Why might the Defense Innovation Network (DIN) matter, what might its purpose be, and how might it fulfill that mission? 

On February 10–11, 2016, the National Security Technology Accelerator (NSTA) and a select group of collaborators gathered at The Think Wrong Lab in Half Moon Bay, CA, for the DIN Blitz. 

The Blitz was an intense and immersive effort to
explore and articulate the vision, purpose, and target operating model for the Defense Innovation Network.

Our goal

Develop a portfolio of small bets that the NSTA might act on immediately to accelerate the development of a highly effective and productive Defense Innovation Network.

Our objectives

• Align the interests, purpose, and ways of working of the DIN’s key constituents.
• Explore how the Navy’s Athena Project might provide a foundation for a Defense-wide innovation network.
• Generate compelling options for the DIN vision, purpose, and ways of working.
• Generate compelling options describing who the DIN is.
• Generate compelling options for what the DIN produces.
• Generate compelling options for how the DIN might work (a target operating model). 

We used drills from across six Think Wrong Practices to generate a portfolio of small bets that address our challenge and realize our opportunity.

Framer-in-Chief
Deflection Point
Moonshot
Million Man March
So That...
Eulogy
8-Word Impact
Challenge Challenge
 

That’s Odd
3x3x3

Loathe to Love
Brand Takeover
Random Word

Draw It
Biz in a Box

 

Truth + Truth
I’m a Tool
Matters Most
Moments that Matter
Dog in a Hat
Love & Loathe
When
Waypoints

Exploring the DIN Vision, Purpose, and Model

The Blitz produced compelling options for the impact the DIN might have, why it should exist, how it might work, and why people might join.

We explored who matters most to the DIN’s success. 

We selected the four most important archetype DIN members from among dozens of potential members. Each Blitz Team became an advocate for one of the four archetypes so their point of view, needs, and voice might be in the room as we conceived of the DIN.

Team 1:
Funders

Team 2:
Believers

Team 3:
War Fighters

Team 4:
Intrapreneurs

We developed a portfolio of options for describing the impact the DIN might have. 

We used “Moonshot” and “Eulogy”—Be Bold drills—to inspire many different expressions of the impact that the DIN might have. The most compelling options were selected through dot voting. 

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

Team 4

DIN drives a free-market China.

DIN turns the DoD into a service.

DIN creates a unclass(y) world.

DIN leads the formation of Milicon Valley (Valley 2.0).

DIN inspires sweeping culture change in Defense.

DIN delivers concept to system deployment in two months.

DIN enables flexible deployment; DoD = Deploy on Demand.

DIN cuts military cost in half with twice the capacity in 18 months

Service in the DoD becomes the most desirable job of every Harvard/Stanford/Princeton/MIT graduate.

DoD School of Innovation

We can keep the good guys in charge.

We can save lives.

We can preserve freedom.

We can attract and retain the best.

We can confront the greatest challenges.

The U.S. can lead a model the world wants to follow.

We can lead a Second American Revolution.

We can create a network that will be emulated by governments and companies around the world.

We can offer members a purpose higher than money.

We can create agility for the DoD, DIN members, and warfighters everywhere.

We can create relationships that transcend the DIN.

We can transform the relationship between the DoD and Congress.

We can eliminate incentives to fight the U.S.

We can help the DoD deliver technologies that drive the economy for years.

We can keep the U.S. safe.

We can make it futile to threaten the U.S. and her allies.

We can advance the U.S. technology dominance.

We can raise the intellectual bar for America.

We created a wide range of options for how we might communicate the DIN’s reason for existing. 

We used “8-Word Impact”—a Be Bold drill—to generate purpose statements for the DIN. The most compelling options were selected through dot voting. 

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

Team 4

To lubricate the defense community.

To respond to an uncertain future.

To foment freaks, geeks, and weirdos to save the world.

To overcome convention to create exponential innovation.

To unite dreamers and create the future.

To defend the U.S. by disrupting threats to global prosperity.

To open the DoD innovation doors to all companies and military members.

To transform military research and development to change the world.

To leverage the global tech base to eliminate armed conflict.

To catalyze innovative talent networks to solve U.S. challenges.

To catalyze talent networks to spark high-impact solutions.

To excite talented citizens to disrupt ourselves first.

To unlock hidden genius to effect change.

We explored operating models and why people might join the DIN.

We used “Draw It” and “In a Box”—Make Stuff drills—to explore how the DIN might engage members and operate.

We identified and prioritized big questions that might drive the development of the DIN.

The DIN is charting new territory—attempting to build an innovation network that spans all branches of the military—on the foundation of past successes within individual branches.

