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Team 2 Week 4 Blog

Team 2 Week 4 Blog

This week our beneficiary discovery focused on testing our new prototype, which developed significantly from last week.

Summary of Key Insights and Trends:

We are on the right track with the MVP
Negatives: implementation needs to be consistent across group in order for this to work, this could add more time, B track with input from all members of the team would be redundant, need more flexibility in options (perhaps an “other” category)
Positives: User interface was good, dropdown menus helpful, a one stop tool would improve longevity and organization of records, would give you costs quickly.

Feedback on this week’s prototype: “This would be a really useful tool.”
His ODA teams created their training plans in a team meeting in which they all sit in front of Excel.
The base level questions the team asks as they plan for the next deployment:
- What capabilities will be needed?
- What equipment will be needed?
- Who will be on the team?

The mockup is very user friendly! Push notifications are good and save time (2-3 out of 5. It doesn’t make things worse, but isn’t revolutionary for ODA commanders)
A huge bonus is that it builds information collection into the system, and will address the problem of longevity
The best aspect is that you can compare to previous years– you now have a system of record that will last as guys rotate out.
Perhaps this can then plug into the ATN (Army Training Network) or ATRRS (Army Training Resources and Requirement System)

18-series team members would ABSOLUTELY BE WILLING to do extra paperwork if it helps the next team, and if it can be used to argue for more training.
Everyone on the team besides the 18A is a subject matter expert, and what they say is the 18A’s best estimate of what is needed.
(As an 18D) We had such little paperwork that I can’t even remember it. It would be burdensome to now have way more.
Every discipline has a list of 3-5 things that every team member needs to be able to do without supervision. If we know that everyone has their top-5 things, and everyone performs these 2 standards with no supervision, we’re ready. Example: w/in medical, it’s Airway, IV, tourniquet. Perhaps that can be applied in the record keeping to help better determine the $x = Y readiness equation.

The budget part is easy to use, and gives you your overall costs quickly
It would be really easy for this to be the first part of the process– the Army would then require you to follow up with a threat assessment
Dropdowns save lots of time

Ammunition offers a number of both upfront and backend opportunities for forecasting and trend analysis.
Forecasting weapons maintenance could be a win for the ODAs.
Providing the ODAs a course catalog as well as Amazon style ratings could be a win for the ODAs.

Getting any type of software approved for SIPR is an extensive, time intensive process.
Program will be most useful if done in Microsoft Sharepoint or html, as the military is most familiar with those

If you choose to go through with an app, military does use generic cell phones which they integrate into military software. This would be difficult to get approved, like Christian said.
ODAs use same hardware on base and in the field

MVP is useful if its integrated at battalion AND group, if the systems don’t talk it becomes extra work
Thinks that we should add an “other” slot to allow the team to add expenses unique to a particular mission or training event
Prefers the A track- making the whole team give direct input would be redundant and more work

While IT/Security will be a concern in the near future, nothing about our current MVP locks us into an architectural direction that cannot be accommodated by the Special Forces IT infrastructure.
Initially focusing on the ODA experience (Product-Market fit) over the other beneficiaries makes sense from a prioritization standpoint.

Team 2