capturing storyboards and replacing them with text on the walls
4-    File Text Location – the process for writing and filing text along with the location of style sheets and guides
5-    The Review Process- the process of first draft and red team reviews
6-    Final Production – the process for developing and printing final draft.

Let’s look at a set of detailed instructions that can be given to the proposal development team after the storyboard review for these six steps.  These instructions will help to set the stage for an accurate first draft development:

1- UPDATE/REVIEW FOR COMPLETED STORYBOARDS
This procedure will ensure that your team has brought each of the storyboards to approved completion before turning them into text.  Resist the urge to bypass this step and go directly to draft development.   It is a rigorous exercise that will ensure quality text.
“    Update storyboards to include Storyboard Review comments
“    Have the updated boards reviewed again by an appointed Storyboard Reviewer (notify Proposal Management for appointments).
“    Once the boards have been graded they will go to the Proposal Management Team for final assessment.
“    If approved, the sections will move on to “Plan for Writing.”  If not approved, they will cycle again through update and review.

2- PLAN FOR WRITING
Once the storyboards have final approval, instruct the writers to plan out the next step before advancing.  This is an important step in “mind setting,” before writing begins.  The plan for writing should include the following elements:
“    Page count (resolve conflicts with Proposal Management).
“    Graphics (settle on the number of graphics for your section and put all draft graphics into production).  It is important to do this now since there will not be time at end game for a bow wave of graphics to hit production all at the same time.
“    Assign a writer responsibility for each section
“    Generate Draft for 1st Draft Review by fleshing out each of the points in the storyboard.  Always start with a positive statement that reveals the overall solution that you bring to the requirement being addressed.

A TEMPLATE for “Plan for Writing” should be placed on your team drive.  This template should give a layout for headers and the proposal paragraph numbering and enumeration scheme.  The writer can then save the template using a convention that includes paragraph number and title (e.g. 3.2.2.1 Software Development).  Once saved the writer can replace template headers with the actual text from the outline and then begin writing text.  After the text is captured and reviewed, the writer can update his work and save it with a revision notice attached to the title (e.g. 3.2.2.1 Software Development RevA).

3- DRAFT VISIBILITY
Once your storyboards have been approved and you have been given permission by Proposal management to proceed to “Plan for Writing,” take your storyboards off of the wall, copy them and replace them.

Retain the original Storyboard markup and yellow stickies to use as your Roadmap when developing text.  This is key to the entire process.  Some writers will want to retain the criticisms they received from the Storyboard Review and go straight to writing text without ever looking at their marked boards.  This is a mistake.  The Thematic Statement, substantiating data and graphics should all be transferred to the draft template and then developed into text.  This is the phase where it is important for the author to transfer everything on the approved storyboard to graphics.  In this way nothing will be lost in the process.  Remember, this is a simplified approach that does not require redundant forms. Nothing should be lost between the steps.  A good storyboard along with the review comments are used to create a substantial first draft with no other forms in between.

Once draft is developed, post it and remove the storyboard from the wall.

Draft visibility will allow the team to stay in step with progress in other proposal sections by merely “reading the wall.”  This device can be powerful as long as the team is encouraged to get their drafts up and not to hold them until just before the review process begins.  Status draft inputs on the wall daily.

4- TEXT FILE LOCATION
Proposal management creates file locations on the team drive for draft text entry.  This means that if you have a shared drive that only can be accessed by team members you will want to create an overall file called “ABC PROPOSAL FIRST DRAFT.”  Below this file you should set up individual files that correspond to the numbers and the names of the major paragraphs out of the Proposal Outline.  So, there would be a file for 3.2.2.1 Software Development.  Using this convention allows all involved to quickly find the correct files and gets people used to the numbering scheme.

Once your Plan for Writing has been approved you can proceed with text development and the population of these folders.  Each individual file folder can contain a writing guide, sample and a short form template for the benefit of each writer.

Proceed with text development within the files using the following steps:

Text Development Steps
Step 1- Location for individual section folders: Your team Drive://ABC Proposal First Draft/Individual files per paragraph.
Step 2 – Use the Text short form Template including style guide for text entry.
Step 3-  Use the style guide in each individual section folder for text development guidance.
Step 4- Enter all paragraph numbers and paragraph titles per the Proposal Outline.  Do not change the government’s wording.  Always use their titles for lower level paragraphs not included in the outline.

