Proposal Studio, located inside Shred AI, allows you to draft a proposal based on a Request for Proposal (RFP) that has been "shredded" and outlined. The process moves from organizing the response outline to drafting the content and exporting the final document.
1. Review & Organize the Response Outline
Before drafting, you will begin in the Pursuits tab to view the RFP, its overview, and the response outline.
The response outline allows you to:
Review requirements: View the requirements pulled from the RFP.
Organize requirements: Organize the requirements in a way that makes sense for your submission.
View criteria sources: For each criterion (e.g., "Relevant Experience and Qualifications" or "Project Approach"), you can see the exact location in the RFP from which the content was pulled, allowing you to confirm that the pull looks correct.
Add and reorder categories: You can add categories and change the order of both the categories and the criteria within them to customize the submission.
***** The structure you set in the response outline directly influences the outline that appears in the Proposal Studio drafting tab.
2. Draft the Proposal in Proposal Studio
After the response outline is satisfactory, navigate to the Proposal Studio tab to begin drafting.
A. Add Narrative Text using Suggested Content
One way to draft is by using relevant content pulled from your proposal library:
Select a criterion to begin drafting, such as the narrative around "Approach to Stakeholder Engagement and User Input" under "Project Approach".
Click the Add Response tab.
Click View Suggested Content.
Proposal Studio will pull and display relevant content from your proposal library on the right-hand side, drawn from various previous proposals.
Add content by selecting text from the suggested proposals to include in your response. You can grab content from multiple proposals and edit it later.
Format the text using the built-in editor to add subheadings, bullet points, or bolding.
Click the check mark to save the response.
B. Attach Assets via OpenAsset DAM Integration
**Note: to attach assets from your OpenAsset DAM (ex: projects or employees), to your draft proposal, you'll need to first add those to the "Curated Assets" tab in the pursuit.
Proposal Studio integrates with the OpenAsset Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, allowing you to attach projects, employees (for clients with the Employee Module), files, and text assets from your Text Library to your draft proposal.
The workflow below details attaching an employee (e.g., Sarah Reed) to a section like "Relevant Experience and Qualifications":
Click the Add Response tab.
Click Add Supporting Assets.
Select the asset class of your choice (e.g., Projects, Files, Employees). For example, to attach an employee, click the Employees button. The employees you previously added to your curated assets tab will appear on the right-hand tab.
Add the assets you want to include (e.g., selecting the employees).
C. Assign to others
When you reach a section that needs input from a teammate — a technical lead, finance contact, or subject matter expert — you can assign it to them directly from Proposal Studio. They'll receive an email with the context they need and a direct link to respond.
To assign a content block:
Hover over the criteria you want to assign
Click Assign
Select a contributor from the dropdown — only users with permission to view or edit this proposal will appear
Optionally, add a note to give them context on what you need
Click Assign and Notify — they'll receive an email with the RFP details, the criteria text, your note, and a link to respond
When the assignee follows the link, they'll land in Proposal Studio with their view filtered to only what's assigned to them. They can toggle to All Criteria at any time to see the full proposal.
Multiple contributors can be assigned to the same content block.
Note: To invite a new user to Shred or change someone's permissions, go to Settings → Team Management. This can't be done from within the assignment flow.
Looking for the shareable link? The option to copy a direct link to a content block has moved to the ⋮ More Options menu on each criteria block.
D. Drag & Drop into InDesign
You have a few options here:
1. Drag & drop files or text from "Curated Assets" tab into InDesign (OpenAsset plugin in InDesign required).
You will see a "drag and drop" handle when hovering over the relevant asset. Click, drag, and drop.
2. You can drag & drop text from Proposal Studio directly into InDesign.
Hover over any content block's drag handle, click and hold, and drop it into an InDesign text frame - your text lands ready to go.
Dropped text automatically inherits the InDesign text styles applied to the destination frame (font, size, weight, spacing, etc.), so it matches your firm's branded templates without manual cleanup.
E. Refine with AI Writing Tools
While drafting, you can use AI Writing Tools to quickly refine content directly within any content block — no need to leave Proposal Studio.
Select text in a content block to access the following actions:
Transform text — Provide custom instructions - adjust tone, voice, perspective, structure, or content in any direction.
Check spelling & grammar
Summarize — condense a long passage into a shorter overview
Convert to bullet points — restructure dense text into a scannable list
Make shorter — tighten the language without losing the meaning
Make longer — expand a brief response with more detail
These tools are designed for quick edits as you draft, helping you shape content to fit the proposal without switching between tools.
F. Export to Word
Once you have completed your responses, you can export the draft to a Microsoft Word document:
Click Export to Word.
Choose whether to include the original questions (criteria points) on the exported document
Click Confirm to download the document.
The exported Word document will include the narrative text and any attached assets.
From here, you can iterate as needed.