We used “Waypoints”—a Move Fast drill—to surface the most important questions that we should be considering to discover what it will take to stand up and operate a successful Defense Innovation Network. 

Week 2

Key Partners

Execution Feasibility
What might be the advantages of partnerships?

Key Activities

Execution Feasibility
How might the DIN filter bad actors out?
How might the DIN reach interested people?

Economic Viability
What might be in it for members?

Key Resources

Execution Feasibility
What might be the legal obstacles?

Economic Viability
What resources might we steal/beg/borrow?

Value Proposition

Execution Feasibility
What might set us apart?
What measures of effectiveness might help keep the DIN going?

Economic Viability
How might a bottom-up approach affect funding?

Member Relationships

Economic Viability
Why might members trust us?
Why might members invest time with us?

Channels

Economic Viability
How might we get visibility outside of the DoD?

Member Segments

Execution Feasibility
How might we market the DIN?

Cost Structure

Execution Feasibility
What might be the best allocation of money?

Revenue Streams

Economic Viability
Who might pay and how?

Week 3

Key Partners

Execution Feasibility
When might the right people be available?

Key Activities

Execution Feasibility
How might we “filter” needs?
How might we integrate government decision makers?

Key Resources

Execution Feasibility
How might we link or own?

Member Relationships

Member Desirability
How did you build your network(s)?

Member Segments

Execution Feasibility
How might we best support our different members?

Revenue Streams

Execution Feasibility
What might we do differently than other efforts that have failed?

Week 4

Key Activities

Execution Feasibility
How might we prioritize needs across member segments?

Economic Viability
How might we define baseline expectations?

Key Resources

Execution Feasibility
How might we become/stay familiar with current technologic memes?

Economic Viability
Should the DIN be funded at all?
How might the DIN be staffed? Any 1102s?

Value Proposition

Economic Viability
Who might curate?

Member Relationships

Member Desirability
From where might you source a problem?
Military DoD labs? Private companies? Startups?

Channels

Member Desirability
How might we most effectively communicate internally?
How might we most effectively communicate externally?

Economic Viability
What existing mechanisms in the DoD might we leverage? SBIR?

Revenue Streams

Execution Feasibility
How much money might we need to operate?

Week 5

Key Resources

Member Desirability
How might I use your lab?

Member Relationships

Member Desirability

How might we make it more expensive for the enemy to attack us?
How might we make it less expensive to defend ourselves against the enemy?

Member Segments

Member Desirability
Who might members need to talk to?

Week 6

Key Partners

Execution Feasibility
Who might be the shepherds for the outlaws?
Who might be Yoda?
Who might be the Jedi?

Key Activities

Economic Viability
How might we ensure that there is enough content to make it worthwhile for members to keep participating in the DIN?

Value Proposition

Execution Feasibility
How might we ensure that every day we increase the likelihood that young kids will survive the next war?

Member Relationships

Economic Viability
How might we deliver value—fast?

Channels

Member Desirability
What channels might be most effective?

Member Segments

Execution Feasibility
How might a small company play?

Revenue Streams

Execution Feasibility
What measures of success, beyond revenue, might matter most?

Week 7

Key Partners

Member Desirability
How might I be able to work with my competitors? 

Key Activities

Execution Feasibility
How might we manage ROI?

Economic Viability
How might we acquire members?
Who might do member acquisition?

Key Resources

Member Desirability
How might I decide what people are the right fit?
When might I get paid?
What might be in your lab that I could use?

Member Segments

Economic Viability
What if we dumped 50% of SBIRs into the DIN?

Week 8

Key Activities

Member Desirability
How might I play?
What might be the DIN’s nail (the big point we need to communicate)?

Execution Feasibility
How might I market inside government/outside government?

Key Resources

Member Desirability
What key resources might be required from members?
What key resources might be available to members?

Value Proposition

Economic Viability
What might members and partners be willing to pay for and how much might they be willing to pay for it?

Member Relationships

Economic Viability
Who might be listening to the DIN?

Channels

Member Desirability
How might the DIN protect my IP?

Week 9

Key Partners

Execution Feasibility
What might be the DIN’s strategy to stop those who stand in the way?

Week 12

Value Propositions

Economic Viability
How might the DIN outlast the “Innovation” craze? 

Imagining the DIN Operating Model

The Blitz produced valuable insight into essential qualities of the the DIN Operating Model

The Blitz revealed that the DIN will encounter many of the same challenges as traditional startups.