Graphics Development Steps
Step 1- Use the Storyboard sketch and comments to finish your graphic concept
Step 2- Number Graphics, both Figures and Tables, with a convention that ties them to the paragraph number they will be a part of (e.g. 3.2.2.1-1 for the first Software Development graphic or table).  Tables and graphics are numbered in the same parallel order.

HOW TO USE WRITING GUIDES/TEMPLATES
A short writing template including a style guide should be made available for each section and paragraph as a part of the writing guide.  Make a copy of the template and save it in the appropriate first draft file using the same naming conventions used for the storyboards (e.g. 3.4.4 Air Platform).  Longer sections can be divided into subparagraphs.

Once a section is drafted and is ready for section leader review, HANG A COPY on the assigned wall space in the proposal war room.  This gives the visibility to data on the proposal to the entire team.  Other sections may depend on data and ideas from other parts of the proposal so we want everything that we can get up on that wall.  We also want the graphics up so that common graphics are not recreated.  Multiple development of similar graphics is a waste of time and resources.

FORMATS AND DOORMATS
Many publications departments have strict formatting rules.  These rules and the formats that they use give a consistency to their products and for the most part are professional looking and do the job.  However, when you have a page limited proposal you will often have to suggest variations.  It is the consultants job to present a case for getting more words on the page.  In many cases Section L instructions may dictate space and one-half using a minimum of 12 font.  This severely limits what you can put on a page from the get go.  However, if the government has not dictated margins, you may find that a three quarter inch margin still looks good and gains you words.

TIP & TRICK
The use of run-in headers is important.  There is a way in Word to get run-in headers for lower level paragraphs while still being able to create automatic table of contents (TOC).  You can accomplish this by using a “hidden return.”  The header and text will run-in on the first line of the paragraph, but the software will see the hidden return and will just pick up the paragraph number and title for the TOC.  It’s a good trick.

FRANK SAYS: After about two hundred times of testing the old single column, double column styles for better word count, the single column wins again!  The Single Column wins because it holds more words!  It doesn’t look as good and someone will always want to argue that double column can give you more words, but there is no way that they can beat the mathematics of the matter: take a swath of words and letters out of the center of any page and Viola!  You have fewer words.  And yet, it will always be argued.  Save yourselves some time and use a single column format to begin with.

CONSULTANTS CORNER
As a proposal consultant there are a lot of lose ends to keep track of.  Always be sure to do the following:
“    Publish your status notes so that everyone knows what to expect during the draft writing period.
“    Have an action item list kept up to date with responsibilities and end dates for draft development clearly stated.
“    Frequently touch base with individual team members to give them the opportunity to voice any misunderstandings or frustrations they may have.

FRANK SAYS: Always run the traps at least once a day.  You never know when one of them may have been tripped.  It’s better to circumvent an unhappy camper and his problem before it runs through the entire team and becomes an unmanageable run away train.

ELEVATOR DRAWINGS AND OTHER CURE ALLS
It really cannot hurt to have a single drawing that the Solicitation Officer can show to his boss between floors on the elevator to convince him that he picked the right contractor. Or  can it?  Depends on the bid.  Now if you have a complex bid where the client is looking for a prime integrator it may be a little harder to conjure up such a diagram than if you’re selling upgrade 2 ½ ton trucks to the Army.  As an integrator with a myriad of solutions from COTS/GOTS/NDI to interoperability problems you may find such a drawing too confusing.  If you do, it’s worth the time to hone those strategies into something that is both pleasing to the eye and technically correct.  This is a hard conceptual task but well worth the exercise.  The drawing could become the first graphic in your Executive Summary.

FRANK SAYS: My elevator drawing had six focus points to remember and a pretty picture they couldn’t forget.

