2/1/2024 0 Comments Team z k member review![]() A few days before they get the draft, give the reviewers who are not part of the writing team what they need to understand the proposal strategy: your storyboard(s), detailed outline, win themes, compliance matrix and RFP.Know when to call time, “shoot the engineers” and distribute your Pink Team review draft. You need to find a balance between rushing to Pink Team before you have developed a full draft, and letting the writers invest too much time polishing something up that may need major re-work. If some parts are missing, there should be a clear description of what will go in each blank space. To give reviewers a fighting chance at promoting a better and more complete second draft, as well as a feel for the whole story line, the Pink draft should be complete with charts, tables and figures included. Someone from the executive leadership should be included so they can advocate for the final approval of the offer to higher-ups. At this point you should be looking for fresh eyes that have not been involved with the writing up to now but understand the client and can look at your strategy and give you an honest answer as to whether the document does what you believe it should do. Who to Invite to Red Team? Ideally you are trying to ghost the people you suspect will be on the government evaluation panel. Reassure them that their input will be needed most when the process reaches the critical stage and “the hard decisions need to be made.” (They’ll like the sound of that!) This will show them where you stand with a good deal of the work already accomplished and detail the changes you contemplate for the more complete draft at Red Team. It may be better to tell the VPs, “Let’s not short-circuit the process,” and offer to share a detailed report-out from the Pink Team review. Who should not? Inviting leadership in at this point can be risky if they are overly critical toward the team or you fear they may inject spurious ideas into the process and derail you from the plan. All the writers have presumably bought into the capture strategy, but this naturally hampers their objectivity as reviewers your most valuable reviewers will not necessarily be writers, but those who know the customer, the technical subject matter and the RFP – mostly, in that order. However, you must to make sure you have others in the mix who can challenge you on the choices made to date. This is certainly a good way for each section writer to get a better idea of what is going on in the rest of the proposal. Who should be in on the Pink Team Review? The reviewers are often the writing team reviewing each other’s sections. You have a solid compliance matrix so your reviewers don't waste time pulling scores of “wills, shalls and musts” out of the RFP.Based on that work you prepared win themes and a detailed proposal outline, which you have already communicated in the proposal kickoff meeting to your team.This resulted in a clear and realistic vision of how your team can win this work In the months leading to the RFP release you collected objective data about your customer, known competitors and the reputation your team has with the client agency.The first thing needed for a successful color team review is a detailed proposal strategy - which you set to paper before you put pen to paper for the proposal- which in turn was based on a solid pre-proposal capture strategy. Everyone is given Clear Guidance as to how to review the draft.Making sure the Right People are reviewers.A Solid Strategy shared at the kick-off meeting.In the next 1400 words I’ll do my best to share what I have learned from way too many difficult proposal efforts I have been part of over the years. How can I get what I need from my reviewers the first time? Is there any way to make these reviews less painful and more productive? Those dreaded meetings when you take a hard look at the draft of your proposal and realize that you have a ton of work to do before this thing is a winner.
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