Good projects start with clear, straightforward communication. Unfortunately, some requests for proposals, or RFPs, we receive are anything but. This isn't our clients' fault: our industry hasn't done much to educate them on how to approach studios with their project.
The whole RFP process is awkward. Frankly, agencies like Airbag would be better off if we provided an intuitive way for potential clients to outline a scope of work.
Sure, there are studios out there with a requirements document that clients can download, fill out, and send back via email. But after years of reading through these forms, I can tell you that they're often confusing, and rarely completed in the detail requested. What follows is a clumsy ballet of follow-up emails, phone calls, voice mail, faxes, and sometimes people in brown uniforms delivering packages.
When trying to think through this problem, I realized it'd be great if potential Airbag clients could send us a concise, descriptive business letter, instead of the usual dashed-off email or the twenty pages-long write-up of various business rules.
After drafting said letter, I took it to the boys and together we created a simple application that starts off by asking a few questions, and ends with a well-crafted business request. We've created something that should help future clients provide just enough information about their needs that doesn't require any second-guessing. It's a fun, great way to put clients' minds at ease—at the time when they're traditionally the most overwhelmed.
For now, it's called the Airbag Work Requisition Form and I'd invite you to check it out—especially the cool video Ryan put together. With the help of future clients we're going to kick the tires on this thing, and see if it really helps improve communication between clients and agencies.
Join the fray by reading through and commenting at the end.
Wow I have concept notes to build something exactly like this. Fantastic idea!
Wow, that's really nicely designed and provides what looks to be a remarkably effective solution to an annoying problem. (It evokes the 'Damn, why didn't I think of that?' pang of designers' envy, which is a sure sign it's rather good.) The form itself sets you ahead of the competition during the very process of the prospective client filling it in – that's genius.
So simple - no tripping up, everything up front and clear, and, dare I say, so easy to grasp that even the potential-client-from-hell would be obliged to fill out without resorting to 'you know what I want' and 'just do it... by Monday' answers...
Any chance of making it publicly available? (Cheeky, I know, but surely I won't be the only one to ask!)
FLAWLESS VICTORY!
Well done! If only the people I worked with could be so clear... (Hint? ;-)
You and I have had lots of conversations about this kind of thing and I really like what you've done with this. It's simple, easy to understand..somewhat flexible.
How can I steal it? :)
Seriously though, keep us up on how it works and if people use it. I'd really like to know. We're all about making finding those good client relationships easier and something like this, if it catches on, could really help!
Nice work!
Blows the doors off of my Microsoft Word doc that potential clients should but don't download off of our site!
And along wiht Keith, I'd love to see an update in 60 or 90 days as to what kind of traffic you get to use it.
> The form itself sets you ahead of the competition during the very process of the prospective client filling it in – that's genius.
I hope so. If not it still looks good, for the ladies.
> Any chance of making it publicly available?
You could say that Airbag Skunkworks Division may or may not already be working on this but I can not confirm or deny that statement and/or question.
> You and I have had lots of conversations about this kind of thing and I really like what you've done with this. It's simple, easy to understand..somewhat flexible.
Thanks Keith!
The "You want a web site, so fill out this form on our web site" approach has been around. However, the hand-crafted-letter feel takes it way beyond what I've ever seen. Kudos, gents.
The commentary is witty and hilarious as I've come to expect from Airbag.
Error handling could be better.
I'm with Mr. Robb: An RFP is as good a place as any to introduce some humor. It's the first stop on a road that could otherwise be peppered with giant, axle-shuddering potholes of cultural misunderstanding.
If a potential client loves the Amish bit as much as I did, then you're already on your way to a better working relationship than most agencies enjoy.
Sheesh. I was _this_ close to rolling out something very similar :) Glad to see someone else is focused on this issue -- I find that any extra hours spent on early discovery pay off immensely in the end. I'd love to hear how this affects your client relationships, a few months in.
This has been a pain point for a lot of designers across the land! Well done sirs. This will no doubt be a useful resource. I would suggest making it available via product offering or free.
...which is code for "I'm too fucking lazy to do it myself."
A superb solution to an age-old (in our industry anyway) problem that has been plaguing me for years.
Would absolutely love to find out if this benefits you guys at all, and more so, would love to have access to a working copy myself! Great work.
Well done, guys. Definitely streamlines the process - I'd also be curious as to how your clients like it.
You and I have discussed the RFP debacle, Mr. Storey. It is a problem that is bigger than the method prospects use contact a vendor. The RFP in general is a product of a bygone era and needs to be fixed. Its a separate discussion altogether.
Regarding this topic. We have kicked around the idea of automating our requests for engagement on several occasions. Right now, we require clients to complete a project planner (the requirements doc you mention), which is a Word document that asks a prospect a series of direct questions. It's a bit laborious for sure. A prospect needs to download it, complete it, rename it, and then email it to us. But its laborious by design.
