TLDR
Four‑week sprint cadence aligned to quarterly decision cycles turns market intel into fast bid action. Clear roles (Market‑Intel Lead, Data Scientist, Bid Manager, Sales Liaison, Exec Sponsor) deliver repeatable outputs: one‑page intel brief, price‑maintenance playbooks, and risk‑adjusted action lists. Real‑time alerts and gated digests keep bids moving within SLAs, close execution gaps, and frame decisions in customer value terms for B2B2C opportunities. This structure scales for a 200–500 employee distributor and reduces intel‑to‑action latency across ongoing bidding.
Sprint blueprint overview
This plan helps teams find price moves, competitor actions, and supplier changes fast. It makes intel repeatable. It gives clear roles and fast outputs so bids change before windows close.
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Sprint blueprint: cadence, roles, and outputs
The sprint is four weeks. It repeats every quarter. Each sprint gives clear work and quick outputs.
Cadence and phases
| Week | Activity | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Prep | Set scope, data feeds, and sampling plan |
| Weeks 2–3 | Intel harvest | Collect signals, verify sources, and flag outliers |
| Week 4 | Synthesis & action | Create playbooks, assign actions, and close gaps |
| Ongoing | Real-time alerts | Route critical moves to active bids |
| Note: Use rolling windows of 7/30/90 days for sampling. Refresh cadence varies by source class (real-time, daily, weekly). | ||
Roles and simple responsibilities
- Market‑Intel Lead — runs intake, triage, and distribution.
- Data Scientist — ensures data quality, builds simple models, and scores alerts.
- Bid Manager — turns intel into bid changes and executes playbooks.
- Sales Liaison — provides field context and validates customer signals.
- Executive Sponsor — clears blockers and enforces SLAs.
Expected outputs each sprint
- Tight intel brief (one page plus one-row CSV appendix).
- Price‑maintenance playbook for active opportunities.
- Risk‑adjusted action list tied to open bids.
Data deep-dive mechanics
Data must be traceable and regularly sampled. Each item gets a source ID and a confidence tag. The team uses simple, repeatable rules to act.
Source types and refresh rules
- Real-time feeds — price ticks and bidding feeds. Refresh: real-time.
- Catalogs and ladders — supplier and distributor lists. Refresh: daily.
- Public filings and verified reports — use for corroboration. Refresh: weekly.
- Channel promotions — monitor weekly windows and promo matrices.
Provenance schema & sampling plan (click for full example)
Each record stores:
- source_id — a short code for the origin
- ingestion_timestamp — ISO 8601 time
- method — crawl / API / manual
- confidence_tag — low / medium / high
- lineage_pointer — link or reference to the original document
Sampling windows: rolling 7 / 30 / 90 days. For high-volume SKUs use stratified sampling by segment and price band. For critical SKUs increase sample rate and require manual review for flagged outliers.
Outlier handling and escalation rules
- Flag outliers automatically. Quarantine them for analyst review.
- Require at least two independent corroborating datapoints before escalating to a major bid change.
- Suppress single-source speculative signals from automatic routing.
Analytics and ranking
Score alerts by expected business value. Use a practical AI model to estimate:
score = margin delta × probability lift
The Data Scientist estimates margin delta and probability lift. The team ranks alerts by score and shows a confidence label.
- confidence tag
- A simple label that shows how much evidence supports a signal: low, medium, or high.
- value of information
- How much expected value changes if the team acts on the alert now versus later.
- practical AI
- Models that give actionable scores. They are simple, explainable, and validated regularly.
- multi-armed bandit
- An approach to allocate tests and bids to balance learning and short-term value.
Fast-share intel protocol
Sharing is fast and short. The memo answers three questions. Alerts go to the right people without noise.
Frequency and format
- Critical moves — real-time alerts to assigned Bid Managers.
- Non‑urgent shifts — daily digest to a gated channel.
- Weekly — a one-page executive brief with top actions.
One-page memo structure
The memo answers:
- What changed?
- Why it matters?
- What to do next: update active bids within 4 hours
Appendix: one-row CSV example
| sku | change_type | source_id | confidence | suggested_action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SKU-12345 | competitor price drop | CATL-202509 | high | raise discount to match margin floor |
| Considerations: include direct source reference and ingestion timestamp. Use this row to auto-route to the Bid Manager assigned to the active opportunity. | ||||
Distribution and guardrails
- Use gated channels tied to active opportunities to avoid noise.
- Suppress speculative signals. Major actions require two corroborating sources.
- Show calibrated confidence scores next to each alert.
Close execution gaps
Mapping gaps shows where intel does not become action. The team uses triggers, SLAs, and playbooks to close gaps quickly.
Common triggers and SLAs
| Trigger | RACI (R / A / C / I) | Ack | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical price cliff | Market‑Intel Lead / Bid Manager / Exec Sponsor / Sales Liaison | 30 min | 4 hrs |
| Promotional window change | Market‑Intel Lead / Bid Manager / Exec Sponsor / Sales Liaison | 1 hr | 24 hrs |
| Supplier catalog delist | Market‑Intel Lead / Procurement Owner / Exec Sponsor / Sales Liaison | 2 hrs | 48 hrs |
| Competitor contract term update | Market‑Intel Lead / Legal Advisor / Bid Manager / Sales Liaison | 4 hrs | 72 hrs |
| Playbooks should include collateral: pricing template, margin floor, promo matrix, and alternate delivery options. | |||
Playbooks and quick wins
- Each playbook lists trigger, owner, decision criteria, time-to-decision, and required collateral.
- Quick win: interruptible bid clause applied when intel is verified. This reduces time to change price on active opportunities.
- Do a post-bid review after every major action. Capture what intel moved outcomes and update SLAs.
Competitive & market moves tracking
Track price cliffs, promo windows, and contract terms. Show updates in customer value language to make decisions clearer.
Monitoring focus
- Price cliffs and rapid markdowns.
- Promotional window openings and closings.
- Contract term shifts that change total cost of ownership.
Decision framing
Frame every update in three simple business terms:
- Elasticity — how price change affects demand.
- Perceived value — customer view versus competitor.
- Total cost of ownership — delivered cost over contract life.
Learning loop: predicted vs actual (click for method)
For each ranked alert, record the predicted outcome and the actual result. Use this log to update probability lift estimates. Reduce the intel‑to‑action latency by removing steps that do not change the outcome.
Operational rigor and culture
Good operations keep data honest and teams aligned. The plan needs simple rules and regular meetings.
Data governance and audit
- Maintain a single source of truth with auditable lineage and synchronized timestamps.
- Store the ingestion timestamp and the lineage pointer for every record.
Collaboration and change management
- Weekly cross‑functional huddle to agree the top three intel actions.
- Executives enable rapid approvals when SLAs are met.
- Automate routine alerts. Reserve human review for nuance and ethics checks.
Ethics and practical AI literacy
Decisions must use validated external evidence. Avoid unethical market manipulation. The team practices practical AI: simple, explainable models that are tested and documented.
Extra: quick checklist for the next sprint
- Confirm feed list and refresh cadence.
- Assign Market‑Intel Lead and Data Scientist for the sprint.
- Publish the one-page memo template and one-row CSV format.
- Set SLAs for critical triggers and link playbooks to active bids.
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