CHALLENGES AND
SOLUTIONS FOR TEAM
PROPOSAL WRITING
Ryan Weber
Rocket City Technical Communication Conference
Team Proposal Writing
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Complex, sustained proposal efforts often require
huge teams for completion
These teams can be a strength and weakness, as
coordinating members of interdisciplinary, crossfunctional teams can prove challenging
Presentation covers challenges and solutions offered
by two professional writing ethnographies
Aerospace Company
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“Bridging Boundaries, Negotiating Differences: The
Nature of Leadership in Cross-Functional Proposal
Writing Teams.” Roxanne Kent-Drury. Technical
Communication. 2000.
Ethnography examines 10 years of proposal writing
strategies at an aerospace company
Aerospace Company
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Challenges
 Proposal
teams change frequently
 Proposal writers are temporary loans from other
departments, and team members “maintain their line
affiliations outside the proposal group and so occupy
‘boundary-spanning’ positions in the company” (91)
 Proposal managers are often inexperienced managers
who lack authority
 Writers can go unsupervised and produce proposals
that don’t match corporate or audience expectations
Aerospace Company
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Solutions
 Reliable,
prominent schedule tracking system
 Proposal
libraries containing drafts of all sections
 Proposal scheduling devices that chart progress
 Negotiating
 Proposal
responsibility and accountability
managers must negotiate because they lack
authority
 Proposal manager circulates frequently
 Officially
 Proposal
designated, neutral space
“bullpen” where writers can work
Atherton Jordan, Inc
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“Proposal Writing at Atherton Jordan, Inc.” Claudia
MonPere McIssac and Mary Ann Aschauer.
Management Communication Quarterly. 1990.
Atherton Jordan is a pseudonym for large Silicon
Valley engineering firm heavily reliant on proposals
Ethnography follows seven engineers for eight
months
Atherton Jordan, Inc
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Challenges
 Contracts
are high stakes, involving investments of
$500,000 to $1,000,000
 Proposal environment involves 40-100 people following
52-step process that writers describe as “pressurecooker”
 Writers have trouble anticipating audience needs,
questions
 Engineers dislike writing and follow writing advice too
rigidly
Atherton Jordan, Inc
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Solutions
 “Corporate
consensus about corporate writing
standards”
 Proposal Operations Center
 Provides
management, instructional materials, scheduling
help
 Storyboarding
 Collaborative
 Red
brainstorming technique
Team
 Independent
review team that serves as simulated review
audience for first drafts of proposals
Team Proposal Writing Strategies
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Provide neutral location that legitimizes team
Make the writing process visible and public
Establish strong leadership that can coordinate
groups and maintain an overall vision of the project
Generate consensus about document standards and
vocabulary
Provide mechanisms for offering an audience
perspective on the document