Now that was probably a good application for the old saw.  Here are the steps to use to put one together:
Step 1 – Take an 11 ½” by 17″  piece of paper.  At one end draw a table for features benefits.
Step 2- In the middle of the remaining panel place a photo or drawing of the finished concept or architecture.
Step 3- Draw arrows into the vital points and then fill in balloons for each drawing with the pertinent approach/solution/capabilities.
Step 4 – Write in reference numbers to the specification and statement of work for each of these so that they can see the relevance of the drawing.
Step 5- Let good illustrators turn your grubby sketch into something beautiful.

TEAM ASSESSMENT OF FIRST DRAFT
Your draft is mostly finished as you head toward the first draft review.  Now is a good time for the Proposal Manager to take a quick look at what he has.  No matter how good the storyboards and the previous review comments are, first draft is always first draft.  But although it may be a bit raggedy, all of the right data should be in all of the right places.  This is the advantage of the system.  The process now becomes one of editing, reviewing and polishing instead of countless rewrites.  This system will save you time and resources if you work it and don’t just give it lip service.
Here are a few of the obvious things the manager should look for in the draft:
“    Correct paragraph numbers and titles.  Do they line up with the Proposal Outline?
“    Poor writing.  Sentences and paragraphs that start with a figure or a table reference.
“    Motherhood.  Flowery language filled with adjectives and hyperbole that say nothing substantive.
“    Missing graphics.  Incorrect or duplicate graphics callouts in text or none at all.

FRANK SAYS
An old proposal saw is to respond to a requirement with an approach that can be reinforced with substantiating data.  Motherhood does not win evaluation points.

USING THE BS STAMP
I had a friend who taught me some of the ropes when I started out on the road.  Near the first color team review, we would compile the first draft.  My friend Frank would sit down with me and we’d read each piece of that draft aloud.  After each thought, he taught me to pause and check to see whether or not the material said anything of value, or was it merely Bull S..t. He’d get out his Bull S..t stamp and do away with anything that didn’t pass the test.  I still use this method for first cut draft submittals.  However, I have a red pen for deletes.

THE BEAUTY OF A BOOK PLAN
Okay, there’s one more cure-all that I can’t resist giving you.  The Book Plan.  This plan is a single large sheet of glossy paper that contains every bit of information you would need as a customer to decipher what has arrived in all of these boxes.  The need for a plan is even greater today given the instructions for both ancient printed matter and electronic media.  The plan can also be used to emphasize how you have followed the customer’s Section L Proposal Development Instructions .  Once you’ve developed your plan you can drop a copy into the top of each packing box just like the computer system companies do.  It’s always nice to see an easily read layout of a complicated solution.

SUMMARY
Creating a first draft requires a process for gathering information and instructing first time authors.  The leaner this process is the more likely it can be applied successfully.  We have seen how such a process can be used in the transition from storyboard development and review to draft writing.  The use of on-line formats and templates added to an electronic file system can regulate and help status the process. The enforcement of using the wall to give a high visibility to all of the data being developed gives the team the cross pollination of ideas necessary for a tightly written powerful first draft.

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It was a beautiful day in Key West.  Perhaps those terms are redundant.  My wife and I were staying at great hotel at the head of Duval Street near Mallory Square.  Years ago I had attended Sonar School at the now defunct Navy base.  I had gotten off of a long proposal development program a few weeks ago and we decided to take a short vacation.  It turned out to be a great time of year to be there.  Right after Easter – the tourists had all packed up and headed north.  I think it was our second morning there.  We were preparing to take the Conch train around the island – a nice easy way to travel and see the sites.  The phone rang.  It rang loud.  It was my customer from the last job.  Over one hundred Clarification and Deficiency Reports had been entered onto the contracts web site the night before.  We had five days to turn around the responses.  This guy was panicing, and since I didn’t want to let him down I told him I’d fly up that night.  Then I had to tell my wife the bad news and then I had to call Frank.  I think he was trying to lose a little money in Reno at the time.  The point is when you’re helping a client win a large program the work doesn’t stop with the delivery of the proposal.

INTRODUCTION – PREPARING FOR THE FOLLOW-UP

A few weeks after you’ve submitted your proposal, the government will dutifully reply to it with a number of Items for Negotiation (IFN) or Clarification Reports (CRs), Deficiency Reports (DRs) and Evaluation Notices (ENs).  Depending on the size of the proposal you can pretty much count on one question per every two pages submitted.  Some of the IFNs will merely address weaknesses while others will be labeled as “deficiencies.