The startup world uses many military metaphors. The skills and concepts the military excels at and teaches its people are the same that are required to make a successful startup:

Competition
Leadership
Strategy & Tactics
Operations
Logistics

The DIN must also possess the same strengths as startups—identifying market fit, acquiring customers, discovering business models, and being ready and able to pivot. 

Competition

Scale and growth 

Leadership

Speed & Agility

There are many existing programs across the DoD promoting innovation. The DIN needs to identify why it’s better suited to succeed where other efforts have not. While competition within the DoD is not the same as in the open market, the DoD still needs to compete for mindshare, funding, and support.

Many startups stumble as they grow. It makes sense for the DIN to start small and learn what’s needed to execute a portfolio of small bets. But the DIN needs to have a strategy in place to quickly scale operations and logistics. As Benjamin Franklin said, “If you fail to plan, plan to fail.”

A key asset for any early-stage startup is talent—creative, dedicated, and smart leaders can make the DIN successful. A lack of them will ensure failure. Innovative and intrapreneurial talent exists within the DoD. The DIN will need to be able to call upon this talent to succeed.

The DIN will need to be a fleet-footed, agile group within a large bureaucratic organization to avoid being assimilated. To build a DIN that can deliver sustainable value, it should go through an intense, quick incubation to assess desirability, feasibility, and viability. That way, it can gain a clear understanding of the most compelling needs the DIN addresses, who its beachhead members might be, what it will offer, and how it will operate.

How does the interloper survive and resist the antibodies to change?

As a startup, the DIN will face a multifronted battle—trying to produce innovation inside the massive DoD while fighting off the antibodies that the host organization will send out to minimize risk and disruption.

The DIN must have a strategy for managing the DoD mothership, so it can gain enough freedom to grow while maintaining the support required to sustain itself.

Outlaws

Shepherds & Sheriffs

Sherpas

Provide a den for the Outlaw gang—a safe space in which to innovate.

Enlist Shepherds to protect the Outlaws from the Sheriffs (whose job is to uphold rules and the law) while championing innovation at the top levels of the DoD.

Deploy Sherpas to help the Outlaws navigate and explore new innovation territories.

The DIN can effectively capture the passion, innovation, experience, and skills of some of the best leaders in the world—even those who left the military.

A frothy brew of mediocrity results from a culture that encourages zero defects over risk taking, promotes people regardless of merit, and compels its young, talented people to leave before they can ascend the ranks and influence critical change. Too often the mediocre stay, remain reluctant, and are rewarded for resisting change and shunning risk.

This situation is no different than in many Global 1000 companies. But there is a key difference—when rock-star employees of IBM, Oracle, or Microsoft becomes frustrated by bureaucracy, they can leave, start a company, and get acquired back by their former employer; or they can reapply for jobs at a higher level.

In the military, however, there is only one on-ramp and one off-ramp. Once you’re out, you’re out. You can’t leave an O3, prove your worth on the outside, and return an O6.

The DIN can act as an on-ramp to reengage the most talented veterans and retirees in a mission they are passionate about—while avoiding the innovation-defying bureaucracy of Big Defense.

The DIN—where moonshots are made.

Steve Blank introduced his three horizons of innovation framework—and why it was imperative for the DIN to pursue the third horizon. The DIN can be a place where people are able to move things from how they are to how they might be.

Horizon 1: Process Innovation

Horizon 2: Continuous Innovation

Horizon 3: Disruptive Innovation

Think right to make what you’ve got better.

Use what you’ve got to do something else.

Think wrong to set new trajectories, conceive the inconceivable, and change the game.

Discovering the DIN’s Guiding Principles

The Blitz uncovered guiding principles that might be instrumental to how the DIN operates.

Riff with the players—forget the conductor.

Trying to orchestrate across all the DoD stovepipes might be too complex and too political—shifting the DIN focus from collaboration back to who has command and control. Instead, the DIN will be like a great jazz ensemble, focused on “What’s needed now?” “What’s missing that I can add?” and “What’s going on here that we can make even better together?”

Just like great jazz players, the DIN will improvise and respond to each other, playing on a foundation of mutual trust.

Strategy without culture is like having a cowboy hat but no cows.

Culture was a major, reoccurring theme throughout the Blitz.

“Can the DIN create and maintain a cooperative, mission-focused culture of camaraderie that represents the DoD at its very best—or will it be subsumed by a stovepiped, bureaucratic, hierarchical command-and- control culture?”

“Who will decide who’s in and who’s out—and how will they do so?”

“How will the DIN culture grow stronger as the DIN grows?”

