This activity kit describes how to lead an RFP assumption-busting session, which is a technique for governments looking to gather constructive feedback from internal stakeholders about ways to strengthen an upcoming RFP. The overview will guide you through the planning, logistics setup, and follow-up for facilitating an assumption-busting session. In the accompanying meeting template, you’ll find a slide deck that you can modify to use as a starting point for leading your own session.

While surveys and informal conversations can gather important data that aids in efforts to transform procurement, focus groups are particularly useful as a more extensive tool that allows for two-way engagement with customers and deeper probing of insights. In this toolkit, we share tips for how to run a successful focus group and share tools and templates for you to use in your own work.

It’s tempting to take a “set it and forget it” approach to contract management and assume that because you’ve hired such a qualified vendor, they’ll be able to meet your objectives and complete the full project scope on time and within budget. You may only feel the need to worry about compliance activities, such as paying invoices or checking that insurance certificates are valid. 

A Contract Management Plan (also commonly known as a Contract Fact Sheet, Contract Administration Plan, or Contract Monitoring Plan) can create a user-friendly tool that makes sense of dense and lengthy contracts and shares the core elements of the contract in a manner that is clear, condensed, and accessible. This tool can also enable contract managers or contract administrators to have a clear understanding of key deliverables, know core risks to mitigate, and foster clear communication. You are encouraged to adapt this template to meet the needs of your government or specific contract.

A purchasing office can be a valuable partner in collaborating with departments or agencies on solicitations by providing strategic support, whether through helping staff write effective and clear specifications, guiding them to use correct procurement processes, or by informing them of existing contracts that meet their needs. Such guidance may save departments from going too far down the wrong path, wasting time and causing delays in getting solicitations out the door.

This Getting Started Worksheet is designed to jumpstart your brainstorming about the important questions that will guide the development of your RFP or other major procurement. We encourage you to use this worksheet as a brainstorming tool with the team working on an RFP, before you put pen to paper to start drafting your solicitation document.

A purchasing office can be a valuable partner in collaborating with departments or agencies on solicitations by providing strategic support, whether through helping staff write effective and clear specifications, guiding them to use correct procurement processes, or by informing them of existing contracts that meet their needs. Such guidance may save departments from going too far down the wrong path, wasting time and causing delays in getting solicitations out the door.

Standardizing intake with an organized method for collecting “first contact” information on new procurements can help save everyone time. Having department or agency staff fill out a simple procurement intake form can support you in receiving the information you need to provide the right support. This document provides two examples of how procurement intake forms can be structured and a pool of questions to consider incorporating in an intake form. We encourage you to use these materials as a basis for developing your government’s intake form, whether that form is designed in an e-procurement system or collected via a Word document.

Writing a Request for Proposals (RFP) can feel daunting. As you face an upcoming need for goods or services, you may be tempted to fall back on a previously issued version of an RFP, simply mimic what a peer city or state has done, or renew an existing contract - even though you know you could probably find a better-performing vendor.

But an RFP is the foundation for achieving strategic goals and improving outcomes for residents through contracting, and such an opportunity shouldn't be wasted. This template, which pairs with our RFP Template, provides a model for a response workbook that accompanies an RFP document. Using a response workbook can be a valuable tool to help proposers have a structured way to submit their proposal to your government and can make evaluation of proposals far easier. You'll also find sample questions in this template that you can ask of proposers in your RFP.

Writing a Request for Proposals (RFP) can feel daunting. As you face an upcoming need for goods or services, you may be tempted to fall back on a previously issued version of an RFP, simply mimic what a peer city or state has done, or renew an existing contract - even though you know you could probably find a better-performing vendor.

But an RFP is the foundation for achieving strategic goals and improving outcomes for residents through contracting, and such an opportunity shouldn't be wasted. This results-driven RFP template will help you craft an inviting RFP that attracts quality proposals from vendors. Key features of this template include:
• Clearly identified outcomes to be achieved through the contracted service.
• A logical organizational structure with project-specific information at the beginning of the RFP.
• Easy-to-navigate section headers and table of contents.
• Proposer checklists and response workbooks to help proposers know what to submit.

Be sure to check out our companion Template Response Workbook, which provides sample questions for proposers to respond to.

Government employees often fear that collaborating with prospective vendors or outside stakeholders crosses over a legal line and creates an unfair advantage. However, it is generally acceptable to communicate with potential vendors in a fair and open way before a formal solicitation has been released. Through a Request for Information (RFI), governments can solicit ideas from the vendor community, subject matter experts, and community stakeholders while maintaining a level playing field.

This RFI template will help you develop an RFI that is a powerful tool to 1) gather valuable information from the vendor community and other stakeholders to inform the design of a subsequent RFP; 2) learn about new technologies, innovations, or approaches; and 3) make decisions about project scope, program structure, and what might reasonably be asked of a vendor.

Diagnosing bottlenecks in the procurement process, understanding where contract outcomes can be improved, and prioritizing systemic challenges require the kind of clarity provided by data. Procurement data is foundational to running an efficient, effective, proactive, and strategic purchasing office. If you aspire to make the procurement process faster, work with more diverse firms, leverage procurement a a strategic function, or use procurement to advance your government's economic development or social impact goals, you'll want to start tracking and using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

This tool suggests common KPIs used by procurement offices across the country that take a data-driven approach to make procurement operations more efficient and effective. This metrics bank supplements our how-to guide Using Data to Improve Procurement Operations and Outcomes with specific example KPIs.

A purchasing office can be a valuable partner in collaborating with departments or agencies on solicitations by providing strategic support, whether through helping staff write effective and clear specifications, guiding them to use correct procurement processes, or by informing them of existing contracts that meet their needs. Such guidance may save departments from going too far down the wrong path, wasting time and causing delays in getting solicitations out the door.

Virtual or in-person solicitation kickoff meetings can be helpful for orienting department or agency staff to the procurement process and the steps to follow, educating them on how to write an effective RFP, and discussing the goals and risks of a specific solicitation. This slide deck provides a template for the kickoff meeting and includes sample language to get you started. As with the other tools, be sure to customize these slides for the specific goals and set up of your kickoff meetings.