Jumping Through Hoops

Jumping through hoops gameA Game-Based Tool for Government Agencies to Learn Strategies for Expanding their Bidding Pools

Author: Dondei Dean

Looking to expand your bidding pool? This game-based learning experience will equip procurement professionals with the skills and strategies needed.

Small businesses and first-time contractors must have increased contracting opportunities in order for government agencies to effectively deliver needed projects. This increased competition yields better value for agencies and taxpayers and evidence shows that the more bidders on a project, the lower the cost.

Yet small and under-utilized businesses face growing barriers to participation in public contracting, such as burdensome processes and a strict focus on compliance. By stepping into the shoes of vendors, participants will experience firsthand the impact that inviting RFP and pre-solicitation processes can have on small and under-utilized business bidding outcomes. 

The game concludes with a discussion of ways that relevant strategies can be applied to upcoming solicitations in participants’ own entities.

By playing this game, government staff will learn to…

  • Explain the value of diversifying bidding pool 
  • Describe the major barriers to promoting competition in the bidding process 
  • Select appropriate strategies to expand their bidding pool 
  • Identify relevant strategies to use in their own entity 

About the Game

This game takes place in the fictional city of Townsville, a small city of 100,000 that is on the cusp of its bicentennial. To commemorate the occasion, the Mayor has announced a weekend of citywide celebrations.  

City staff must now help bring this vision to life by procuring catering services for the event. With businesses of different sizes interested in bidding, can players release an RFP that generates competition and quality proposals? 

In this game, players assume the role of City staff who are revising an RFP to allow as diverse a vendor group as possible to bid. They must expand the bidding pool to get proposals from a variety of businesses… and at the end of the game, roll the die to find out how many quality proposals they got!   

Ready to Play?

Game Materials

Is this game right for your team?

This game is designed for government staff who: 

  • want their solicitations to receive more responses. 
  • want to better understand the constraints and opportunities facing businesses of different sizes 
  • want to surface ways they can make their solicitations more inviting to a variety of businesses. 

You should use this game if… 

  • You’ve introduced key concepts behind diversifying the bidding pool. 
  • You are focusing not on outreach or broad internal process improvements, but rather RFP-specific practices that players can use. 
  • Players should be able to quickly read and comprehend the structure of an RFP.  
  • It will also help if there is a variety of roles and expertise among players, such as legal, risk analysis, small business advocacy, and/or finance- but this is optional.