Writing good requests

Brief Emma the way you would brief an experienced bid manager. Say what result you need, what it is for, and what is already decided. This page explains how to write a good brief, then gives example prompts for each stage of a bid.

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Brief Emma like a colleague

For bigger jobs, a good request answers most of these questions. You rarely need all of them.

1. What outcome do you need? “Decide whether to bid”, “a first draft of question 3.2”, or “a list of what blocks submission”. Ask for a result, not a series of steps.
2. Which tender, room or document? Ask from the right page, or use @ to mention the tender, document, section or snippet. Emma then reads the actual source.
3. What are the constraints? Word or page limits, weightings, deadline, language, the buyer’s template, tone.
4. What evidence should she use? Name the case studies, rate card or policies, or let her search the Library and your past projects.
5. What is already decided? Bidding as prime or in a consortium, your price position, staff you will name. Emma won’t guess these, so telling her up front saves a round of questions.
6. What should she give back, and where? A summary in chat, a Working document in the Bid Room, a filled copy of the buyer’s form.

You don’t need to tell Emma how to research. She reads the tender, your profile and the Library before she asks you anything. Match the mode to the job. See Choose a mode.

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Weak and strong requests

Deciding whether to bid Why it works:

• It asks for a decision, not a general opinion.
• It says what to check, in the order that matters: hard conditions first.
• It points Emma at your own evidence, so the answer is about your company, not tenders in general.

Drafting an answer Why it works:

• It names the exact question and where the answer goes.
• It gives the limits that shape the answer: weighting and word count.
• It names the evidence and the angle to lead with.
• It tells Emma what to do with gaps instead of letting her guess.

Getting ready to submit Why it works:

• It defines “done” as nothing blocking submission.
• It asks for the result in a shape your team can act on straight away.

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Prompt library by bid stage

Copy these prompts and change the details. Replace the text in square brackets with your own. Each label shows where to ask and, where it matters, which mode to use. Prompts without a mode work in Default.

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Discover

Find opportunities worth a closer look. Emma searches live and historical notices, Reyda’s market data and, when needed, the web.

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Qualify

Decide whether to bid. Emma screens hard conditions first, such as eligibility, certifications and deadline feasibility, then fit and competition. She gives you a recommendation, but the decision to bid or not is yours.

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Plan

Turn the tender into a plan your team can work from. Emma maps every deliverable the buyer asks for, then builds a response plan with owners, dependencies and open decisions.

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Draft

Write the buyer-facing documents. Emma writes into the buyer’s own templates and forms where they exist, keeps their structure, and saves each change as a new version. Buyer-facing documents contain only the response: gaps and assumptions go in her report to you, not into the document.

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Review

Check the work as an evaluator would. Emma reviews the saved drafts against the actual requirements, and her findings name the location, the severity and the fix.

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Submit

Get ready to upload. Emma prepares and checks the package, but you submit it through the buyer’s portal.

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Automate

Hand Emma standing work. A routine runs on a schedule or when something happens, and Emma posts the result in the chat where you set it up, and in Slack if you choose. If nothing has changed, she stays quiet. Emma shows a confirmation card before she creates or changes a routine. See Routines.

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Follow-ups that improve results

• Push for depth. “Section 4 is thinner than the others. Deepen it with evidence from our Dublin contract.”
• Give the missing fact. “We will bid as prime with [Partner] as subcontractor for the catering lot.” Emma picks up the work that was waiting on it.
• Correct, don’t restart. “Keep the structure, but swap the second case study for the Galway one.”
• Ask what she assumed. “What did you assume in the pricing schedule?”

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What to avoid

• Asking her to make up proof. If a certification or figure isn’t in your workspace, Emma leaves it out. Upload the evidence to the Library instead.
• Several unrelated bids in one conversation. Start a New chat for each bid, or work from inside its Bid Room.
• Assuming she knows what was said in another chat. Point her at what is saved in Reyda instead: documents, the Library, your profile and the Bid Room.
• Asking her to submit the bid. She prepares everything up to that point and leaves submission to you. She can email a buyer, but only once you approve the message, unless an admin has let her send on her own.

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