Fixing the Broken Red TeamA ‘beyond best practice’ workshop
Presented by:
David Warley Bid to Win Ltd
Michael Forster Nokia Siemens Networks
Saibal Sen Zenesys
Our thesis:Colour teams are broken; we need to fix them
Vision / Value
Win Strategy & Themes
Publication Standards
Responsiveness & Focus
Structure& Compliance
Winning ProposalWinning Proposal
Proposal
Validation
Plan
Proposal
Validation
Plan
Our Agenda
1. Exercise: Red Team Simulation2. Discussion: Red Team De-Brief3. Proposal: A better way
– Bid Products and Quality Criteria
4. Exercise: Build your own quality criteria– Bid Products and Quality Criteria for your own bids
5. Proposal: Quality methods vs Reviews6. Exercise: Linking it all up
– Develop your own Proposal Validation Plans
7. Discussion– Lessons Learned– Implementing the approach
8. Conclusion
1. Red Team Simulation Exercise:
If a proposal is like a steak then are the Red Team like restaurant critics?
Appointment of Red Teams &
Facilitator Briefing
5 mins
Read Red Team Instructions 2 mins
Review Sample Proposals Provided 2 mins
Identify Improvement Areas 3 mins
Document your recommendations 3 mins
2. Red Team De-brief (Post Mortem)
• What went wrong in creating those proposals?
• Could the review process realistically have improved them?
• Please recall as well your experience at your company!
3. A Better Way
Taking a leaf out of the project management book
A proposal does not emerge from thin airit is derived from many other ‘bid products’
Bid ProductsBid Products
Win Plan
Working Paper
RFQ
Requirements Checklist
Outline
Storyboard
Mock up
Win Plan
Working Paper
RFQ
Requirements Checklist
Outline
Storyboard
Mock up
Finished Proposal
Finished Proposal
Used to
derive:
Used to
derive:Examples
of:
Examples of:
To create quality products you need clear quality criteria
Bid ProductBid Product
Quality Critera
Quality Critera
Quality Methods
Quality Methods
Customer Quality
Expectations
Customer Quality
Expectations
Proposal Validation Plan
Proposal Validation Plan
Winning Proposal
Winning Proposal
Some pragmatic principles:
No bid product should be created unless:– The time to create it is less than time saved later
or
– It helps to validate a later bid product
or
– The cost of its creation will result in greater post proposal savings
Effort used should be commensurate with:– The time and effort available for the pursuit
and
– The importance, value and potential risks involved in the proposal
4. ExerciseStart your Validation Plan
List the Bid Products and their quality criteriaHere’s an example:
• Use the template form provided
• Complete ONLY the first TWO (2) columns
You try it!Define the Bid Products and their Quality Criteria for your bid
Group Assignments 2 mins
List Bid Products used on your bid 5 mins
For each bid product:
List the main quality criteria 5 mins
Discuss your conclusions 3 mins
5. Quality Methods
Why use a nutcracker when a sledgehammer will do?(and might be cheaper and faster)
Quality methods should be appropriate to the criteria and situation
Team Reviews are not the only quality method available.
• A ‘quality method’ can be any suitable technique to check that a ‘bid product’ meets the quality criteria set for it
• Quality methods can include:– Checklists– Stress testing (e.g. of a strategy against different scenarios)– Inspection (Automated and Manual)– Validation tools– Peer review – etc, etc
• Many existing reviews could be implemented as checklist based inspections
• This allows checking each product as it is completed without a proposal wide ‘pens down’ review
At NSN checklists help ‘non-career’ bid managers assure compliance and completeness of PROCESS:
6 checks for proposal preparation steps
6 checks for proposal preparation steps
9 frequently forgotten but important topics
9 frequently forgotten but important topics
Checklist inspections can be used for products.‘Famous’ Quality Methods:
• Blue Team checklist:
• Black Hat Team checklist:
• Pink Team checklist:
• Validate completeness of win strategy
• Test strategy against prospect needs and requirements
• Validate that the strategy provides a clear advantage over competitors and their approaches
• What are the competitors’ likely strategies?
• What are competitors’ strengths and weaknesses?
• What issue do you ghost?
• How do you become the competitor to beat?
• Validate deployment of Win Strategy
• Sequence and flow of topics
• Win Themes consistent and supported by proofs
Criteria based scoring can be used(especially useful for qualification)
Stress Testing
• Useful for validating strategies and intelligence
• Use multiple scenarios:
– “In this scenario do we still win?”
– “Is this intelligence still valid?”
Checklists are never static: they need to be opportunity specific
Generic Quality
Expectations
Generic Quality
Expectations
Proposal Objectives
Proposal Objectives
Specific Quality Criteria
Specific Quality Criteria
Bid ProductBid Product Quality Method(s) Applied
Quality Method(s) Applied
6. You try it!
List the Quality Methods you’d use to test the criteria you already developed
In the same groups as before:
For each bid product in your list:
Review the Quality Criteria you defined 2 mins
Identify the Quality Methods you could use 5 mins
Identify who might apply the method 5 mins
Record your conclusions on the sheet 3 mins
7. Putting it all together:
We now know:
• WHAT will be reviewed
• The CRITERIA for the review(s)
• The METHOD for each review
• WHO will be the reviewers
If we add:
• WHEN the reviews will happen and
• RECORD the outcomes of the reviews
We have a complete
• Proposal Validation Plan
It need not be complicated.A single sheet can capture a complete plan
8. Conclusion
Proposal Validation is basic Quality Assurance• The project management world provides a ready made
model for this• The techniques are scalable from case to case
– Overhead is low as a fraction of total effort
Additional benefits:• Clear traceability maintained from strategy through to final
proposal• Products can be reviewed as and when they are created
– The ‘running Red Team’ becomes a manageable proposition
• A clear audit trail is created through the ‘quality records’ created
Thank you!
For more information:
Visit www.bid-to-win.eu
Come and talk to us in the Exhibition area.