Affected Workflows

Primary Workflows (Direct Impact)

• RFP/RFQ response process — from go-no-go through submission
• Proposal content assembly — search and retrieval from historical documents
• Quality assurance and compliance checking — red team/color review process
• Knowledge management — organizational memory for projects, people, capabilities
• Marketing content creation — resumes, project descriptions, case studies, boilerplate

Secondary Workflows (Indirect Impact)

• Business development research — finding relevant past work for pursuits
• New hire onboarding — knowledge transfer from historical proposals
• Cross-office collaboration — standardization across distributed teams
• Client relationship management — quick access to past work for specific clients
• Strategic planning — analyzing win themes and differentiators across proposals

Adoption Timescale Summary

Phase 1: Technical Setup (Day 1)

Timeline: 1 day
Activities:

• Upload 3-5 years of proposals and marketing content
• System processes and indexes (3,000 proposals = <3 hours)
• Basic search/chat functionality live

Success Indicator: Marketing team can search and find historical content same day

Phase 2: Core User Adoption (Weeks 1-4)

Timeline: 4 weeks
Activities:

• Marketing team uses for first 2-3 active RFPs
• Fine-tune AI classifications and brand guidelines
• Upload boilerplate libraries and custom templates
• Begin CRM integration setup (if applicable)

Expected Challenges:

• Learning curve on effective prompting
• Trust-building with AI outputs (checking accuracy obsessively)
• Breaking old habits (still going to shared drives first)

Success Indicators:

• 80% of marketing team logging in daily
• First measurable time savings on RFP (tracking before/after)
• Team stops asking "where did we write this before?"

Phase 3: Workflow Integration (Months 2-3)

Timeline: 8 weeks
Activities:

• Proposal coordinators and biz dev team onboarded
• Multi-user collaboration on proposals becomes standard
• Custom personas created (public vs. private project voices)
• Integration with existing RFP workflow fully embedded

Expected Challenges:

• Coordinating multi-user editing (learning collaboration features)
• Determining when to use Joist vs. manual drafting
• Managing expectations on draft quality (40-50% is starting point, not finished product)

Success Indicators:

• 30%+ time savings documented on 5+ proposals
• No proposals submitted without using Joist for QC
• Users proactively suggesting new use cases

Phase 4: Enterprise Expansion (Months 3-6)

Timeline: 12 weeks
Activities:

• Secondary users join: PMs, architects, engineers, field leaders
• Knowledge base use cases beyond proposals (BD research, client prep)
• Additional offices/regions onboarded (if multi-office firm)
• Feedback loop established: completed proposals automatically added back

Expected Challenges:

• Resistance from field teams ("I don't do proposals")
• Explaining value for non-marketing users
• Maintaining data quality as more users contribute

Success Indicators:

• 20%+ of non-marketing staff using as knowledge database
• Proposal capacity increases without adding headcount
• New hires reference Joist in first week

Phase 5: Optimization & Maturity (6+ Months)

Timeline: Ongoing
Activities:

• Continuous improvement of custom templates and personas
• Advanced features adopted (cross-proposal benchmarking, win theme analysis)
• System becomes "single source of truth" for firm knowledge
• ROI measured and reported to leadership

Expected State:

• Joist integrated into DNA of proposal and marketing operations
• Users can't imagine working without it
• Knowledge base grows organically with each submission

Success Indicators:

• 30-40% time savings consistent across all proposals
• Win rate improvements measurable (though hard to isolate)
• Zero proposals submitted without Joist QC
• Competitor/peer firms asking "how do you turn proposals so fast?"