Preparing orals

Preparing Orals

Prepare for an oral presentation the way it deserves to be prepared: as an evaluated event, not a meeting. When a solicitation requires orals, the presentation is scored — sometimes it carries more weight than any written volume, and sometimes it replaces a written volume entirely. A team that treats orals as a briefing and not as a proposal volume gives away points. This skill builds the presentation, assigns presenters, and rehearses the questions.

When to use this skill

Use this skill when the solicitation requires an oral presentation, demonstration, or interview as part of the evaluation — common on task orders under FAR 16.505 and increasingly on larger procurements. Prepare orals after the written proposal content and win strategy are set.

It does not write the written proposal — that is the drafting skills. It converts the proposal's case into a scored spoken presentation.

Inputs

Required:

• The solicitation's oral presentation instructions — Section L or a separate orals instruction: format, time limit, slide rules, who may present, what is evaluated, the Q&A format, and any restriction on materials.
• Section M — what the orals are scored against.

Preferred upstream artifacts:

• 05-win-strategy.md: the themes and discriminators the presentation carries.
• 12-sections/ and the volume artifacts — the technical and management substance.
• 03-competitive-assessment.md: to anticipate where evaluators will probe.

Read ../../shared/glossary.md and ../../shared/pursuit-workspace.md if not already read this session.

Intake

Ask these as a numbered list. Most answers come from the orals instructions.

1. The format. What kind of orals — a presentation, a technical demonstration, a key-personnel interview, a scenario exercise? What is the total time, and how is it split between presentation and Q&A?
2. The rules. How many slides or what materials are allowed? Are slides submitted in advance and locked? Who may present (often key personnel only, sometimes no outside consultants)? May the team confer during Q&A? Is the session recorded?
3. What is evaluated. Which Section M factors do the orals cover? Do the orals replace a written volume or supplement it?
4. Presenters. Who is available to present, and what is each person's role and strength? Are presenters required to be proposed key personnel?
5. The substance. Is the win strategy and the technical/management content settled, so the presentation can be built from it?

Workflow

Orals Preparation:
- [ ] Step 1: Establish the orals format and rules
- [ ] Step 2: Structure the presentation to Section M and the time limit
- [ ] Step 3: Build the slides/content, theme-driven
- [ ] Step 4: Assign and prepare presenters
- [ ] Step 5: Anticipate evaluator questions; build Q&A prep
- [ ] Step 6: Plan rehearsals
- [ ] Step 7: Write the orals package (22-orals-package.md)

Step 1: Format and rules. Pin down the format, time, materials limit, presenter restrictions, and Q&A rules from the orals instructions. Use references/orals-method.md. The rules are strict and specific; build to them exactly.

Step 2: Structure. Structure the presentation to the Section M factors the orals cover, within the time limit. Allocate time by factor importance, and reserve and rehearse for the Q&A. The evaluator should be able to map every minute of the presentation to a scoring factor.

Step 3: Build content. Build the slides and talking points, theme-driven: each segment carries a win theme, leads with the customer benefit, and lands proof. Orals content is sparer than written content — visual, spoken, not read-aloud paragraphs. Respect the slide count and any advance-submission lock.

Step 4: Presenters. Assign each segment to a presenter, matched to their role and strength, and within the presenter restrictions (often proposed key personnel only). The proposed program manager typically leads. Plan handoffs.

Step 5: Q&A prep. This is where orals are won or lost. Anticipate the questions evaluators will ask — on weaknesses in the approach, on risks, on the points the competitive assessment says competitors will challenge, on anything the presentation only touches lightly. For each likely question, prepare a concise, honest answer and assign who fields it. Build the list using orals-method.md.

Step 6: Rehearse. Plan rehearsals: a full timed run, a Q&A drill with a mock evaluator panel asking the hard questions, and a logistics check. Rehearsal is not optional; it is where timing, handoffs, and weak answers get fixed.

Step 7: Write. Write 22-orals-package.md using templates/orals-package.md — the structure, the slide/segment plan, presenter assignments, the Q&A prep, and the rehearsal plan.

Output

One artifact: 22-orals-package.md in the pursuit workspace.

Present the user with: the presentation structure and timing, presenter assignments, the anticipated-question list with prepared answers, and the rehearsal plan.

References

• references/orals-method.md: orals formats, building the presentation, presenter preparation, anticipating evaluator questions, and common orals pitfalls.
• templates/orals-package.md: the orals package artifact template.

Guardrails

• Orals are evaluated. Treat the presentation with the rigor of a proposal volume — scored against Section M, carrying themes and proof.
• Obey the rules exactly. Time limits, slide counts, presenter restrictions, and advance-submission locks are hard rules. Running over time can mean being cut off mid-point.
• Q&A wins or loses orals. Prepare the hard questions thoroughly. An evasive or fumbled answer to a predictable question does more damage than a weak slide.
• Real presenters. Where the rules require key personnel to present, prepare the actual proposed personnel — not a polished proxy who will not perform the contract.
• Honest answers. Rehearse answers that are truthful. A confident wrong answer in Q&A is worse than a candid "here is how we would address that."