Phase II of Air Force Innovation: Get Tactical
If you have an idea to solve a problem, pursue it. But don’t forget that executing innovative ideas is a team sport. If you want to see your solution become a reality, you’ll need a core team of peers, and the support of leadership.
Although your solution likely go through multiple revisions over time, the absolutely best way to test your ideas is to put them into action and measuring how it goes.
As part of the Four Phases of Air Force Innovation, you will need to assemble a core team to support the proper execution. Additionally, you will need to work to gain leadership buy-in for your ideas.
This could be as simple as regular briefings to leadership or inviting them to your innovation meetings.
Building your team starts with knowing who your solution will impact.
Mapping your Stakeholders
Every problem and solution impacts various stakeholders. Without their support, the most innovative ideas will go nowhere. How do you reach these stakeholders? It starts with knowing who they are and understanding their point of view. For every stakeholder, consider these five characteristics:
- Who are they?
- What do they do?
- What are their driving philosophies?
- What are their behaviors?
- What are their motivations/needs/goals?
Before you try to implement or even present any solution, the best move you can make is to tailor your solution based on the needs of the stakeholders. Making small tweaks now is preferable to making multiple changes later.
Involve Key Parties
We’ve found that successful innovation projects within the Air Force include the five following factors.
Keeping in mind the intrapreneur, enabling agencies like public affairs and contracting, leadership, solution providers and funding are essential to keeping a project going.
Develop an Innovative Acquisition Strategy
In government, getting things done typically (though not always) requires procurement so understanding how to work with the various offices involved is important for the project’s success.
Involve your Purchasing Official
Only government purchase card holders or contracting officers may purchase things on behalf of the government. So, you will need to work with a purchasing official if you want to buy something.
Procurement
When working with your contracting officer, think on at least two timescales: the near term and long term. Although you should not let the long-term view prevent you from getting started, you should keep in mind the effects of scale.
It is best to start working with the procurement office as soon as possible to ensure that the government is able to take advantage of the proper procurement method at the right time:
- Micro-purchasing
- Simplified Acquisition (FAR Part 13)
- SBIR dual-use program
- Other transaction authorities (OTA)
- Broad Agency Announcements (BAA)
- Commercial Solutions Offering (CSO)
For more information and other innovative acquisition methods, check out the Contracting Cone resource published by Defense Acquisition University.
Involving Finance
As you are considering future phases of scaling your idea, you will need to work closely with your comptroller and FM team to ensure that you can have the right funding source applied to your project.
Involving Legal
During the development phase of your solution, it’s unlikely that you will run into any legal hurdles. However, it’s better to be sure.
Before you waste valuable time and resources, check with the Office of General Counsel (“OGC”) to ensure that you are not in conflict with any applicable law, policies, and regulations.
As you move forward, and scale-up, keeping your legal reps in the loop is essential.
Remember Your Users
Finally, although it may seem obvious, make sure to involve your users. Steve Blank, one of the leading voices on entrepreneurship, has said that the key to startup success is to “Get Out of the Building.”
By that, he means, that successful startups focus on engaging end users and customers early and often. But, don’t always try and pitch your solution; instead, focus on listening to the users and understanding their needs.
On your end-to-end walk of the process you are really seeking to understand two key things
- What does our customer want? (Voice of our customer or VoC)
- What does our process deliver? (Voice of our process or VoP)
Once we understand VoC and VoP, we can understand the delta between the two and set out on developing solutions that provide true value.
Ready to move on to Phase III? See our next blog on how to find the right solutions and show success throughout the Air Force Innovation Process.
Check out our Innovation Handbook for more in-depth information on how to innovate in your organization.
