using best practices to build your production battle plan-apmp 2011-briana coleman 6-1-11
Post on 18-Oct-2014
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DESCRIPTION
Contractors fight many battles during the war to win business with the Government, from capture management and solutioning to finding key personnel. You can win all of these battles but still lose the war if you do not succeed on the final task—producing and delivering the bid! This session provides sound guidance for developing your own production battle plan. We’ll take you through the BD life cycle and discuss how to incorporate production into each phase. Using war stories from the industry’s leading editors, desktop publishers, graphic artists, and printing companies, we’ll discuss best practices. Specifically, we will define production elements (it’s more than just hitting print), discuss how to budget (time and money) for production and when to start, identify key skills of the best production staffs, and begin contingency planning. You will leave with a comprehensive production checklist to help you develop your own winning production battle plan for your next bid.TRANSCRIPT
Using Best Practices to Build Your Production Battle Plan
@Lohfeld
Briana Coleman, APM.APMPLohfeld Consulting GroupJune XX, 2011
PRODUCTION
1908
PROCESS
BEST PRACTICE
PRODUCTION PROCESS
PROPOSAL PROPOSAL
BEST PRACTICES
PROPOSAL PROPOSAL
TWEAK
TWEAK
TWEAK
TEAM
PRODUCTION
EDIT
DESKTOP PUBLISH
COMPLIANCE
ASSEMBLE
PRODUCTION
even the best proposal is only as good as its
EXECUTION
58
Overall Message
• Production is as important as any other part of the proposal process
• Production is much more than just hitting “print”
• Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong• Produce and deliver early!
59
AgendaProduction Across the BD Lifecycle
Production in Phases 1–2
Production in Phases 3–5
1 2 3 4 5
Opportunity ID and assessment
Pursuit
1
2
Pre-proposal preparation
Proposal development
Post-submittal
3
4
5
60
Production Across the BD Lifecycle
1 2 3 4 5
61
Defining Production
• It’s more than just hitting print!• Production includes:
– Desktop Publishing (Formatting)– Graphic Design– Editing– Printing/Assembly– Delivery
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Opportunity ID and assessment Pursuit Pre-proposal
preparationProposal
development Post-submittal
The Business Development (BD) Lifecycle
• Identify opportunity• Meet with customer• Qualify opportunity• Start capture plan• Prepare opportunity
assessment package and conduct review
• Organize capture team• Understand customer
requirements and objectives
• Develop preliminary solution
• Position solution with customer
• Assess competition• Develop win strategy• Build/execute
teaming strategy• Establish price to win• Assess risk• Conduct pursuit
progress and preliminary bid decisiongate reviews
• Assign proposal resources
• Develop strawman RFP
• Review solution against RFP
• Review/approve storyboards
• Identify and develop early-stage proposal products
• Draft oral presentation• Finalize proposal
development plan• Plan kickoff meeting• Conduct pre-proposal
gate review
• Confirm bid decision• Finalize and validate
proposal outline, design, and resources
• Conduct kickoff meeting• Finalize solution• Finalize storyboards
and conduct Blue Team• Begin writing proposal• Review/approve price
proposal approach• Conduct Pink/Red
reviews and edit• Conduct Gold review• Produce and quality
check proposal• Conduct proposal
submission gate review
• Conduct closure strategy
• Clean up proposal files and archive
• Receive award notice• Attend debrief• Assist with protests• Conduct lessons-
learned review• Conduct continual
improvement gate review
• Hold win party!• Transition to operations
Capture phaseBD Phase Proposal phase
1 2 3 4 5
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Production Across the BD Lifecycle
Opportunity ID and assessment Pursuit Pre-proposal
preparationProposal
development Post-submittal
• Developing the processes and infrastructure necessary to support production across all bids in a company
• Developing your production manual/plan• Hiring the right staff with the right skills• Designing company proposal templates, style
guides, and branding• Budget decisions
• RFP-specific templates, color palettes, and style guides
• Draft graphics
• RFP-specific production plan: who, what, where, when, how
• Graphic Design• Desktop Publishing• Editing• Printing/Assembly• Delivery
• Archival• Lessons Learned• Shredding!
Proposal-specific productionProduction process & infrastructure
1 2 3 4 5
64
Production in Phases 1–2
Opportunity ID and assessment
Pursuit
1
2
65
Production Processes & Infrastructure
• Document your production plan– Elements of the production plan– Identify necessary staff and staff skills– Printing decisions
• Develop company templates– Document styles– Covers, title pages, headers, footers– Editing style guides
1
2
66
Production [War] Plans
• Document company production policies:– Who will perform desktop publishing, graphics,
editing, printing/assembly?– How will desktop publishing be done—
MS Word, Adobe InDesign, etc?– Version control and archiving processes– How will printing and assembly be accomplished?– Style guides– Templates and corporate branding standards
Determining how production should be done in general (across all proposals)
1
67
Production [War] Plans, cont’d• Staffing decisions
– Inside vs. outside help: consider—• Volume of proposals• Complexity of proposals • Level of current staff’s skills• Subject matter expertise• Budget
– Who do you need?• Proposal Manager (production knowledge helpful)• Editor• Desktop Publisher• Graphic Artist• Printer/Production Manager
Determining how production should be done in general (across all proposals)
1
68
Production [War] Plans, cont’d
• Printing decisions– Inside vs. outside help: consider—
• Volume of proposals• Complexity of proposals • Level of current staff’s skills• Budget
– Inside printing: PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!– Outside printing: establish agreements and then…
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!