Culture is shaped by shared beliefs, values, and purpose. Just as in the Army or the Navy, everyone can try out to be a Ranger or a SEAL—but not everyone is going to be the right fit or make the cut. To grow a strong culture of collaboration and innovation, the DIN will need to curate the right mix of members—and then provide them with the language, frameworks, tools, and techniques they need to create and execute innovation strategies.

Diversity of participants results in diversity of ideas.

The Blitz brought together a rich mix of participants (active and retired military, veterans, designers, programmers, venture capitalists, executives, scientists, product managers, diplomats, and entrepreneurs) to enrich the soup of problem-solving skills that we could bring to bear against the challenge. This diversity generates solutions that can’t be anticipated, especially in monocultural or monolithic organizations. When we convene people whose problem-solving backgrounds are not native in the challenge space, they see the problem differently and create solutions that happen only with their physical presence in the group.

So what’s that got to do with ketchup?

A study found out that most white Americans store their ketchup in the refrigerator, whereas most black Americans and the British store theirs in the cupboard. The result being that when you run out of ketchup, you reach for juxtaposed condiments as an alternative—mayonnaise in the fridge, malt vinegar in the cupboard . 

Enforcing diversity within a group ensures that the range of possible solutions is as broad as possible. The DIN should strive to broaden the aperture of possibilities, by bringing more “voices into the room”—not only from different branches and ranks of the military (although this is important, too) but also outsiders such as entrepreneurs, artists, designers, teachers, journalists, and hackers, to name but a few.

There’s no such thing as oversharing.

Storytelling is intrinsic to every human culture—it’s how we communicate life’s experiences and solutions to dilemmas.

Stories inspire in ways that data never can. Through the Blitz it became apparent that storytelling is going to be an important part of the DIN’s mission to create a culture of innovation within DoD as a way of recruiting new users and partners, while giving credibility and longevity to the effort.

We organized the outputs that resonated the most to create DIN stories.

A Story of Uncertainty: 
The DIN Overcomes Threats

Why the DIN matters:

We will help the U.S. respond to an uncertain future—defending the U.S. by disrupting threats to global prosperity.

How the DIN will do that:

The DIN will be flexible and balanced in its support of innovation.

What the DIN does:

The DIN will help deliver safety to our nation.

What the DIN believes:

The DIN believes that innovation matters and that innovation is power.

A Story of Openness: 
The DIN Mission Is an Open Mission

Why the DIN matters:

We will unite dreamers to create the future.

We will excite talented citizens to disrupt themselves—before someone else does.

We will help the DoD once again become a place that is valued for its innovation—and that values innovation and innovators.

How the DIN will do that:

The DIN will foment freaks, geeks, and weirdos to save the world.

What the DIN does:

The DIN provides a safe place for DoD insiders and outsiders to gather, connect, and innovate.

What the DIN believes:

The DIN believes in openness and collaboration.

The DIN rally cry;

“Go innovate yourself!”
“Life liberty, & the pursuit of innovation”
“Will innovate for freedom.”
“Innovation Nation”
“I’m a DIN-ner.”
“I’m an innovator and I vote.”

A Story of Leverage:
The DIN Takes Advantage of Existing Resources

Why the DIN matters:

We will leverage the global technology base to eliminate armed conflict.

We will catalyze talent networks to spark high-impact solutions.

We will unlock hidden genius to effect change.

How the DIN will do that:

The DIN fully utilizes existing talent and resources to transform our defensive capabilities and position in the world.

What the DIN does:

The DIN empowers existing DoD talent in ways that are interesting and attractive to the public—to derive maximum value and impact from them.

What the DIN believes:

The DIN believes the U.S. can maintain technological advantage by using all resources.

The DIN rally cry:

“The next unicorn will wear body armor.”
“1 million innovators reporting for duty.”
“Opensource it.”

A Story of Transformation:
The DIN Will Transform the Status Quo

Why the DIN Matters:

The DIN will transform military R&D to transform the world.

How the DIN will do that:

The DIN will help the DoD conquer the status quo, which is holding back needed innovation and change.

What the DIN does:

The DIN provides an environment where members can be more open, let their guard down, and work with a strong community that facilitates success and enables impact to happen faster.

The DIN provides members with the opportunities, relationships, language, frameworks, tools, and techniques required to overcome convention and create exponential innovation.

What the DIN believes:

The DIN believes that trust is built by welcoming unexpected results, embracing continuous learning, and encouraging constant improvement.

The DIN rally cry:

“We are the permafrost melters.”*
“Permission granted.”
“Leadership that listens.”

*The DIN makes it possible to break through the frozen middle of the DoD to remove the resistance that inhibits the upper levels and bottom levels from leading and collaborating on successful innovation.

