RFP Response Tool

Overview

As part of a design challenge, i was tasked with creating a tool that simplifies and enhances the Request for Proposal (RFP) process using AI. The exercise focused on enabling AI-driven drafting, improving usability, and fostering team collaboration. My approach emphasized user-centered design principles to deliver a streamlined and intuitive solution through rapid iteration.

Disclaimer: This project was completed as part of a hiring exercise and does not represent work performed for any organization

The Challenge

Responding to Requests for Proposals (RFPs) can be a complex and time-consuming task for teams. The process often involves reviewing multiple requirements, drafting detailed responses, and coordinating with various team members. The challenge was to design a tool that streamlines this process and improves team collaboration, while also integrating AI to assist with drafting responses.

Proposed Solution

User Stories

The RFP response tool was designed to simplify the process by breaking down RFP sections, allowing teams to prioritize tasks, and integrating AI suggestions for drafting responses. The tool also included features to track progress and enable seamless collaboration between team members.

Tackling Sarah's Pain Point

Problem

Handling SSO-related requests posed several challenges for the customer service team. These included:

High volume of repetitive tasks leading to delays
Manual errors in resolving user credential issues
Limited visibility into educators’ specific SSO configurations, permissions, and request history
Duplicate data entry
Difficulty tracking and managing request progress
Frustration among educators due to delayed responses
Lack of integration with existing CRM systems (Zoho)

Tackling Sarah's Pain Point

Problem

Handling SSO-related requests posed several challenges for the customer service team. These included:

High volume of repetitive tasks leading to delays
Manual errors in resolving user credential issues
Limited visibility into educators’ specific SSO configurations, permissions, and request history
Duplicate data entry
Difficulty tracking and managing request progress
Frustration among educators due to delayed responses
Lack of integration with existing CRM systems (Zoho)

Tackling Sarah's Pain Point

User Stories

As a User,

I want to see a clear breakdown of RFP sections and compliance highlights, so I can easily understand and prioritize my tasks.

As a User,

I want to prioritize sections based on complexity or deadlines, so I can focus on the most critical areas first.

As a User,

I want AI to suggest content for each section, so I can quickly generate responses aligned with the requirements.

As a User,

I want to search, filter, insert, and edit content from the knowledge base, so I can customize responses to meet my needs.

As a Proposal Manager,

I want to assign sections to specific team members, so tasks are clearly distributed.

As a Team Member,

I want to track the status of tasks (e.g., pending, in progress, completed), so I can stay informed about overall progress.

Problem

Handling SSO-related requests posed several challenges for the customer service team. These included:

High volume of repetitive tasks leading to delays
Manual errors in resolving user credential issues
Limited visibility into educators’ specific SSO configurations, permissions, and request history
Duplicate data entry
Difficulty tracking and managing request progress
Frustration among educators due to delayed responses
Lack of integration with existing CRM systems (Zoho)

Tackling Sarah's Pain Point

Problem

Handling SSO-related requests posed several challenges for the customer service team. These included:

High volume of repetitive tasks leading to delays
Manual errors in resolving user credential issues
Limited visibility into educators’ specific SSO configurations, permissions, and request history
Duplicate data entry
Difficulty tracking and managing request progress
Frustration among educators due to delayed responses
Lack of integration with existing CRM systems (Zoho)

Tackling Sarah's Pain Point

Problem

Handling SSO-related requests posed several challenges for the customer service team. These included:

High volume of repetitive tasks leading to delays
Manual errors in resolving user credential issues
Limited visibility into educators’ specific SSO configurations, permissions, and request history
Duplicate data entry
Difficulty tracking and managing request progress
Frustration among educators due to delayed responses
Lack of integration with existing CRM systems (Zoho)

Tackling Sarah's Pain Point

Problem

Handling SSO-related requests posed several challenges for the customer service team. These included:

High volume of repetitive tasks leading to delays
Manual errors in resolving user credential issues
Limited visibility into educators’ specific SSO configurations, permissions, and request history
Duplicate data entry
Difficulty tracking and managing request progress
Frustration among educators due to delayed responses
Lack of integration with existing CRM systems (Zoho)

Tackling Sarah's Pain Point

Sarah K

Customer Assistant Lead

Age: 30
Location: London, ON
Education: BA Psychology - Western University

Sarah is a dedicated Customer Service Assistant at LTS based in London, Ontario. With a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Western University, she brings a unique perspective to her role. Sarah's journey with the organization spans over 8 years, starting as an intern and evolving into the role of Customer Assistant Lead.

In her current position, Sarah efficiently manages all customer inquiries, serving as a crucial link between Educators, Coordinators, and LTS. Over the years, she has honed her skills and taken on leadership responsibilities.

Sarah is proactively seeking ways to streamline her work, particularly in handling routine tasks like password resets and unlocking user accounts. Despite handling these requests manually for years, she envisions implementing a system that simplifies these processes, allowing her to focus on more strategic aspects of customer assistance.

With her wealth of experience and educational background, Sarah is committed to providing excellent support to the LTS community while exploring innovative solutions to enhance operational efficiency.

Solution

After Testing

Handling SSO-related requests posed several challenges for customer service teams. Here are some proposed solutions to enhance Sarah's Workflow

Account Management: Organized by Account Status (Locked account, unlocked accounts)
An easy Educator Lookup/search and filtering by roles
A quick password reset with automated emails sent out to the master account and educator account
An educator history screen to view past requests and registered projects

After Testing

During User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and QA testing, we identified an issue with pagination where page numbers for results were incorrectly displaying as 1-444. This error has since been resolved. Sarah is pleased with the functionality so far, and we hope that more staff will adopt this tool to streamline their daily tasks. We received great feedback from the testing sessions and look forward to adding more features in future iterations