U.S. Department of Defense: Assessing Tech to Save Lives
This is a story about a GV style design sprint. If you’ve never heard of that, you can learn more here or read the book.
BMNT is a unique organization. We work with national security organizations to help them solve problems faster and cheaper. The end result is a safer country, and a safer world.
DIUx, the Pentagon’s flagship effort to collaborate with Silicon Valley, came to us because they had a problem. They were actually too successful in their outreach efforts. And now they had to figure out what to do about all the incoming.
What question did you want to answer in your sprint?
DIUx was overwhelmed with companies and people who wanted to work with them. The result? They weren’t able to keep up with the sheer volume of inbound leads. Now they needed a product to help them. This sprint was supposed to get them the wireframes and spec sheet for an MVP of their solution.
Our question was “How Might We capture, assess, categorize, and follow up with potential partners, experts, and suppliers?”
Who was on the sprint team?
The Decider was Colonel Steve “Bucky” Butow, the Military Lead for DIUx West.
The Designer was Drew Gorham, Head of Product for BMNT.
And I (this is me) played the role of Facilitator.
How did you make your prototype?
We wireframed an iOS application and companion desktop web application. The teams began by sketching UI ideas onto iPhone and desktop stencils provided by uistencils.com. When the sketches were ready, we had designers translate the sketches into wireframes using Sketch.
We loaded the Sketch designs into InVision using Invision Sync to create a “touchable” interactive prototype that automatically updated as we made changes. The teams used these InVision prototypes to film a voiceover demo video using iLos screen recorder.
What did you learn from the test?
Our test on Friday was different than the typical Friday sprint. Friday was our time to present our prototypes and demo videos to senior leadership at DIUx and our folks from the Department of Defense. Our validation came from watching all the nodding heads in the audience while the demo videos played.
The goal was to get their feedback on the wireframes. We needed to make sure the entire organizations had the chance to offer their thoughts about the product that would eventually be built. The feedback — good and bad — let DIUx create a spec sheet and conduct proper user testing.
What’s next for your project?
Bucky and his team have a prioritized list of features for their MVP. They are planning to build the web application and a basic database first, then develop native apps and a more robust backend in 2017.
What worked/didn’t work about the sprint process?
We had a hard time getting everyone to stay engaged throughout the week. Everyone at DIUx is very busy: meeting with companies, hosting VIPs from the east coast, and all the organizational drama associated with standing up a new office. This meant the size of the teams varied from 2 to 6. We had to keep going over certain parts of the sprint when key personnel returned.
Another issue for us was the number of new personnel. Some of the sprint participants had just showed up to DIUx and did really understand the nature of their work. The more experienced people all shared a deep understanding of the problem, though, and sometimes the conversations didn’t flow well. This slowed down the process.
Did you make any modifications to the process?
The sprint participants were divided up into three groups, which all tackled different aspects of the problem. This let them dive deeper than they otherwise would have. The concepts were then integrated on Thursday so they became mutually supporting prototypes.
We also swapped Wednesday with Tuesday. The teams spent Tuesday storyboarding before sketching solutions on Wednesday. This appeared to help people align their thinking, since each of them came to the sprint with very different ideas about what they would build.
Friday was a little different, too. Instead of closing the week with user interviews, we presented the prototypes and demo videos to senior leadership from DIUx and the DoD.
Will your team sprint again?
Our team is constantly sprinting. We run modified sprints for national security organizations at least once per month. We also get the chance to work with some awesome international entrepreneurs out of Stanford. They will be taking the sprint and trying to get 100 people to crank through a product in just 8 hours!