Determining how production should be done in general (across all proposals)
1
69
Developing Company Templates
• Paragraph styles/headings• Headers and footers• Title pages• Covers/spines• Tables/charts
2
70
Production in Phases 3–5
Pre-proposal preparation
Proposal development
Post-submittal
3
4
5
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Phase 3: Pre-proposal Preparation
• Begin drafting your production [battle] plan: proposal-specific
• Revise templates to meet [anticipated] RFP requirements: fonts, size, colors, etc.
• Begin drafting graphics• Revise style guides to meet client-specific
naming conventions/acronyms
Pre-proposalPreparation3
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Phase 4: Proposal Preparation SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY
1RFP Released
DETERMINE FORMAT/DELIVERY
REQT’S
2REFINE
TEMPLATE /SHELLS
DESIGN COVERS
3Kick-off
DESIGN COVER
CONFIRM SIGNER’S AVAILABILITY
4
DESIGN COVERS
CONCEPTUALIZE GRAPHICS
5
COVER DRAFT 1 DUE
CONCEPTUALIZE GRAPHICS
6
7 8SCHEDULE PRINTER
OR PRODUCTION FACILITY
CONCEPTUALIZE GRAPHICS
9FINAL COVER
DESIGNED
CONCEPTUALIZE GRAPHICS
10Pink Team
DESIGN TITLE PAGE & HEADERS; RENDER
GRAPHICS
11DESIGN TITLE PAGE &
HEADERS; RENDER GRAPHICS
12DESIGN TITLE PAGE &
HEADERS; RENDER GRAPHICS
PREPARE PRODUCTION CHECKLIST
13
14 15
FINAL TITLE PAGE, HEADERS, GRAPHICS
16
DESKTOP PUBLISHPRINT BOOKS
17
Red Team
18Refine Graphics
ORDER SUPPLIES
19Refine Graphics
20
21 22Final GraphicsFINAL EDITING
23FINAL EDITING
FINAL DP
24FINAL DP
PRINT BOOKS
25Gold Team: Morning
PRODUCTION
26PRODUCTION
OVERNIGHT MAIL
27
28 29DELIVERY
30Proposal DUE
Proposal Preparation4
73
Production Budgets & TimelinesProduction Element Average Timeframe Average Direct Costs
Graphic Development
• 1-2 hours for simple graphics• 6-8 hours for complex graphics • 8 hours+ for complex
illustrations
Consultant: $90-$120/hour
Desktop Publishing 8 pages/hour for page layout Consultant: $125-$150/hour
Word Templates 4-6 hours (creation) Consultant: $125-$150/hour
Editing 5 pages/hour Consultant: $125-$150/hour
Printing •Internal: 1 page/minute•External: 1,000 pages/hour (fully printed and assembled)
•Internal: ¢10-¢20/color page + labor and materials•External: ¢65-¢85/color page
White Glove Review (Book Check)
2-4 hours N/A
74
Desktop Publishing: Tips
• Start early
• Build proposal shells for each section author
• Use paragraph styles to facilitate formatting
• Auto-generated table of contents
• Remember your tabs
• Electronic delivery in MS Word vs. PDF
75
Graphic Design: Tips
• Develop graphics as the exact size you need
• Convert final covers/title pages/spines to PowerPoint/Word for easy editing/changing
• File formats: tradeoff between file size and file quality
• Favorite Tool: PPTools Image Exporter(www.pptools.com/downloads)
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Editing: Tips• Getting in page count—
– We vs. “the XYZ Company Team”
• Redacted proposals
– Widows & orphans
– Spacing between sentences
77
Printing & Assembly: Tips• Know when to let go• Don’t forget the details• Assume everything that can go wrong
WILL go wrong• Print a complete back-up set (and have it
packaged and ready to go!)• Make security a priority• Detailed production checklist (see example)• Detailed print and assembly instructions
[see example]
78
Delivery: Tips
• Plan on delivering EARLY• Always have a contingency plan• Be prepared to change your contingency plan• Stay flexible• Don’t send your intern to deliver• Hand-deliveries: practice your driving route
79
Phase 5: Post-submittal
• Archive and Shred!• Lessons learned
Post-submittal5
Thank You to My Contributors!
80
Lohfeld Consulting GroupProposal/Capture Consultantswww.lohfeldconsulting.com
24 Hour CompanyGraphic Design
www.24hrco.com
Corporate Media SolutionsPrinting/Production
www.cmediainc.com
Contact InformationBriana Coleman, AM.APMPSenior Consultant, Lohfeld Consulting Group, Inc.Creating Winning Proposals for Government Contractors
703-615-7596 (m)
www.LohfeldConsulting.com
@Lohfeld
facebook.com/LohfeldConsulting
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