RFP360, Proposal Import
2019
RFP360, RFP (request for proposal) management software, was acquired by Responsive (formerly RFPIO) in August 2021. The work highlighted in this case study was delivered before that acquisition.
Users of RFP360 software can upload an external RFP file into the system to map questions, assign responses to subject-matter experts, and then export everything back into the original file. This capability saves users time going back and forth between old files and emails and gives all team members the same context and a streamlined path for collaboration and communication.
This platform capability was a hot topic among users. We constantly heard statements like “It’s too time-consuming,” and “There’s not a lot of forgiveness,” so we set out to tackle these issues. We decided to facilitate a design sprint with a working group of key stakeholders to help narrow our focus.
Project roles: Design Sprint Facilitator, UX/UI Designer
Known challenges
Process
Our working group took part in 3 days of design sprint activities. The focus for Day 1 was to define a goal and create a common understanding of the problem. We created a map of the challenge and gathered valuable stakeholder expertise. Our areas of expertise included Sales, Marketing, and Client Success. We turned pain points from the challenge map into areas of opportunity with How Might We statements.
RFP360, RFP (request for proposal) management software, was acquired by Responsive (formerly RFPIO) in August 2021. The work highlighted in this case study was delivered before that acquisition.
Users of RFP360 software can upload an external RFP file into the system to map questions, assign responses to subject-matter experts, and then export everything back into the original file. This capability saves users time going back and forth between old files and emails and gives all team members the same context and a streamlined path for collaboration and communication.
This platform capability was a hot topic among users. We constantly heard statements like “It’s too time-consuming,” and “There’s not a lot of forgiveness,” so we set out to tackle these issues. We decided to facilitate a design sprint with a working group of key stakeholders to help narrow our focus.
Project roles: Design Sprint Facilitator, UX/UI Designer
Part 1: Design Sprint
Known challenges
- Import is unreliable.
- Mapping is time-consuming.
- Lack of support for complex formats.
Process
Our working group took part in 3 days of design sprint activities. The focus for Day 1 was to define a goal and create a common understanding of the problem. We created a map of the challenge and gathered valuable stakeholder expertise. Our areas of expertise included Sales, Marketing, and Client Success. We turned pain points from the challenge map into areas of opportunity with How Might We statements.
At the end of the day, we defined key focus areas:
- Reliability: support for more file types & file complexity
- Usability: create a more intuitive, flexible, and time-saving interface
The activities for Day 2 were Lightning Demos and sketching. Members of the working group shared one or two examples to inspire ideas for solutions related to the How Might We statements.
The activities for Day 3 were Crazy-8s sketches, solution sketches, and dot-voting. We had the working group participate in Crazy-8s, a fast-paced sketching exercise to take your strongest idea and work through variations of it. Each participant then focused on creating a final solution sketch, taking what worked best during Crazy-8s and drawing that in more detail. We spent time reviewing each sketch as a team, debating the pros and cons.
What we learned
We sent out a survey to all design sprint participants to ask what worked well and what we can improve upon. Some things we would do differently include pushing for concurrent, condensed days for our working group (vs having multiple working sessions spread out over multiple weeks), gathering more data upfront to better inform our discussions, and providing more examples to the working group during sprint activities.
Next steps
The product team took the design sprint insights back and began doing deeper solution discovery and ultimately breaking down work to begin development. We decided to create development initiatives around 5 focus areas:
1 - Improve Performance
Files were taking too long to upload, falling short of user expectations. Sometimes file uploads would just error out, but there was no communication to the user, resulting in time wasted and more frustration. We added support for additional file types and improved how and when errors are displayed to users.
2 - Streamline Navigation
The existing project navigation was confusing and overwhelming to users due to the number and order of links. The layout for each view was inconsistent. Users had to reorient themselves every time they navigated to a different tab in their project. Our goal was to make the navigation clearer and intuitive. We removed unnecessary links, reordered, and renamed the remaining links to be more representative of the user flow.
We sent out a survey to all design sprint participants to ask what worked well and what we can improve upon. Some things we would do differently include pushing for concurrent, condensed days for our working group (vs having multiple working sessions spread out over multiple weeks), gathering more data upfront to better inform our discussions, and providing more examples to the working group during sprint activities.
Next steps
- Determine a success metric.
- Create low-fidelity wireframes to represent the MVP goal
Part 2: Define project strategy & solutions
The product team took the design sprint insights back and began doing deeper solution discovery and ultimately breaking down work to begin development. We decided to create development initiatives around 5 focus areas:
1 - Improve Performance
Files were taking too long to upload, falling short of user expectations. Sometimes file uploads would just error out, but there was no communication to the user, resulting in time wasted and more frustration. We added support for additional file types and improved how and when errors are displayed to users.
2 - Streamline Navigation
The existing project navigation was confusing and overwhelming to users due to the number and order of links. The layout for each view was inconsistent. Users had to reorient themselves every time they navigated to a different tab in their project. Our goal was to make the navigation clearer and intuitive. We removed unnecessary links, reordered, and renamed the remaining links to be more representative of the user flow.
3 - Align interfaces and interactions
The two import interfaces and interactions for Word and Excel files were vastly different. They needed to be more consistent so it would be more familiar, thus easier and faster for users as they switched between file types. We successfully aligned layout, styles, colors, language, and interactions, laying the foundation for new, high-profile features.
4 - Address Feature Gaps
We hear from potential clients about gaps in our current experience. Some examples include: save as draft, preview work in progress, easier user assignments, and expanding content mapping types.
5 - Differentiate the Experience
We want to be a disruptor in the industry and seek to differentiate our platform and delight current and especially new customers. Some examples include autosensing content, communicating file complexity, estimating time to complete, and intelligent response recommendations.