Each Think Wrong drill produces useful output, which becomes input for subsequent drills. Documentation of our drills provides us with a rich collection of ideas and insights to mine. 

We explored the difference the DIN might make and why it might matter to our four member archetypes.  

We used “Deflection Point”—a Be Bold drill—to take stock of the “predictable path” of DoD innovation; the “bold path” that might lead to our moonshots and reframed challenges; and the forces, trends, and technologies that we might leverage to achieve the aspirations of the DIN while defending it against the powerful forces of the status quo.

Team 1
Funders

The Bold Path
Accountability
Audit rather than regulate
Best value
Punish the bad. Don’t make more rules.
Self-audits
Vetted

Incremental and volume
Deal flow
Hedged
Interactive
Little bet
Minimize unintended consequences
Modular
Option value is valued
Portfolio based

Process
Appropriately flexible
Capitalistically competitive
Fast react

Culture
Integrated
Learning
Mitigate risk
No wall between requirements and money
Nonpolitical
Optimize across sectors
Outcome based
Resilient
Rewarding the right people

Market
Accessible
Civil-military cost sharing
Electronic marketplace
Kickstarter
Leverage external markets
such as NASDAQ
Market driven
Open
ROI
Transparent

Simplify
Accelerated (less process)
Agile
Easy to understand
Efficient
Fund faster and better than ISIL
Learn
Less process
Quick
Simple contracts
Understand length of competitive advantage
Velocity

Team 2
Believers 

The Bold Path
Culture
Air cover for innovation
Evangelism
Everyone wants to be a believer
Exper-ducation
Experiential
Goals, not orders
High-level advocates who get it
Innovation is important and desired
Inspire to be inspired
Mainstream not marginalized
Make everyone participate
Make everyone want to participate
Many-to-many interconnectedness
Pick the Macaws
Recognition to career path
Revolution, not instrumentalism  

Policy
Direct path from bottom to top
Less law, more principles
New defense institute where believer can serve
Next-generation In-Q-tel
Simple implementation path in DoD/Gov
Simple path for civilian/industry innovation into DoD
Spirit

Practice
20% time
Clustering innovation assets
Create the time
Einstein’s “thought experiments”
Removing all admin burden
“Toddler physics experiments” should things always work the same?

Tolerance
Broadly (universally?) accessible
Failure is an option (but you must learn from it)
Grand failures are OK
Risk taking is valued
Safe to try
Try not, do or do not
WWYD
You have permission 

The following trends, technologies, and assets might be leveraged to keep the DIN on the bold path.

Leverage and Defend
3D printing
Acquisition reform
Adversary moves
Angry Americans wanting change
Catastrophe
Crowdsourcing open innovation
Frustrated intraprenuers
Jay Harrison
Surprise
Tech innovation
Tech-savvy military social media communications
Youthful innovation

Leverage and Defend
Clear threats (e.g., ISIS)
Connecting DoD tech and VCs
Convergence of .mil and .com
DDS 18F
DEF
Leadership buy-in
Leverage
People like us
Senior leadership
TANG
U.S. CTO

Let Go

We let go of our orthodoxies. We were inspired by trends, oddities, and things we loathe. We generated hundreds of ideas for the DIN—fast. Then we used the collective wisdom of our teams to choose the most compelling concepts—without letting debate, posturing, or politics slow us down.

Dogs in Hats

“Hey, check out that dog in a hat.” 

2nd American Revolution

Capital not flowing to vets

Cool vs. DoD

DoD Innovation Mecca, “build a school”

Doug’s Veterans Angel Fund

Energy and raw passion of military entrepreneurs

“Frothy Brew of Mediocrity”

How often blowing up the structure came up

JHUAPL has a “Design Thinking” unit

The DIN is bigger than Defense and DoD

Uncle Bob

Underutilized uets

We know that play results in more creativity and greater innovation. We worked hard. And laughed hard. We took our challenge seriously—but not ourselves.

Outlaws and Think Wrong Leaders

We rode beyond the limits of convention—overcoming biology (how our brains work) and culture (how organizations and institutions behave)—to create a portfolio of market-expanding, revenue-growing business ventures for the DIN.

Click on any image to view our Think Wrong Gang.

Gang members not pictured

Daniel Cushing
Originate

Joshua Steinman
Defense Entrepreneurs Forum

Maura Sullivan
Office of the Under Secretary of the Navy for Strategy and Innovation (ATHENA Project)

Roger Hunter
NASA

Todd Cimicata
Navy, Secretary of Defense Corporate Fellow

Zvika Krieger
U.S. Department of State