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A product's design or a company's overall brand presence may make or break a sale.
To keep up with the current product design trends, you must first lay a solid foundation. And the greatest approach to find a high-quality design firm is through graphic design request for proposal paperwork.
In this article, we will describe a product design RFP, including what it is, what constitutes a good product design request for proposal and how to draft one.
We also offer you the option of downloading our own product design RFP template, which you may completely alter for your own purposes.
Table of Contents
What is Product Design RFP?
A product design request for proposal (RFP) is an official document that announces the opening of a graphic design project for bids from qualified vendors. It includes a full explanation of company’s product design requirements.
When a company has to produce a unique product design for a product or brand, it usually hires a professional product design agency rather than relying on in-house resources.
In a neatly prepared presentation, the product design request for proposal document covers all key product design project details. A well-organized RFP may give businesses with competitive proposals and enable them to evaluate different design firms that submit bids in response to an RFP.
What Should a Product Design RFP Contain?
Although RFP forms vary from business to company, owing mostly to the project nature and scope, some parts are generally included in each RFP.
1. Describe Your Business
The RFP process begins with a brief overview of your company.
This contains a brief "about" part that describes your organization, why you need a new product design solution, and a project scope overview. You may also add information about your brand's goal, vision, values, and a summary of the market and competitors.
To avoid overwhelming potential providers, keep this section succinct and to the point.
2. Set a Timetable and a Deadline for Your Project.
Giving suppliers a realistic timescale and estimated launch date for your product design project assists them to decide whether they will be able to execute the job on time.
A timeline also gives everyone participating in the project a clear direction for work completion and keeps everyone on the same page.
Make time in your schedule for review, modifications, and approval.
3. Make Your Budget Public
Your budget is an essential component of the RFP because it helps suppliers to assess whether they can accomplish the scope of work within the budget limits and reply appropriately.
The experience of the team members who will work on your project, as well as the hourly rate of the agency, will influence the cost of your product design.
To obtain a better understanding of how much your product design job should cost, read blog articles, online forums, or customer evaluations that discuss project budgets.
4. Establish Your Goals
Defining your project goals highlights the design services you will need and the scope of your project, whether you want to enhance sales or educate potential consumers about your brand and product.
As needed, list your major and secondary goals.
Your product design goals might include the following:
- Boost the number of eligible leads.
- Boost brand awareness
- Increase your market visibility by engaging current and future clients.
4. Define Your Target Market
Before beginning any product design process it is vital to identify your target audience.
To maximize engagement and conversions, your visual design should be in line with your target audience's wants and expectations.
Include user personas and demographic information in your request for proposal to ensure suppliers understand your target audience.
Include information about the purchase behavior and favored content of your target audience.
5. Specification of RFP Submission Requirements
Outline the specifications you want from suppliers interested in working on your product design project, as well as how they should reply (usually via email).
The following details should be requested from vendors:
- Name, email, location, website, and phone number of the agency
- Years of experience, team size, credentials, and corporate accolades
- Estimated project hours and schedule from beginning to end
- Testimonials from customers
- Five of their most important initiatives, with links to each case study
6. Create Your Vendor Selection Criteria
In this portion of your RFP, explain the criteria you'll use to pick your provider.
Agency knowledge, years of experience, portfolio, skills, and related projects might be among your vendor selection factors.
Declaring your selection criteria clearly can help you pick out agencies that cannot deliver what you seek.
Product Design RFP Template
Product RFP Template helps businesses create their request for proposal from scratch as it already contains all the essential fields and questions that potential vendors need to fill out.
You can download your copy of a free product design RFP template to the right on this page.
Here is an example of what a well-rounded product design RFP Template should contain:
COMPANY PROFILE
Introduce your company and give a brief background on your business type, market, competitors, key areas of expertise and unique value proposition.
•Industry:
•Mission statement and vision:
•Products/Services:
•Target audience/customer types:
•Main drivers for product design needs:
PROJECT NAME & BRIEF
Deliver an overview of your current product design, why you are looking to boost your product design efforts, what you hope to gain from it and your ideal project timeline.
List existing product design capacities here:
•Current product design team and solutions they use:
•Marketing strategy and primary need for product design:
•In which areas of your business do you apply product design:
•Your competitors’ product design examples:
SCOPE OF WORK, SPECIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS
List the exact type of product design project and the outcome you need. Be specific about the kind of design and service you want to receive from the bidder.
PROJECT CHALLENGES
Define what challenges your business currently faces that this project will solve. Be as broad or as concise as needed.
PROJECT GOALS
Determine the short-term and long-term goals (SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-sensitive) you wish to achieve with your unique product packaging project.
Primary objectives:
[Goal 1]
[Goal 2]
etc.
Secondary objectives:
[Goal 1]
[Goal 2]
etc.
CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS
All bidding vendors must [list the criteria that must be met for a proposal to be considered, for example, their experience and client case studies, team size info, organizational charts, etc.]
1. Provide a resume or online portfolio for each individual assigned to provide the services and designate the individual who would be primarily responsible for overseeing the services. Provide all relevant contact information for the primary contact person.
2. Work Examples: Describe relevant past projects and examples of prior work.
3. References: Provide 2-4 client references, including a short project description and contact information.
PROPOSAL GUIDELINES
All bidding vendors must [list the requirements that each proposal must address, such as budget, timelines, and submission due date.]
PROJECT TIMELINES
[Outline information about the RFP process's timeline and the project itself— deadlines, milestones, and potential roadblocks.]
BUDGET
Specify the budget you have allocated for this project.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
List other documents agencies and service providers should submit along with their applications. If you have additional questions you'd like them to answer, list them here.
SELECTION CRITERIA
The company will review submitted proposals for qualifications. The choice for a contract will be made based on the following criteria:
1. Expertise and experience of the agency in this niche
2. Quality of work samples provided
3. Range of services
4. Cost
RFP DEADLINES
RFP Sent Date:
Proposals Due Date:
Winner Selected by Date:
Takeaways on Product Design Request For Proposal
A product design RFP can help you collect valuable responses from different vendors in this field. It also lets you choose the agency that best fits your business goals.
This RFP checklist can be reproduced for any other service or industry, such as:
- RFP for Software Development
- Digital Marketing RFP
- Website Development RFP
- Mobile App development RFP
- SEO RFP
- Social Media RFP
- Website Design RFP
- eCommerce RFP
- Video production RFP
- Branding RFP
- Cybersecurity RFP
- Public Relations RFP
- RFP for IT services
- Email Marketing RFP
