  1

1  Challenge: Describe your challenge, including all relevant information.

My role is that of a Bid Manager in a large information technology service provider. As a Bid Manager, I  am accountable for delivering proposals tailored to clients’ requirements in a timely manner. This  process involves working with multiple teams within and outside our organization to create a winning  proposition for the client. Once an opportunity is identified, a Bid Manager needs to work with different  teams such as Sales, Delivery, Solution Competencies, Legal, Senior Leadership, Third Parties, etc. to  ensure that these stakeholders understand the requirements of the bid and contribute effectively in  their respective responsibility areas in the proposal.

Given the time-sensitive nature of such bids, it is critical that all parties contribute to it in the specified  timeframe to allow time for proper reviews and refinement, which enable us to create a strong  proposition. One of the tools that a Bid Manager uses to track progress of a proposal is a Bid Tracker  which is a spreadsheet with the proposal sections, owners, contributors, reviewers, dates for drafts and  status. While this tool is effective in maintaining the status of the bid, in the case of large/complex bids,  the spreadsheet can become long and hence, difficult for the parties to navigate regularly and keep a  check on the bid timelines. This can lead to confusion among team members on the expected dates  and in turn lead to slippages in deadlines.

2  Selection: In your own words, briefly describe the tool you selected (e.g., what it is and  why you selected it for your challenge -- including any appropriate video lecture  references).

To address this challenge of shipping a high-quality proposal in time, the tool that I used was that of  Visualization. The idea was to make the key timelines and deadlines clear to team members  with diverse capabilities and actions so that they can effectively deliver to these timelines. These  team members have different challenges and time constraints. Hence, it is critical that the team  collectively understands and agrees to the timelines at the outset of the bid.

In the Visualization Tool lesson, Ms. Angela Myer had demonstrated a tool which helps communicate  complex problems to a diverse audience in a non-verbal manner. This is important here as the  team members have diverse constraints but need to visualize the bid as a whole, while defining the  timelines. Hence, a visual representation can elicit the interdependencies among team members and  help address these constraints collectively. Two other key points suggested by Ms. Myer which helped  me in this exercise were:

1. Use of colors and symbols to make the image more intuitive for the participants, and

2. Have a single image view of the overall bid, so that it is simple for the participants to understand,

agree to, and refer to in the future.

3  Application: Describe how you applied the tool you selected to your challenge (e.g., what  you did and how the tool was applied effectively or ineffectively).

To create a simple visual map of the overall bid, I started by creating the strawman of a chart with  dates as columns (from the start date till the planned submission date) and key sections of the bid  as rows (solution, commercials, other artefacts). This map helps chart the timeline of the bid in one  image (or in this case – a presentation slide).

In this map, based on my understanding of the bid timelines and expectations, I plotted key activities,  milestones and review points in/across the cells. The view had colored swim lanes for the  activities and symbols for key delivery milestones (response drafts, client/third party meetings, etc.)

  2

and reviews. This served as the starting point for a discussion with the team to achieve the following  objectives:

1. Validate our collective understanding of the proposal timeline and customer expectations,

2. Review and enhance the plan to account for interdependencies within the team and on external

parties, and

3. Get an explicit commitment from all the team members on their respective deliverables, thereby

enabling their accountability on these deliverables.

4  Insight: Describe the insight you gained from applying the tool you selected to your  challenge (e.g., how an insight affected your thinking about the challenge and about  design thinking more broadly).

Through this exercise we were able to deliver the proposal well within the timeframe set by the  client. Having a strong yet simple visual plan for reference helped everyone, especially the members  who joined our team after the initial kickoff, keep a check on their deliverables and flag any areas  where the faced challenges or needed help.

The biggest takeaway for me from this exercise was the simplicity of the approach which helped  smoothen one of the most critical parts of a bid by aligning all the team members to a common goal.  While the detailed status of each deliverable was available in the spreadsheet tracker, this image was  something that the team referred to regularly to check whether we were on track to deliver the  proposal with the required reviews and revisions. The reader got a view of the timelines for their  deliverables as well as that of the overall bid, which also helped them better appreciate their  contribution to the bid.

5  Approach: Describe what you might do differently next time -- applying the same tool  you selected or a different one -- and the reason(s) why.

When using this method initially, I had kept only the wireframe/strawman and had conducted a detailed  session with the team to fill in the details from scratch. While there was a healthy discussion and  collaboration in this session, we felt that it might have been better to have some content already  present in the wireframe before the session – as a ‘draft zero’ of the plan.

In my next bid, I drafted the complete plan, with activities, milestones, etc. (as described above),  based on my understanding and we used that as the base. This was a key departure from the original  method of starting with only a strawman. This ‘tweak’ acted a seed to give the team the opportunity to  focus on discussing and improving the plan, rather than building it from scratch.


