The MustWin Process Architecture

Process implementation is only one part of one component of everything that goes into enabling an organization to maximize its win rate. The chart above provides an architecture that can help you put the proposal process into context.

This architecture matches the environment proposals operate in better then by grouping things by organizational boundaries like business development, capture, and proposal management. The issues shown in the chart have as much impact on your success as how you conduct business development, capture, and proposal management. This architecture looks at things functionally instead of sequentially or politically. Instead of helping you define departments, it helps you develop an integrated approach to addressing the issues, regardless of how your company structures its org chart or labels its staff. 

Context matters. Proposals are created in a complex environment. Proposals need management. Proposals need input that comes from outside the proposal function. Proposals need an entire organization as a foundation. But where do you start? How does it all fit together?

We group these things into three layers:

• The organizational layer. This layer has an executive component, an approach component, and a resources component. They define the environment you must operate in to manage your proposals.
• The input layer. The components of this layer include information, strategy, and offering design to categorize the things you need to know before you can start writing your proposal.
• The performance layer. The components of this layer include proposal management, proposal writing, and quality validation. This is where the proposal is developed.

These layers put the issues that impact your win rate into context. They require an organizational response. Many of them simply can’t be resolved by someone operating in the proposal management box. But if you are in the proposal management box, this chart can point you to where you need to interface, and what you need other people to address, so that the proposals that come out of the performance layer have a much better chance of winning.