RFP processes, especially for retail optimization, have always been plagued by personal opinions and bias within organizations. Even the best run, most sophisticated approaches still cannot eliminate bias. In our work with the top fashion, hardline, and grocery retailers, we have identified 5 ways to reduce the opinions and apply science to the process. Now, every RFP should take into account platform preferences, architectural requirements, and other, unique aspects of your organization. The 5 methods identified here are specific to evaluating the results that each vendor tool delivers.

5 ways to make your RFP process less subjective

1. Know your data: know your data, understand the improvement that you want to see in it, identify how you will evaluate success

2. See the results: have the vendors show you the results, based on your data, that their tools produce

3. Expect improvement: give vendors the chance to show how well their tools improve based
on feedback

4. Use the subjectivity: create a key requirement for how well the vendors partner and have your stakeholders evaluate them on that explicitly

5. Separate the evaluation: the team that evaluates the results from the tools should not be the team that executes the RFP. The best project or program managers may not be the best data scientists.