Project Management is an important aspect of any product development, and proposal preparation is no exception. Our team recently underwent full certification for Project Management from google to help improve the SOP for proposal preparation with clients.
A Project Manager is responsible for initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, and closing a project. The project manager helps manage tasks for the team members and communicates key milestones to the larger team, stakeholders, or customers. This helps keep team members and customers updated on how the project is progressing. Poor project management can lead to 48 percent of projects missing delivery dates, 43 percent missing budget targets, and 31 percent failing to meet an organization’s goals.
Some of the Project Management features we bring to the table for clients include:
#1 Assess external constraints
When planning your SBIR/STTR proposal preparation project, we take external events into account, such as national holidays and team member vacations, and sick leave. Leaving extra time in the schedule for these inevitable events upfront can help minimize the impact on your project.
#2 Plan for risks and challenges
Considering the risks that may occur, we can find solutions for them in advance. For example, what if someone on your team gets sick or decides to quit? Are you able to replace them within the company? If not, can you hire an independent contractor? We will ask you to create a list of people who may be able to join your team if one of your members becomes unavailable. We also assess risks by looking at historical data, reviewing past projects, and examining the challenges faced.
#3 Calculate “float” in the schedule
Float, or slack, refers to the time you can wait to begin a task before it impacts the project schedule and threatens the project outcome. Identifying float in the schedule is part of what we do during onboarding. We set deadlines for each component or deliverable of a proposal on our first meeting, which can help with resource management, scheduling, and keeping the SBIR proposal project on track.
Our team will manage the project through all phases of the project life cycle to keep proposals on track and ensure a competitive application as an end product.
We work with high-growth startups and organizations that support the startup and innovation ecosystem. We build highly specific non-dilutive funding menus, provide proposal preparation services, and measure outcomes of funding through evaluation. Schedule a consult call with us HERE.