if you pitch creative web proposals, what high-level information and tasks are most important to you?
December 30, 2010 5:18 PM Subscribe
What is the most important information for someone who pitches web proposals to clients to have at a glance? what sort of actions would a dashboard displaying this info need to support?
I'm looking for input from people in positions who pitch web proposals to clients. I'm working on a web evaluation of a dashboard designed for that sort of work - and unfortunately, I don't have anybody actually in that field to ask about what information and actions matter most important to them, and I have less than a week to wrap this up.
So I turn to the hive, hoping someone can help me out. Since this is a dashboard, I'm not looking for *all* the info someone in this job would need or all the possible actions it would need to support - just the most important 5-10 high-level ones, in order of importance from the people who actually do this for a living.
Here's what I know:
Info:
Clearly you'd want to be able to see a list of your latest/current proposals, including which client, the status, some kind of progress indicator, maybe the next important deadline/date. You'd want to see high level proposal management tasks related to said list (which ones are waiting on followup from you, or the client)
What sort of high level financial info (total contract amount, number of contracts won versus lost) would you want to see on the dashboard?
Actions:
ability to create or update proposals, to view detailed information about a given proposal or client, view more detailed tracking info (say proposals in last x time period).
I'm looking for input from people in positions who pitch web proposals to clients. I'm working on a web evaluation of a dashboard designed for that sort of work - and unfortunately, I don't have anybody actually in that field to ask about what information and actions matter most important to them, and I have less than a week to wrap this up.
So I turn to the hive, hoping someone can help me out. Since this is a dashboard, I'm not looking for *all* the info someone in this job would need or all the possible actions it would need to support - just the most important 5-10 high-level ones, in order of importance from the people who actually do this for a living.
Here's what I know:
Info:
Clearly you'd want to be able to see a list of your latest/current proposals, including which client, the status, some kind of progress indicator, maybe the next important deadline/date. You'd want to see high level proposal management tasks related to said list (which ones are waiting on followup from you, or the client)
What sort of high level financial info (total contract amount, number of contracts won versus lost) would you want to see on the dashboard?
Actions:
ability to create or update proposals, to view detailed information about a given proposal or client, view more detailed tracking info (say proposals in last x time period).
Response by poster: Circular, this is quite helpful!
Correct. It is a high-level visualization dashboard which has buttons to other screens to perform those more detailed tasks/provide/view more detailed information. So the "at a glance" info is the highest level - maybe most recent proposals and bare bones critical info, and everything else is off on those subsidiary screens, so it's not in the way, but you can pull it up quickly if you need it. So for example the majority of the individual proposal info would be on one of those subsidiary screens.
As far as who is being targeted, it seems to me (I did not design this) someone who pitches maybe 20 proposals a month max.
posted by canine epigram at 5:19 AM on December 31, 2010
Correct. It is a high-level visualization dashboard which has buttons to other screens to perform those more detailed tasks/provide/view more detailed information. So the "at a glance" info is the highest level - maybe most recent proposals and bare bones critical info, and everything else is off on those subsidiary screens, so it's not in the way, but you can pull it up quickly if you need it. So for example the majority of the individual proposal info would be on one of those subsidiary screens.
As far as who is being targeted, it seems to me (I did not design this) someone who pitches maybe 20 proposals a month max.
posted by canine epigram at 5:19 AM on December 31, 2010
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But then it also lets you create proposals, store information about clients, and a sort of rundown of past proposal statistics.
I guess it would be helpful to know who you're targeting. Someone who writes more than 5-10 proposals a month?
I write lots of proposals, but I tailor each one to the client. Some use video, for example. Others are simpler but take a unique format because of the personalities involved. Marketing directors at non-profits and interactive directors at small agencies tend to think differently.
Thinking about proposals I have out right now, I'd want the ability to see at a glance:
Per-proposal:
1. How much income the proposal represents
2. My personal rating of my likelihood of winning the bid (and keep stats on my track record of guesses vs. wins)
3. How long it's been since I sent in the proposal
4. How long it's been since the deadline for the proposal
5. How long it's been since I followed up with the client
6. Who would be involved in doing the work represented in my proposal
7. Client's contact information
Per-client:
1. Names of projects for which I've submitted proposals, with waiting/accepted/no-good markings
2. Post-mortems available for proposals (offer to show me these notes when I'm making a new proposal for the client)
3. Along with post-mortem, name of competitor who snagged the win. Gather this information for global stats, below
Global:
Conversion rate: What percentage of my bids are accepted? In the last month? Last year? Last 5 years?
Goals: How many more do I need to have accepted in order to meet some monetary goal? Which projects are likeliest to help me get there (based on my guess above + total amount of bid)?
Competitors: Who do I seem to be competing with? What clients do they go for?
Those are just some ideas that come to mind. Hope that helps.
posted by circular at 9:40 PM on December 30, 2010