- Client
- Multonion
- Role
- AI Product Designer
Overview
Only 34.7% of SMEs in Lagos, Nigeria have ever bid in public procurement, yet procurement notices are put out daily.
To rectify this, we set out to increase MSME participation by 20% with a focus on fixing excessive documentation, which scored 4.88 out of 5 as a barrier to participation, and lack of understanding of tender requirements, which scored 4.35.
Our goal was simple: help MSMEs bid and earn more, while also improving Multonion's first-bid activation rate and bids per tender.
Here's how that went.
To begin, how do we define success?
Redesigns happen every day. If our goal is impact, how do we know when that has happened?
Working closely with Multonion's founder, who doubles as a PM and Business Strategist, I built an understanding of the business goals and consequently identified areas we could measure to show where we are with our goal.
- First-bid activation rate: This is the share of registered MSMEs who submit a bid within 30 days of signing up.
- Bids per tender: The number of bids on a tender is capable of showing a rising ability for MSMEs to participate in public procurement. This in turn gives buyers more options, and increases retention and repeat rates.
- Bid completion rate: The share of bids that actually get submitted is an indication of MSMEs' understanding of what is required and their ability to work through the needed documentation.
- Time to submit: Since a key barrier for MSMEs currently is understanding tender requirements, we track how much time is spent going through the bid submission flow.
With these, we get a fair idea of success.
Designing ease into identifying a tender to bid on
My first solution to MSMEs not understanding the requirements for a tender was to introduce a clarification section.
With this, users can always ask questions and the tenderer can provide more context, and this would be visible to future bidders.
However, this did not seem to suffice. It was giving MSMEs a little extra work. So I brainstormed a different solution.
Can AI solve this? Could we use AI to break down the tender details for the MSME owner in as simple words as possible?
Wouldn't hurt to try...so I did.
This turned out to be a much better solution. The AI is also able to analyse an organisation's profile on Multonion to determine their readiness and eligibility for the opportunity.
Guidance during bid submission
The care we provide happens before, during, and after bid submission.
When an MSME chooses a tender to bid on, one of the first things they need to do is prove eligibility through documents, licences, certificates, etc. Research shows this is a tedious process where they may lack some qualifying documents.
So I introduced "How to get this" next to every document, so no organisation is confused about what they need to provide and how to obtain it.
I did the same for technical questions. If a question is a little hard, the MSME can click on "Explain this requirement" to have it explained in simpler terms.
The conclusion of the matter
These updates will be tested to see if they meet the pre-defined criteria. Only then can we know for sure that we have solved a problem.
Before and after
Finding opportunities
Before
After
Tender details
Before
After
Proving eligibility
Before
After