A prospect that takes the time to do all of this and provide verbose, thoughtful responses is an indicator to us that they would be a good client. A client that leaves a bunch of questions blank indicates to us they might not want to be bothered, which can also indicate how they would be as an actual client. It's a filtering mechanism. We can also pick up nuances through writing style and tone that help us determine if they would be fun to work with.
Another thing we suspect is that prospects need to sit with this stuff. They can't necessarily articulate in one browser session what their needs or goals are. With the Word doc, they can download it, pass it around, and complete it at their leisure. I think you guys have successfully short-circuited that issue by keeping the form brief.
I guess for us, the bottom line is to find a solution that might streamline the process a bit for our clients (and us) without negating the benefits our decidedly lo-fi solution provides.
Cheers to you and the other Airbaggers for sharing your ideas in an effort to make this country great.
Looks great. We've kicked around ideas like this and have put it off over time. We're interested to hear how it goes. Follow-up posts please!
I have to wonder if Greg Hoy is right: can a more laborious MS Word project planner result in a higher quality lead? A web-based method inherently encourages quick responses (in order to jump through each screen) but do those responses have the necessary thought behind them?
We tried something like this a year or two back. While it was quite effective in getting enquiries, we ususally ended up with people selecting a wishlist of what they wanted - for the lowest budget available.
That said, our lower price bracket was considerably lower than yours, and our list of tasks slightly more specific. Still, I'm interested to see if the same thing happens for you.
I am requesting a non-quicktime based video
Nice. Can't wait to see your early results.
Wow - I've been outlining a process just like this for my company website. This is really well executed. Great inspiration! Nice job as usual airbag!
Looks great! Very simple, with clever and useful help when/if you need it.
One thing that I think would be useful is to provide an "Edit" button/link on the confirm page. Since you are organizing the user's thoughts for them, it might be good to allow them to modify what they've "said" without needing to hit the back button.
"The Tasks field must have a value." is a bit nondescript.
But other than that, fabulous.
Very cool. Simple. Works.
Very nice. I like it.
"I have to wonder if Greg Hoy is right: can a more laborious MS Word project planner result in a higher quality lead? A web-based method inherently encourages quick responses (in order to jump through each screen) but do those responses have the necessary thought behind them?"
I think that's a great point but the thing I liked the most about this RFP form is the budget select box acts as a filter. It should effectively avoid getting requests from people with no money to spend! If someone has $25k+ to spend they are likely to be more considered than the guy with $500 to build an ecommerce site with social networking by next weekend.
> "...the budget select box acts as a filter. It should effectively avoid getting requests from people with no money to spend!
I do like the fact that this is a mandatory selection. We often get people who leave that question blank in our project planner document, and it is a follow up question for us. I will be really interested to see how many people pick anything else than $25,000 to $49,999. Perhaps a text box would result in a more honest answer?
I will be really interested to see how many people pick anything else than $25,000 to $49,999. Perhaps a text box would result in a more honest answer?
It would be interesting to see what would happen if the budget options were visibly affected by the choices made earlier in the form. For example, if choosing the "less than 30 days" option for timing caused the lowest budget choice to become disabled. It could allow for a wider range of budget choices, but still weed out Pete's $500 for a website by next weekend people.
Love the footnote on the bottom—"coming soon for our friends and competitors"
Like the others I'm interested in a follow up to see how it works out for you.
This is really awesome! You guys are really thinking about useful things and implemting them at once. Unfortunately, the demo doesn´t work and I don´t want to complete a fake. But from the very first site one can see that your survey is really "potential-costumer-friendly" and a benchmark many companies should aspire to.
Built of pure win.
"For example, if choosing the "less than 30 days" option for timing caused the lowest budget choice to become disabled. It could allow for a wider range of budget choices, but still weed out Pete's $500 for a website by next weekend people."
... has legs.
> I have to wonder if Greg Hoy is right: can a more laborious MS Word project planner result in a higher quality lead?
Hoy makes a really good case and I can not ignore his experience and success. The only way I know to test this is to provide a project planning document as a download on the first page.
> I will be really interested to see how many people pick anything else than $25,000 to $49,999. Perhaps a text box would result in a more honest answer?
Yeah, I'm curious how that's going to work out as well.
> For example, if choosing the "less than 30 days" option for timing caused the lowest budget choice to become disabled. It could allow for a wider range of budget choices, but still weed out Pete's $500 for a website by next weekend people.
We've discussed implementing something like this in the next iteration. We've also talked about having the text box actively scan against a list of buzzwords so that if someone types in something like "Facebook for bus drivers" an extra $25k, or some monetary penalty, is added immediately to the budget options.
I like the idea. One thing I might suggest is in the help for the task lists you could provide a brief explanation of what the different tasks are. I have run into clients who wouldn't know what Web Development and some of the other terms mean. Good work!