As waves of questions come in you’ll probably only get three or four days (not only business days) to respond to each wave.  Since some of your responses will require change pages to your proposal volumes you’ll need a reliable process to meet the tight turn around schedule.  It will take a process and organization of resources to ensure that these schedules are met.  This may require some logistical planning if your team has dispersed to other locations after the proposal process.

The method for tracking and responding to these reports requires both wall tracking (for visibility) and an electronic filing system with hierarchies of visibility.

THE WALL
Hang each of the questions separately up on the wall in your war room using the government’s  numbering order.   Some may want to rearrange them to specific volume sections and paragraphs.  This may at first seem a logical way to approach the responses since it makes it easier for the proposal team to identify responsibility in groups.  It will be easier for proposal management not to regroup them in this manner because you’ll always have to status them using the government’s numbers.  You’ll also want to be able to quickly find a particular number on the wall as other conflicting reports arise.

Once they are on the wall you’ll want to have a listing like your master outline which gives you a column for number, title, assigned writer, draft due date, reviewed by and final sign-off.  Using this simple scheme you can go through several iterations and reviews working towards a final sign-off.

TIPS & TRICKS
As you prepare to create a response for an IFN always remember the golden rule, “Answer the Question.”  Good engineers will often try to fill in the response blank with all of their back up information and explanations before actually directly answering the question.  Put the answer first so that the reviewer can determine if they agree.  Then they will read your substantiating data.

REVIEWING THE WALL
Once all of the IFNs are displayed and responses start coming in, you’ll need a method for alerting the reviewers that a response is hung.  You won’t want to make them search for the responses because they just will not have that kind of time.  I suggest using colored dots (about ¾ inch) that can be purchased in any office supply store.

By using the dots to alert a response, a reviewed response and an updated response you can reduce the numbers of copies you make of your work.  Multiple copies on different colored paper can become cumbersome and printer dependent.  Always hang the response over a copy of the original question so that reviewers can read the source data.

You should have an executive committee for the final sign-off before responses are sent back to the customer.

USE AN ELECTRONIC LOG
All CR/DR responses are entered into an electronic log.  This log contains the following columns: CR/DR Number; Description/Category; Owner; Author; and Review Mail boxes.   These columns describe:

CR/DR Number:  the exact number the Government used to avoid confusion with other seemingly more straight forward sequence numbers employed by the bidder.  You will always have to go back to and refer to the Government number.

Description/Category: Simple abbreviation of subject matter at highest level.
Owner:  There may be several authors working paragraphs on a particular page, but there should only be one owner for that page, someone to ensure that all of the most recent changes are finished.

Author: Individual who will write the CR/DR response and markup their part of the change page and then turn it into the owner.  Could be the same person.

Review Mailboxes:  There are four columns.  Each will be dated per a transaction between the author, the reviewer and Production.  The sequence works like this:  One, The author posts a note in the Review Mailbox that says that Number xx & xxx are ready for review.  The reviewer looks up these CRs/DRs in the CR/DR database, reviews the responses and posts a note back to the Author’s Mail Box.  This note will either say that the response needs the following changes before it is approved or it will have an OK attached to it.  A date will be made for this transaction either under the Reviewer to Author Mail Box or under the “Approved” Mail Box. Once the author receives an OK, they must complete an electronic change page or a red lined hardcopy change page and then post the finished response to the Production Mailbox.

Since these transactions are done in mailboxes, the flow can be tracked by both the proposal manager and the production manager giving high visibility to the work flow.

CR/DRs Thumbnail Process
1- Create an electronic log (copy of HPC file) by Government log number.  Create folders for draft responses and a set of folders for final approved responses.  Don’t give the team write privileges to the latter set of folders.  Production will be able to use the finals for edit and electronic submittals.

2- Have copies made of the questions.  Retain one in log book held by Deputy Program Manager.

3- Volume assignments should be made by the Proposal Manager.  Have a column for supporting personnel.

6- Volume Leaders will review responses electronically.