 1 1 Challenge : Describe your challenge , including all relevant information . My role is that of a Bid Manager in a large information technology service provider . As a Bid Manager , I am accountable for delivering proposals tailored to clients ’ requirements in a timely manner . This process involves working with multiple teams within and outside our organization to create a winning proposition for the client . Once an opportunity is identified , a Bid Manager needs to work with different teams such as Sales , Delivery , Solution Competencies , Legal , Senior Leadership , Third Parties , etc . to ensure that these stakeholders understand the requirements of the bid and contribute effectively in their respective responsibility areas in the proposal . Given the time - sensitive nature of such bids , it is critical that all parties contribute to it in the specified timeframe to allow time for proper reviews and refinement , which enable us to create a strong proposition . One of the tools that a Bid Manager uses to track progress of a proposal is a Bid Tracker which is a spreadsheet with the proposal sections , owners , contributors , reviewers , dates for drafts and status . While this tool is effective in maintaining the status of the bid , in the case of large / complex bids , the spreadsheet can become long and hence , difficult for the parties to navigate regularly and keep a check on the bid timelines . This can lead to confusion among team members on the expected dates and in turn lead to slippages in deadlines . 2 Selection : In your own words , briefly describe the tool you selected ( e.g. , what it is and why you selected it for your challenge -- including any appropriate video lecture references ) . To address this challenge of shipping a high - quality proposal in time , the tool that I used was that of Visualization . The idea was to make the key timelines and deadlines clear to team members with diverse capabilities and actions so that they can effectively deliver to these timelines . These team members have different challenges and time constraints . Hence , it is critical that the team collectively understands and agrees to the timelines at the outset of the bid . In the Visualization Tool lesson , Ms. Angela Myer had demonstrated a tool which helps communicate complex problems to a diverse audience in a non - verbal manner . This is important here as the team members have diverse constraints but need to visualize the bid as a whole , while defining the timelines . Hence , a visual representation can elicit the interdependencies among team members and help address these constraints collectively . Two other key points suggested by Ms. Myer which helped me in this exercise were : 1 . Use of colors and symbols to make the image more intuitive for the participants , and 2 . Have a single image view of the overall bid , so that it is simple for the participants to understand , agree to , and refer to in the future . 3 Application : Describe how you applied the tool you selected to your challenge ( e.g. , what you did and how the tool was applied effectively or ineffectively ) . To create a simple visual map of the overall bid , I started by creating the strawman of a chart with dates as columns ( from the start date till the planned submission date ) and key sections of the bid as rows ( solution , commercials , other artefacts ) . This map helps chart the timeline of the bid in one image ( or in this case – a presentation slide ) . In this map , based on my understanding of the bid timelines and expectations , I plotted key activities , milestones and review points in / across the cells . The view had colored swim lanes for the activities and symbols for key delivery milestones ( response drafts , client / third party meetings , etc . )  2 and reviews . This served as the starting point for a discussion with the team to achieve the following objectives : 1 . Validate our collective understanding of the proposal timeline and customer expectations , 2 . Review and enhance the plan to account for interdependencies within the team and on external parties , and 3 . Get an explicit commitment from all the team members on their respective deliverables , thereby enabling their accountability on these deliverables . 4 Insight : Describe the insight you gained from applying the tool you selected to your challenge ( e.g. , how an insight affected your thinking about the challenge and about design thinking more broadly ) . Through this exercise we were able to deliver the proposal well within the timeframe set by the client . Having a strong yet simple visual plan for reference helped everyone , especially the members who joined our team after the initial kickoff , keep a check on their deliverables and flag any areas where the faced challenges or needed help . The biggest takeaway for me from this exercise was the simplicity of the approach which helped smoothen one of the most critical parts of a bid by aligning all the team members to a common goal . While the detailed status of each deliverable was available in the spreadsheet tracker , this image was something that the team referred to regularly to check whether we were on track to deliver the proposal with the required reviews and revisions . The reader got a view of the timelines for their deliverables as well as that of the overall bid , which also helped them better appreciate their contribution to the bid . 5 Approach : Describe what you might do differently next time -- applying the same tool you selected or a different one -- and the reason(s ) why . When using this method initially , I had kept only the wireframe / strawman and had conducted a detailed session with the team to fill in the details from scratch . While there was a healthy discussion and collaboration in this session , we felt that it might have been better to have some content already present in the wireframe before the session – as a ‘ draft zero ’ of the plan . In my next bid , I drafted the complete plan , with activities , milestones , etc . ( as described above ) , based on my understanding and we used that as the base . This was a key departure from the original method of starting with only a strawman . This ‘ tweak ’ acted a seed to give the team the opportunity to focus on discussing and improving the plan , rather than building it from scratch .