Summary
Agencies and organizations spend an enormous amount of time putting together RFP documents that can scare away agencies, especially small ones. If we want to increase talent for civic projects, we need to commit to crafting more inclusive and effective RFPs and procurement processes. Bellweather Chief Strategy Officer Emily Lessard will share lessons learned from working both within and outside government agencies. Her knowledge spans responding to 143 RFPs and reading countless others. She will share ten lessons for writing more engaging and equitable RFPs, along with a link to download a sample file to get you started.
Key Insights
-
•
Establishing a strong early partnership between government agencies and procurement officers improves RFP writing and evaluation.
-
•
Page limits on RFPs (max 15 pages) and proposals (max 30 pages) significantly improve equity and operational efficiency.
-
•
The first page of an RFP should consolidate all key details like submission deadlines, contacts, and next steps to ease bidder navigation.
-
•
Requesting no printed proposals or physical submissions reduces costs and supports sustainability efforts.
-
•
No spec work should be requested; asking for free creative work is disrespectful and disadvantages small businesses.
-
•
WMBE certifications help government agencies increase diversity in their bidder pools and facilitate finding qualified women and minority-owned businesses.
-
•
Procurement portals often have poor user experience, and agencies should experience their own portals from a bidder’s perspective to identify obstacles.
-
•
Long-term contracts with options for renewal provide stability for both agencies and creative firms, reducing frequent procurement cycles.
-
•
Insurance and outdated labor or education requirements can act as barriers for small agencies and should be reconsidered or deferred to contracting stages.
-
•
Patience and persistence are required to implement needed changes in government procurement due to the traditionally slow pace of bureaucratic processes.
Notable Quotes
"Everything you see on screen started with an RFP if you can believe it."
"Let us all pinky swear that our RFPs will only max out at 15 pages and proposals at 30 pages."
"By having page limits, small and large firms compete on the same level."
"Put all the submission deadlines, requirements, and contacts on the first page, not buried in the text."
"No printing or shipping. Digital is just fine. It's 2022, everyone knows how to read a PDF."
"No spec work. It’s simply disrespectful to ask for free work from agencies."
"Go spend a moment with your procurement portal or the RFP webpage and understand the hurdles for bidders."
"If it’s a long-term engagement, ask for options to renew contracts to save time and reduce bidding cycles."
"Insurance requirements can scare away smaller firms; ask procurement if these can be addressed later in contracting."
"Change is slow but necessary; patience is your best tool in improving procurement processes."
Dig deeper—ask the Rosenbot:
More Videos
"Join the design ops Slack channels to interact closely with speakers and peers as if you were sitting next to them in person."
Bria Alexander Louis RosenfeldWelcome
September 8, 2022
"A truly disruptive idea will often fail the mass-market test, so talk to non-customers as well as existing ones."
Mike OrenWhy Pharmaceutical's Research Model Should Replace Design Thinking
March 28, 2023
"AI ethics teams at Facebook and small companies will look very different; there’s no one size fits all approach."
Jodi ForlizziDesign and AI innovation
June 5, 2024
"David Nicholson is the reason why you don’t have to write very fast — he’s our outstanding house scribe."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
October 3, 2023
"Eye tracking first fixation shows salience but not necessarily sustained attention."
Michael WeirMixed Methods and Behavioural Science (Videoconference)
May 26, 2023
"UX research marketing is the strategy behind and implementation of intentional effective promotion and communication of who UX research is and what UX research does."
Molly FargotsteinMultipurpose Communication & UX Research Marketing (Videoconference)
September 12, 2019
"Emotions are not universal at all; emotions and behaviors are constructed by the culture and society where they come from."
Verónica Urzúa Jorge MontielThe B-side of the Research Impact
March 12, 2021
"I worked at an interactive information rich dynamic customer relationship management firm — it was my way of explaining what we did."
Husani OakleyTheme Two Intro
June 6, 2023
"The grid component isn’t just a basic table — it offers enterprise features like filtering, sorting, and grouping out of the box."
George Abraham Stefan IvanovDesign Systems To-Go: Reimagining Developer Handoff, and Introducing App Builder (Part 2)
October 1, 2021
