Managing the Proposal Draft Process: Templates & Communication Strategies to Keep You on Track

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January 01, 2017

The last post covered one of the pieces (or pillars) you'll need as you build the framework for your proposal: a system for collecting and defining abbreviations.

In this post, we'll cover two more essential pieces of the proposal management process. The first is to create a template or proposal "shell" for the drafting process. Next, we'll discuss the tools you can use to manage the draft process and keep team members informed of changes to the proposal schedule and proposal development process.

ADVANTAGES OF WRITING A PROPOSAL USING A TEMPLATE

Creating a proposal template is one of the most important steps you can take to streamline the proposal process. The template applies to one of two points. Either you can use the template from the start of the process, beginning with the first draft. Alternatively, you can create a template to use at the end of the process, once the proposal text is finalized. The pros and cons of each approach are discussed below.

HOW TO CREATE A PROPOSAL TEMPLATE

The easiest way to create a template is to open a new Word document and use the proposal guidelines to build your outline.

Do you have to use Word? No, not necessarily. If the proposal will be submitted as a PDF, any word processing program that can export to PDF will work. However, some funding opportunities require proposals to be submitted as a Word document, or sometimes in both Word and PDF formats. Before you start to build your template, review the funder's guidelines to confirm the required format. If the funder requires proposals to be submitted in Word, create the proposal template in Word. The template is designed to save time, so building your proposal in the format you'll ultimately use for submission will streamline the process.

ADVANTAGES OF USING A TEMPLATE FOR THE DRAFTING PROCESS

Having a template for the proposal draft process can provide much-needed structure. A template allows the writers to insert draft text directly into a document, formatted to the funder's guidelines, and with the required headings and sections already in place.

Using a template at the start of the proposal writing process should reduce the amount of work you'll need to do when you are finalizing the proposal. If you use a proposal shell from the start of the process, the proposal should be properly organized and maintain consistent margins and font sizes throughout. Having the basic structure in place lets you focus your final days on refining the proposal text rather than formatting. A template can also help prevent the proposal from exceeding the page limits, which can easily happen when proposal writers use a smaller font than required by the guidelines.

THE DOWNSIDES OF USING A TEMPLATE FOR THE DRAFTING PROCESS

There are a few potential downsides to using a template. The first is that, while using a template helps writers stay aware of page limits, the downside is that this awareness may lead proposal writers to over-edit.

The draft process — particularly the first draft — is useful for generating ideas. Although more structured than brainstorming, early proposal drafts help put ideas on paper. With each draft, the ideas are refined as the process progresses, and writers respond to reviewer feedback. If writers are overly conscious of page limits, they may limit their ideas to fit the allotted space and not use the draft process to work through them.

A related risk of using a template is that having the proposal section headings in front of the writer can stifle creative thinking.

For example, if you are assigned to write the proposed project's management plan, seeing "Project Management" in the section heading may lead some writers to produce plodding text that answers the basic question "what does it look like." In contrast, if the writer starts with a blank page and the question, "How can this project be managed to produce the best results?" the writing might be more dynamic and the answer more thoughtful and innovative.

Whether a template will have a dampening effect on the writers depends on their personalities and work style. It may take a couple of proposals to determine what works best for the team members and produces the strongest content.

Another risk of using a template for the drafting process is that word processing programs like Word can be notoriously unstable. If you create your template in Word with the goal of having the template evolve into the final proposal, you may find at the 11th hour that the document has become corrupted. Mysterious page-break issues and other formatting problems may crop up, and no matter what you do, you may find you cannot correct them.

If you build your final proposal by adding to and editing the same Word document, you may not be able to find a version of the document that is problem-free without going back to one of the earliest drafts.

You can still encounter formatting issues if you cut and paste text from another document into a template after the content has been generated, but these issues are easier to correct.

HOW TO RESOLVE COMMON FORMATTING ISSUES WHEN WORKING WITH A TEMPLATE

If formatting issues develop after you insert a block of text into your template, the problem should resolve as soon as you undo ("Ctrl Z" if you use a PC) whatever you did right before the problem appeared. While undoing the last action will resolve the immediate issues in the template, you'll still need to find a way to reinsert the text without the problems recurring.

Here are three options to explore:

One option, if a relatively small amount of text is causing the problem, is to type the text directly into the final template. Again, this is only viable if there is not much text to import.

A second option, a little trickier but doable, is to convert both the template and a separate Word document with the troublesome text to PDFs. Merge the PDFs by inserting the new text at the appropriate location in the template, then adjust line spacing, page breaks, and other formatting to create a seamless document. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Pro to do this.

A third option, also requiring Acrobat Pro, is to convert both the problematic text and the template into PDFs, merge them, and then convert the combined document back to Word. With luck, after the conversion to PDFs, the problems won't reappear when you return to Word. This option is only worth pursuing if you want to continue working in Word or need to submit the document as a Word file.

Correcting formatting issues can take a long time, and the solution isn't always straightforward. This is another reason to create your proposal schedule with generous margins: you'll have enough time to resolve any issues.

THREE WAYS TO COLLABORATE ON PROPOSAL DRAFTS

In addition to deciding whether you'll use a template to build the draft, you'll also need to decide how you and the other team members will share the draft during the collaborative process. Three common methods are:

Email. Email is often the default method for submitting proposal sections and circulating drafts for review. This method is effective and straightforward, which is why most people use it. The main problem with using email to circulate drafts is version control. Version control issues can creep up in a number of ways, including:

• Wrong version attached to an email: If you have a proposal draft circulating via email, an older or incorrect version of the document may inadvertently be attached and circulated. This is difficult to prevent when email is used to pass drafts between writers or reviewers.

