Development of a Proposal Readiness Balanced Scorecard

1. Proposal Professional Impact Paper
Submitted and Presented by:
Keith Roberts

2. Impact Summary
• Develop a Proposal Readiness Balanced Scorecard
– Led team to identify Key Performance Indicators in Business
Development Lifecycle (BDL), which were used to monitor proposal
readiness of opportunities at beginning of Pursuit Phase
– Implemented and continually improved on Balance Scorecard
application
• Impact of the Proposal Readiness Balance Scorecard
– Assigned Proposal Managers to opportunities the begin preparation for
Proposal Phase at the start of Pursuit phase
• Allowed proposal staff to better understand challenges and commit to objectives
• Enabled proposal staff to better support Capture Managers during Pursuit Phase
– Allowed organization to focus resources on opportunities with greatest
potential for success
• Allowed organization to take corrective action prior to Final RFP/Tender release to
help improve Win Probability
• Allowed organization to identify opportunities too far outside core market
objectives before over-committing limited proposal resources

3. Situation
• Weekly Proposals <90 Days briefing slides
provided only minimum information about
upcoming opportunities
• Additional opportunity information needed to
accurately describe status of upcoming
opportunities, but space in slide format was not
available
• Weekly briefing was critical time each week
when all stakeholders were available to discuss
potential issues about upcoming opportunities,
yet only minimum collaboration occurred due to
limited opportunity data on briefing slides
• As a result, teams during proposal phase often
struggled to meet their schedules due to poorly
developed Capture/Pursuit Plans
• Business unit was under pressure from Division
Headquarters to improve proposal win rate
• Interaction Design (IxD) Model was used to
create a cost-effective, low-tech solution using
Microsoft Excel

4. The Tasks
1.Intent – identified prospective users for the
solution and documented their goals
2.High-level Design –selected system
platform that supported business strategy
and developed initial prototype design
3.Low-level Design – verified information
interface design and validated data reported
on the dashboard
4.Implementation – integrated live data into
initial prototype application
5.Deployment & Feedback – launched final
application design and solicited feedback
for improvement
Using the phases outlined in the IxD Model (Intent, High-Level Design, Low-Level Design,
Implementation, Deployment & Feedback), I accomplished the following tasks:
Use of the IxD Model helped ensure the solution
I developed was grounded in an understanding
of the business unit’s users—their goals, tasks,
experiences, and needs. Approaching design
from this perspective, while endeavoring to
balance users’ needs with business goals and
technological capabilities enabled innovation of a
new and evolving tool that improved support for
existing unit objectives and strategies.

5. I diagnosed the current
condition and formed
an initial hypothesis
The Capture and Proposal
Managers helped identify
specific pain points and unmet
needs in the Weekly Proposal
Briefing slides
I created a “Win-Win” understanding
that highlighted gaps in proposal
preparations and Win Probability
improvement
I analyzed previous opportunity
data, identified patterns relating to
poorly developed Capture/Pursuit
Plans, and extracted insights
My proposal staff helped identify Key
Performance Indicators (KPI) in the Business
Development Lifecycle most likely to affect
Proposal Readiness for upcoming opportunities
I built an initial prototype application of
the Proposal Readiness Dashboard that
integrated all the requested information
into a single view for review during
weekly briefings by the stakeholders
I created a roadmap that validated the
prototype application, solicited feedback
from the user group, and implemented
improvements
I worked with Division Headquarters to
further expand use of Proposal
Readiness Dashboard for all business
units in the Division
The Activities

6. • Opportunity is Identified
• Capture Plan is started
• Projecting RFP in 264 days
The Results This is a sample scenario of how the
evolving status of proposal preparations
are now reported in the dashboard
application

7. The Results This is a sample scenario of how the
evolving status of proposal preparations
are now reported in the dashboard
application
• Opportunity is now Qualified
• Capture Plan improved
• Initial Past Performances
identified, but shows currently
inadequate
• Reaching out to teammate to
help address Solution Gap
• Initial analysis of Draft RFP
• Solution Workshop scheduled

8. The Results This is a sample scenario of how the
evolving status of proposal preparations
are now reported in the dashboard
application
• Opportunity is still in Qualified
• Solution Workshop helps to
identify addition teammates
needed to fill Solution Gap

9. The Results This is a sample scenario of how the
evolving status of proposal preparations
are now reported in the dashboard
application
• Opportunity is in Pursue stage
• Concern noted about teaming
status of addition teammates
needed to fill Solution Gap
• Steady progress being made
on proposal prep

10. The Results This is a sample scenario of how the
evolving status of proposal preparations
are now reported in the dashboard
application
• RFP is released early, but team
is well prepared and ready to
move to proposal stage
• Initial review of Final RFP
doesn’t show any major
changes from Draft version
• Bid/No Bid Review scheduled
• B&P Requested
• Proposal Kickoff Call
scheduled

11. The Results This is a sample scenario of how the
evolving status of proposal preparations
are now reported in the dashboard
application
• Opportunity now In Proposal
stage
• Kickoff Call is successful
• War Room established
• Teammates scheduled to work
next two weeks onsite until Red
Team Review completed

12. • Opportunity in Won stage
• Thanks to advance prep work
the team was ready to respond
to early RFP release and still
WIN!
The Results This is a sample scenario of how the
evolving status of proposal preparations
are now reported in the dashboard
application

13. The Results
• Won good bids
• Avoided bad contracts
• Evolved solution for entire Federal Division
Revenue
Year 1 Year 2 Year 1 Year 2
Win/Loss Ratio
Total
Bids
Total
Bids

14. CPD Plan for the next 24 months
• I will attend regularly scheduled local Chapter meetings
• I will attend the next International APMP conference
• I will take a course in Risk Management
• I will further develop Proposal Readiness Dashboard solution to address task
scheduling, so as to further promote collaboration and decision making for all
participants in the Business Development Lifecycle (illustration below)
• I will help members of my local Chapter prepared for their APMP accreditation