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#18NTCrfp

Everything Tech Providers Wished You Knew About Writing an RFP

>>> Plus the Stuff They Want to Keep Secret

Apr 11, 2018 Ceci Dadisman @CeciDadisman Drew McManus @VentureTweets

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#18NTCrfp

Apr 11, 2018 Ceci Dadisman @CeciDadisman Drew McManus @VentureTweets

This is the #18NTC obligatory housekeeping slide. Exciting, right?

You do you bro.

Collaborative Notes Link: http://po.st/18NTCrfp

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#18NTCrfp

I Want To Go To There

Needs Assessment Guideline

Know Your CTAs

Earned income
Unearned income
Non-revenue �(yep, that’s a thing)

rfp.artshacker.com @CeciDadisman @VentureTweets

I Want To Go To There

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#18NTCrfp

Mobilize Your Team

Be open with colleagues about the project scope, timeline, and deliverables.

Staff input is crucial!

I Want To Go To There

rfp.artshacker.com @CeciDadisman @VentureTweets

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#18NTCrfp

Define Your Target Audience/Site Visitor

Metrics Profiles

Visioning

Social Media Interaction

Direct Feedback

Little of Column A, Little of Column B?

I Want To Go To There

rfp.artshacker.com @CeciDadisman @VentureTweets

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#18NTCrfp

Time To Audit (A.K.A. Time To Adult)

rfp.artshacker.com @CeciDadisman @VentureTweets

I Want To Go To There

Content

Created & approved?
Timeline
Divi up staff tasks
Media

Skills
Google stuff	Code Chops	Image editing apps

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Identify Providers & Platforms

#18NTCrfp

Website

e-Commerce

CRM

Email Marketing

Box Office/Ticketing

Identify Providers & Platforms

rfp.artshacker.com @CeciDadisman @VentureTweets

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...aren’t you forgetting someone?

Your Data

#18NTCrfp

Email Provider

Digital Marketing Providers (GTM, Analytics, Social Media)

Domain Registrar

Transactional Email Provider

Identify Providers & Platforms

rfp.artshacker.com @CeciDadisman @VentureTweets

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#ClickClickDone

#18NTCrfp

Stuff You’re (probably) Overlooking

Bringing Everything Together

Identifying primary points of contact.
Official communication channels.
Minimum response times.
Fee structure for any out of scope work (amends and revisions).
Milestones & approval process.
Ownership and licensing terms.

rfp.artshacker.com @CeciDadisman @VentureTweets

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Bringing Everything Together

Self Diagnose And Identify Your Option

Your Data

#18NTCrfp

@CeciDadisman @VentureTweets

Bringing Everything Together

Traditional RFPs

Project Evaluation

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RFPs

#18NTCrfp

@CeciDadisman @VentureTweets

Bringing Everything Together

Pros

Zero upfront costs.
Equally suited for short and long project timelines.
Provides checklist oriented eval criteria.

Cons

No “getting to know you” process.
Higher degree of missed opportunity.
Falls victim to jargon.

DREW

Traditional RFP strengths

Well suited for evaluating goals focused proposals.
Great for projects that don’t require rebranding work.
Ideal if you have intimate knowledge of your existing platform architecture (database stuff)
You like gather a bunch of good ideas without paying for them (spoiler: providers know this trick).
Great for hardware focused acquisitions.

The problems with traditional RFPs

Asking web developers for detailed response to laundry list RFPs is like asking a an architect to submit a detailed blueprint of the final design.
Good proposals are no guarantee of outcome. Some providers focus on delivering knock-out proposals but routinely fall short on deliverables.
List heavy RFPs tell providers what you want to hear rather than what you may need to learn.

CECI

Writing an RFP is a great exercise because it will bring the scope of the project into laser focus.

Be honest and realistic in the RFP. Lay out all of your needs and don’t hide anything.

Don’t make devs write a 100 page RFP. Shorter is better for the first round.

Allow devs to respond electronically!

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Project

Evaluations

#18NTCrfp

Bringing Everything Together

Pros

Far more accurate project estimates.
Eliminates project scope conjecture.
Provides a better picture of provider skill sets.

Cons

Upfront costs.
Greater time commitment.
Not every provider may be willing to participate (or is that a “pro?”).

rfp.artshacker.com @CeciDadisman @VentureTweets

DREW

Project evaluation strengths:

Facilitates stronger client/provider relationships; think “vested interest.”
Use dating app analogy: Are you looking for someone based exclusively on a laundry list of physical characteristic?

Project evaluation shortcomings:

Increased time during evaluation stage.
Upfront costs

A good evaluation should always credit the cost toward any final project work.