• New file name introduced: A second problem that may occur is when someone saves the proposal draft under a new file name or a name that doesn't conform to established naming standards, leaving you unsure which draft is the current one. You can compare the documents by merging them into a new document, but the review may take time and may not indicate which draft is the most recent.

• Confidentiality Issues: With email, there is always a risk that a copy of the proposal draft may be inadvertently sent to the wrong person if an incorrect email address is entered.

Shared Drive: If you work at an organization with an intranet, which is an internal network only you and your colleagues can access, another option is to create a proposal folder on the intranet where you can store the proposal drafts and supporting materials. Using a shared drive is effective because it provides a central storage location. However, it can present similar problems to email.

• Version control. With a shared folder, you'll need to set up a schedule so everyone knows when it is their turn to work on the file. If you do not do this, you may find that more than one person has gone into the folder, copied the file, and is working on the document from their desktop. Version control problems can also occur when someone retrieves the proposal draft from the folder, makes changes, and forgets to return the draft to the folder, update the file name, or otherwise indicate that they've worked on the draft.

• Confidentiality issues. If someone copies the proposal draft and saves it to their computer, there is a risk that the document may end up in an email and begin a distribution path you cannot track. To reduce the risk of this happening, you may want to limit access to the proposal folder to only a few team members. Another challenge to note when using a shared drive is working with external partners: if you are developing the proposal with external partners, it may be difficult to grant them access to a folder on your intranet. At least for communicating with your external partners, you may need to resort to email.

SharePoint or Other Web-Based Platform: If your organization uses SharePoint, there are several reasons to use it as your primary platform for proposal storage and collaboration. One major advantage of SharePoint and other Web-based tools is that you can grant site access to anyone, including those outside your organization, when working with external partners. Second, with SharePoint and other online document storage options such as Dropbox, you can control access to documents by setting user permissions. You can make the document read-only or restrict it so it cannot be downloaded. You can also require team members to check out the document, which locks the document for editing. Only the person who checked out the document can edit it; everyone else on the team retains read-only access. With the check-out system, there is never any confusion about who is working on the document. Everyone can see who checked it out and request automatic notifications when it is checked back in. The third advantage of SharePoint and other online systems is their flexibility. You can store all of the proposal content on a SharePoint site, including proposal drafts, the budget pieces, and the supporting materials, but limit access so that not everyone has access to every folder or page. Having one central "hub" for all the proposal pieces is convenient. It is a lot easier to direct everyone to a single site than to say, "The proposal drafts are shared by email; the budget is in a secure intranet folder; and the supporting materials, the team list, and the proposal calendar are all on the SharePoint site."

While SharePoint and other Web-based systems resolve many of the issues found in the other methods, they are not without their challenges:

Web-based systems can be confusing. SharePoint is a powerful project management tool. That said, it can be confusing to the new user. To use SharePoint effectively, you need training and lots of practice. If not all proposal team members are comfortable with SharePoint and committed to using it, it will not be effective for managing the proposal.

Web-based systems take work. Even if the team knows how to use the Web-based system, whether it is SharePoint or something else, there will be a strong pull toward relying on email. Using email is second nature. Most of us send emails every day and find it fast and convenient to attach files. SharePoint takes extra work. Not much work, but more effort than sending an email. You need to enter a Web address, sign in, and follow the version control restrictions in place. It is hard to get people to use a system if it involves multiple steps and limits their freedom.

Web-based systems take time to set up: As noted above, building a SharePoint site requires significant effort. When you launch a SharePoint site for the first time, all you have is a blank template. To get a working site, you have to design it to fit your purpose, adding the pages, user restrictions, and the "apps" you want to have, such as a shared calendar. Doing this can take hours, so SharePoint is not a good pick unless you have some lead time. If you launch a SharePoint site that is confusing and poorly designed, even team members willing to give it a shot will probably not use it. Additionally, if you are working with external partners, they may need to create a new account before logging in to the site, which can be time-consuming and confusing for new users.

Each of the three methods for circulating and managing proposal drafts — email, intranet, or web-based — will do the job. You may choose to use a combination of the three, such as using SharePoint for the writing process and email to send the document to the review panel. Whatever approach you choose, ensure it works for the team. If team members dislike SharePoint (and many fall in this camp) or don't like the idea of using a folder on the intranet, you may find yourself relying on email.

COMMUNICATING UPDATES

A central responsibility of a proposal manager is to keep everyone informed of changes to the proposal schedule. The proposal schedule, which all team members should have a copy of at the start of the proposal process, is not static. Your deadlines may begin to slip as early as the first week of the proposal development process. Being proactive and keeping the team informed of any schedule changes can reduce questions and stress, especially when they are unsure about what is happening or when their assignments are due.

How you communicate the updates will depend in part on the system you use to develop the proposal. If you are using a project management software or a SharePoint site, you'll have the option of communicating with team members within that platform.

You can also send out email updates to everyone. Although not everyone reads their email carefully, most people at least scan it. In contrast, not everyone will take the time to log in to a SharePoint site or other Web-based system to check for messages on the virtual bulletin board or to view the project calendar. If you go with email, it helps to use a template with consistent headings in each message. A consistent structure will help readers to scan your messages and find the information they want.

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