Team 2 Week 8 Blog

 

This week our beneficiary discovery focused on A/B testing this week’s MVP and talking with internal problem solvers. We also continued to do some dual-use and outside user research.

 

Key takeaways:

1. Removing data entry redundancy is high priority for making our product viable. The program essentially must be a one stop shop.
2. Current systems really are a “pandora’s box” of spreadsheets. System must be able to centralize all of them.
3. Improved user interface will make teams more likely to input information. Has to be simple and only a few clicks.
4. Would be great if program could output MICON documents such as the cost estimate worksheet

 

1. Cpt. Nick – Kessel Run

• Often times the higher ups care about increased combat capability
• Say that with this saved time manually entering things they can spend that time thinking instead
• Maybe create new metric that allows them to measure their progress better(ex. What percent of METL tasks are at a T rating after these courses)

2. Major Ryan – Battalion XO

• If we created a course catalog, with the ten(or more) most frequently used courses with the info we’ve been putting on the MVPs(cost, location, forms, etc.), made a tool that would generate the CEW from historical data(seems like an important feature to add), and added the ability for them to add more courses, that would help the ODAs a lot.
• It also sounds like the best course for us is to make a simple, easy-to-use form that one of Ryan’s captains can then use to fill in the historical data since we cannot
• Once the app is approved onto NIPR then the app must be added to their portal so that the right people can use it. To find more information about IT specifications for the portal we need to talk to Christian Cordero, the battalion portal manager(already on the engagement tracker) and for more info talk to the guys who work in RJ’s shop.

 

3. Captain John (Ret. USMC)

• Every platoon commander would dream of having a tool like this, because they can click submit and go train. But inevitably, there is some sort of sticking point—division has to get all flu shots, or someone’s mom is sick, or battalion has to meet certain standards of dental health. So much stuff happens in the margin that thinking you can reliably predict farther out than a couple of days is foolish.
• Your MVP will only work if multiple people the slap the table and say “we need this.” The key to success, in my mind, would be if you had a team from colonel to captain that embraced it, and if the next group of dudes that come in adopted it.
• A lot of guys wind up recreating the wheel once they’re in command, and each guy uses the spreadsheet he used when he was a platoon leader. And it’s always under the comment of “Oh man, this is going to be so much easier to use.” I find it very difficult to predict an end to it. On one hand you want innovation and iterative improvements if the system’s not working, but it becomes a pandora’s box of spreadsheets.

 

4. Nelson (Lawyer)

• This could apply in law, but it’s not necessarily for the lawyers themselves. We have an internal team at the firm making sure we’re up to date on continuing ed requirements. Secretaries especially are in charge of this.
• That said, sometimes lawyers get down to the wire and say “let me knock all of these hours quickly,” meaning they go to a conference at the last second.
• People do just google potential conferences, rather than thinking about what specific courses would lead them to improve.

 

5. Captain David (Former ODA Commander and AS3)

• In an ODA, the Captain is only there for 2 years—Warrant Officers are where the continuity is, 6 years. They should be the ones to go through the BFA, ideally. If Warrant is absent in some way, it hurts. The team sergeant also has the knowledge of what’s out there in terms of training, since he’s been in SF for 8 yrs by the time he’s an E8. Information about training gets passed down ancestrealy, not codified.
• HSF group has a “Lessons Learned” guy. After every time we do a major training event off-post, every team leader does a AAR, and “LL guy” is supposed to aggregate these. I didn’t utilize this as a team leader, but once you get to battalion, you realize how important it was.
• Be sure to look at DTT—it’s a mandatory practice, and the official channel for me to submit things up to higher. As a leader, I let me warrant handle it. I didn’t get to involved. When I was in battalion, it became my world. I’d challenge younger team leaders to use DTT now. When I went to staff, I was much much more involved in it, it let me tell what each team is doing, and know what battalion can do for them. Every day I’d go through postings of DTT, and see what was new.

 

6. Sgt Guzman

• Regular problem they run into is ODAs trying to order supplies at the last minute before a course.  It would be great if the app had mechanisms to address this.
• Equipment lists for courses could be sourced from a few places:

• • The vendors often state what equipment is supplied vs what the ODAs need to bring.
  • S3 could run reports of past purchases

• He keeps a log of basic shopping items – such as chem lights – the ODAs request and uses that to forecast purchases over the next six months.

 

7. Chief Officer

• Having the Risk Assessment for a given training is a good idea as it could be reused by each ODA.

• Consider adding the Nearest Medical Facility, its level of care as Accident Plan needs to be part of each training.

• Consider having the Accident Plan as part of the course. Needs to allow for a place for the ODA point of contact while training.

• The METL associated with the training should be listed.
• SOCForwardNWA (Classified system) is an online risk assessment generator tool that publishes the risk assessment to an approved PowerPoint template.  That would be a great model to replicate for training.

 

8. Kati Samerigo

• AWS is a familiar platform for the Army.  Look for the FEDRAMP certification for any cloud technologies/platforms you might want to use.  Level 5 is for unclassified. Level 6 is for classified.
• SOCOM out of Tampa would be the petitioning entity we would need to sponsor internal accreditation of our application.
• Interoperability of systems is not a significant army focus so whether APIs exist for touchstone systems such as DTMS will primarily be a function on whether the civilian version – if it exists – of that software had APIs.

 

9. Chief Matlock (ODA NCO)

• Final evaluation before deployment focuses primarily on Shoot, Move, Medicate, and Communicate. i.e. It does not necessarily tie to all of the METL the team was focused on over the training cycle.
• DTMS is administered and referenced at the battalion level. ODAs will continue to need their own view of the team that is currently accomplished via spreadsheet.
• The sample BFA is for a team that has to completely rebuild and it encompasses all the different ODA specialty types.  No single BFA would be that extensive. (Scheduled follow-up meeting to walk it in detail.)

 

10. Captain Mike – Charlie Company BATXO

• What would be mindblowingly amazing- i click on training portal x, and click on new training. And it populates the training card. It has a box for micon required- if yes,  ability to input everything required for a MICON. If MICON no- then just the format required for training card. That would be fucking epic.
• Not much use to the simple style MVP
• Mike told us all of the information used in the training tracking system they are using in Charlie company