Project evaluation tips:

Needs assessment; the force multiplier of penny-pinching
Consider allocating 5-15 percent of total budget to the evaluation stage.

HybridOptions:

Migration: You can use a traditional RFP to identify the provider to handle the migration work and the initial year of service will function very much like an extended project evaluation.
RFP & Eval: Start with RFP’s then ask up to three finalists to conduct a project evaluation.

CECI

Sometimes it is ok to spend a little money upfront to get a better and smoother result.

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The Good Stuff

What Providers Want You To Know

Your Data

#18NTCrfp

The Good Stuff

What you don’t know.	Project creep.
Snappy communication makes or breaks a project.	Who takes the lead multi-provider projects
Stop looking at designs �with desktop-only blinders.	Please. No more design approval committees.
Client content responsibilities.	Quality assurance and testing.

rfp.artshacker.com @CeciDadisman @VentureTweets

DREW

What you don’t know

Meaning, a positive education process. Think gamification :)

Project creep, or, what constitutes a change order.

Education should inspire enthusiasm and the more you learn about the capabilities of a new system, the more likely you’ll come up with ideas on how to use it. All of that is great but it also introduces the potential for project creep.

Snappy communication makes or breaks a project.

Include response time requirements in agreements.

Who takes the lead multi-provider projects.

Resist the temptation to go all passive aggressive and “let them work it work.” Providers aren’t beta-fish :)

Stop looking at designs with desktop-only blinders.

Point out mobile first design means looking at design in mobile layouts then scaling up to desktop.

Please. No more design approval committees.

#Obvi

Client content responsibilities.

This includes providing you with clear delivery format requirements.

Quality assurance and testing.

While it’s nice to think that your providers will handle all QA and testing, that isn’t in your best interest. Instead, a good provider will work with you to create QA feedback forms you can distribute to internal site testers.

CECI

You want to be a good client! Being a good client will bring out the best in your developer.

If you have a structure in your org where more than one person needs to meet to approve something, leave your devs out of that process.

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What Providers Want To Keep Secret

Your Data

#18NTCrfp

The Good Stuff

What they don’t know.	What you don’t know.
Tech conflict resolution (troubleshooting borders).	Lack of flexibility and/or extensibility.
They don’t really have time for you.	Free, unsupported third party scripts/plugins.
Non optimized performance (A.K.A.brute force programming).	They outsource coding but present themselves as a full service developer.

rfp.artshacker.com @CeciDadisman @VentureTweets

DREW

What they don’t know.

Inexperience isn’t the same thing as incapable. Having said that, you don’t want to necessarily pay for a developer’s learning curve.

What you don’t know.

Meaning, a negative context; i.e. the more you’re in the dark, the easier it is to end up in project overrun territory or invoice padding.

Tech conflict resolution (troubleshooting borders).

Some providers are all too happy to let someone else do the dirty work of quality assurance and troubleshooting or blindside you with unexpected fees to carry those tasks out.

Lack of flexibility and/or extensibility.

They may deliver on your project requirements but they may not play nice with other providers or make it easy to maintain.

They don’t really have time for you.

Out of sight, out of mind. The last thing you want is a provider who won’t care about an ongoing relationship. Think update syndrome where they don’t even want your money to correct future issues.

Free, unsupported third party scripts/plugins.

Free scripts aren’t bad, but is the provider willing to support them or conflict resolve down the road. Ideally, a provider should provide a line item list of plugins, extensions, scripts, etc. that come from free and paid resources.

Non optimized performance (A.K.A.brute force programming).

This is all kinds of important in a post net neutrality world.
Talk about programming bloat where things work great on launch but performance grinds down over time.

They outsource coding but present themselves as a full service developer.

It’s increasingly common for design and branding agencies to project themselves as full web developers when the reality is they outsource coding.
Examine the difference between coders: frontend UX defeloper is not the same as a platform programmer.

CECI

stuff

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...seriously, there’s more?

(spoiler: yes)

#18NTCrfp

The Good Stuff

Referral, finder, and affiliate fees.
LEGACY COSTS.

rfp.artshacker.com @CeciDadisman @VentureTweets

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#18NTCrfp

Another obligatory slide.

YES!

Please complete the session specific feedback survey, available in both the mobile app and on the website listing.

rfp.artshacker.com @CeciDadisman @VentureTweets

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Ceci Dadisman

�@cecidadisman // @form_creative

ceci@theformgroup

cecidadisman.com // theformgroup.com

Drew McManus

�@VentureTweets

drew@ventureindustriesonline.com

VentureIndustriesOnline.com

VentureEventManager.com

#18NTCrfp

rfp.artshacker.com @CeciDadisman @VentureTweets

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