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.