7- After reviewing the draft response, Volume Leaders will hold one-on-one critiques with the writers.  They will offer written comments and recommendations to the writers and a second draft turn around time will be agreed to before the end of the one-on-one review.

8- Updated responses will be hung on the wall beneath a copy of the Government Question.  Responses will be separated by volume and tab to facilitate continuity of responses.

9- The Program Manager, Technical Director, Deputy Program Manager and writers will review the wall.  Responses that receive criticisms will be rewritten and returned to the wall.  Once this cycle has produced an agreed upon write-up, the response will be signed off and entered into the “final” set of folders on the team drive for  production.

10 – Change pages are produced and printed

11 – An annotated list is developed for all changes and revisions per volume.

CHANGE PAGES
As responses are developed for the questions the need for change pages will unfold.  Ensure that there is a column on your status tracking sheet to account for this need.  Change pages should be copies of the actual page red marked by the author.  Do not give write privileges to the proposal team or you will lose configuration of the submitted proposal.
Change pages should be prepared on colored paper.  As more waves of IFNs come in different colors can be used to differentiate one change set from the next.

ELECTRONIC SUBMITTAL
Often DOD commands will request that you use their software for submitting your IFN responses.  CECOM has been using something they call ASSIST.  All of these programs take getting used to.  Some won’t allow tables and figures in the response field.  In this case you will have to edit the package so that these items can be made into attachments to the response file.  Other quirks include certain key strokes eliminating text.  So, it’s always a good idea to run a few test submittals in advance of your final delivery.

CREATING A FILE SYSTEM TO REDUCE CONFUSION
There will always be confusion, since few people stop to actually read the procedures that the Proposal Manager published by email.  When creating file systems for your incoming IFNs, be sure to determine a low enough level of folders to make your responses easy to find and track.  Otherwise, don’t create a single folder for 250 IFNs.  Because if you do every time you go to the well to change one, you’ll have to go all the way to the bottom just to find the one you want.  This can work by breaking folders into groups, such as Technical Group A, B and C.

BAFO PREPARADNESS
Your Best and Final Offer (BAFO) will be in response to a final set of amendments to the RFP.  You’ll probably have a week to ten days to make the revisions to your responses and to include your change pages from the questioning process into newly revised volumes.  You will also have to rerun your cost rollups and perhaps, if it’s required, you’ll have to update your total ownership cost (TOC).  So, you’ll need your full team and all of your production resources to bring to bear during this final knockout punch to your competition.

SUMMARY

Expect follow up from the client after you submit your proposal.  The solicitation board will try to level off all of the players so that the final judgment can be made on cost alone.  That’s right: even though Section M may list technical and management as higher in evaluation points than cost, once these two lead evaluation areas are leveled, cost is all that is left.  So have an in-place process to handle the incoming.  Keep in touch with your core team and make sure that they are available on a moments notice.  If you do, you’ll make it though to the end and victory.

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Using “The Wall” as Tool to Comprehensive Bid Development:

The wall is a window into which the entire bid may be glimpsed from beginning
to end.  Through this window you can see all of the pieces of the puzzle
as they come into position.  If maintained on a daily
basis, it is the most powerful tool the entire team has during development
and subsequent reviews.
The tool of visibility is foremost to the development of a successful bid.
Unless the product is constantly updated
from strategy development to storyboards, first draft and final draft,
everyone on the team will have a different idea
of what the overall story is.  Furthermore, they may waste valuable
time recreating conceptual graphics that have already
been prepared for other sections in the overall solution.  The wall
of your war room allows everyone the opportunity to see and interact with
all bid proposal activity.
The wall begins to take shape during capture activities.  High level
strategies and marketing position papers should be posted for the team.  They  should be read and
scrutinized during the formative weeks and months of bid development.

Proposal Phases – Wall Product Visibility

Capture
- Top Level Strategies
- Marketing Position Paper
- Action Item List
Draft RFP
- Volume Outlines and assignments
- Proposal Development Schedule
- Storyboards
- Requirements Interface Matrix
- First Draft
Final RFP
- Second Draft with deltas from Draft RFP Storyboards
- Third Draft after Pink Team
- Fourth and Final Draft after Red Team
ENs
- Questions from the Government with draft and final answers posted
over them

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