Team RIJD
Team RIJD
Naval Postgraduate School
Strengthening Ranger Preparedness for Enhanced Combat Readiness
The Team
Capt Ryan Koester
• Air Force Contracting Officer
• MS in Defense Contract Management, Naval Postgraduate School
• BS in Website Development, University of Phoenix
Capt Indigo Blakely
• Air Force Contracting Officer
• MS in Defense Contract Management, Naval Postgraduate School
• BS in Social Sciences, United States Air Force Academy
1Lt Davin Johnson
• Air Force Contracting Officer
• MS in Defense Contract Management, Naval Postgraduate School
• BS in Business Finance, Louisiana Tech University
Capt James Blankenship
• Air Force Contracting Officer
• MS in Defense Contract Management, Naval Postgraduate School
• MS in Applied Economics, Auburn University
• BS in Economics, Auburn University
Problem Sponsor
1st Ranger Battalion, Hunter Army Airfield
Original Problem Statement
1st Ranger Battalion needs a way to streamline pre-deployment task checklists in order to more quickly and accurately fulfill duties.
Beneficiary Discovery Interviews
36
The Innovation
Army Rangers are a highly trained mobile reaction force expected to rapidly deploy within a matter of hours of notification. Currently, when tasked to deploy, Rangers must follow a pre-deployment checklist managed through Microsoft Excel that is difficult to use. With limited time to complete the tasks there are many opportunities for human error, especially with timing, which could have larger implications to the critical missions carried out by the Rangers. Team RIJD came together in hopes of helping the Rangers streamline their pre-deployment tasks while limiting risk to mission and increasing combat readiness.
Unlike most Hacking for Defense (H4D) students, who have limited to no experience in the Department of Defense (DOD), Team RIJD was made up of four active-duty Air Force Contracting Officers currently attending Naval Postgraduate School (NPS): Capt Ryan Koester, Capt Indigo Blakely, Capt James Blakenship, and 1Lt Davin Johnson. From their first initials was born Team RIJD. They were also pursuing graduate degrees in defense management, so they were immersed in coursework providing deep understanding of the DOD’s complex acquisition and management processes.
All four team members have either deployed or have been involved in the deployment process; however, they quickly learned rapid deployment was a whole new level of deployment. At first, the team interpreted the issue as the Rangers not being able to meet their deployment window timeline. Following more interviews , the team discovered the true problem was how painful the pre-deployment process was, with excessive meetings being the biggest pain point. In the current process, there were four or five meetings where the deploying Rangers would have to drop what they were doing, drive to another location for the meeting, and then resume the task they were working on prior to the meetings. Davin explained the issue was not “how do we get them out the door” and instead “how do we get them out the door smoothly.” Although meetings were a large part of the issue, the team recognized meetings were also partially cultural, and something that would take time to change. For this reason, they focused their efforts on developing a minimum viable product (MVP) that was both organizationally viable and conducive for long-term use.
The H4D instructor informed the team that having multiple different MVP “flavors” was part of the early stages of the H4D process, but the most fitting MVP would be determined at the beginning of the course that they narrowed down to one MVP as they conducted beneficiary discovery. The professor explained that the team wanted to provide the Rangers with “something tangible” that could also address some of the challenges within the organizational structure. The team landed on a subset of one of their four MVPs after evaluating a series of hypotheses. Davin described their MVP as a “two-legged approach” that provided a tailored Excel checklist and streamlined communication using Microsoft Teams. The new checklist allowed the Rangers to populate data easily and incorporated automation features, such as data visualization, time zone validation, and time estimates for tasks. The team pushed the use of collaborative features within Microsoft Teams that would allow the Rangers to push updates from where they were, rather than traveling to and from meetings.
The problem sponsor was amazed with the solution, and told the team they had “knocked it out of the park and it was going to see real world use.” After seeing Team RIJD’s demonstration video, they were blown away with how much could be automated within Microsoft Excel. By creating a streamlined, automated and user-friendly solution, Team RIJD hopes the 1st Ranger Battalion and other rapidly deployable units across the military will deploy more efficiently with less potential for error.
Team RIJD’s Hacking for Defense Experience
Both Ryan and James shared the H4D course afforded them a unique opportunity to tackle real-world problems and apply critical thinking. Davin described the class as a “problem diagnosing as opposed to a symptom treatment class.” For Indigo, who has participated in process improvement boards that discuss innovation, she liked that the course provided an “actual methodology for pursuing an innovative solution.” She discovered, “A solution doesn’t have to be some big revolutionary thing that you come up with; a lot of times it’s just pointing people to resources and validating their problem for them.”
Between all four team members they had over 30 years of experience in the Air Force and defense contracting. The team was excited by the opportunity to use their contracting background paired with their firsthand experience with deployment to help the special operations community. Davin said that his favorite part of the course was “working with a great organization on a really cool mission, and being able to use my Air Force contracting background to help people with their ‘boots on the ground.’” For Ryan, he was attracted to the problem because his father was Air Force special operations. He felt this experience “would help give [him] more in-depth knowledge from a different perspective” about special operations. By the end of the course, the team had become personally invested in the course. Davin expressed that “solving the problem became more about solving the problem for the Rangers rather than for a grade.”
When reflecting back on the course, the team discussed their experience learning the H4D methodology. Describing the beneficiary discovery process, James realized that nobody in the organization, not even the problem sponsor, had a complete understanding of the problem. According to James, “A full understanding of the problem is like a big puzzle, and you realize that each person you’re talking to has five pieces of that puzzle and it’s your job to amalgamate those into a clear picture of what’s going on.” Ryan described how the team’s understanding of each category of the Mission Model Canvas (MMC) evolved each week between interviews, team discussions and class lessons, which caused them to readdress each category resulting in a “polished product” by the end of the course. Indigo equated learning H4 methodology and terminology “to language immersion with a very steep learning curve.” At first you might think “what did I get myself into” as the teacher speaks another language at you, “but by the end of the class you’re able to hopefully understand and provide some basic responses back to your teacher, if not become more fluent in the language.”
Following their time at NPS, the team members will continue on with their Air Force contracting careers. For Ryan and Davin, they will likely head to a systems base where they will conduct big Air Force government contracting. With their promotion to Major on the horizon, James and Indigo will likely be sent to a staff position and be considered for command potential. No matter their career path, their H4D experience will remind them that they need multiple perspectives to fully understand the challenges they will encounter, and their experience creating a successful solution will motivate these officers to seek out those diverse views.