DI 49999 Hacking for Defense

Fall 2021

Instructors: Maha Allouzi and Sarath Chandra Kunda, M.S.

Course Description

Hacking for Defense (H4D) is a course sponsored by the department of defense to rapidly address the nation’s emerging threats and security challenges. H4D is a cross disciplinary project-based capstone course that collaboratively focuses on a single grand challenge.

Hacking for Defense uses the same teaching methodology proven successful in Lean LaunchPad and I-Corps classes taught at universities across the country. The difference in this class is that instead of teams working on their own ideas for a company, they address critical problems facing the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community.

The problems students work to solve are submitted from problems submitted by various DoD sponsoring organizations.

Course Learning Goals

1. Demonstrate an understanding of and the ability to apply the H4D method, rooted in Lean LaunchPad principles.
2. Develop a strong understanding of the national security and defense domain.
3. Develop and apply all of the following future workforce skills:
   • Complex problem-solving
   • Critical thinking
   • Creativity
   • Collaboration and teamwork
   • Judgment and decision-making
   • Cognitive flexibility
   • Negotiation
   • Building professional networks o Prototyping
4. Develop and apply all of the following research skills:
   • Market research
   • Qualitative interviews
   • Qualitative data analysis
   • “White paper” drafting
   • Implementing a research plan

Instructional Methodology

Experiential Learning: You will be spending a significant amount of time between lectures outside the class talking to stakeholders or ‘customers. Each week, your team will conduct a minimum of ten (10) interviews focused on a specific part of the Mission Model Canvas. This class is a simulation of what startups and innovation is like in the real world: chaos, uncertainty, impossible deadlines in insufficient time, conflicting input, etc.

Course Expectations

This class is not about how to write a business plan. It is not an exercise on how smart you are in a classroom, or how well you use the research library to size markets. And the end-result is not a PowerPoint slide deck for a venture capital presentation or a Y Combinator Demo Day. And it is most definitely not an incubator where you come to build the “hot-idea” that you have in mind.

This class combines Lean Startup theory with a great deal of hands-on practice. Our goal, within the constraints of a classroom and a limited amount of time, is to give you a framework to test your solution hypotheses using a startup model, while creating all of the pressures and demands of the real world in early-stage innovation. The class is designed to give you the experience of how to work and collaborate in a team and turn a creative idea into a solution for a real-world problem challenging a government/public sector agency.  The class is intense – students should expect to spend 15+ hours/week individually on the work.

You will learn how to interview and then will talk directly to government/public sector stakeholders and end users, while you encounter the chaos and uncertainty of how a startup actually works. You’ll practice evidence-based innovation as you learn how to use a business model tool to brainstorm each part of an organization. You’ll practice “customer” development by getting out of the classroom to see whether anyone other than you would want or use your solution. You’ll practice communication skills, presenting your results in class each week. Finally, based on the stakeholder and market feedback you gathered, you will use agile development to rapidly iterate your solution concept to build/design something customers would actually buy and use. Each block will be a new adventure outside the classroom as you test each part of your business model and then share the hard-earned knowledge with the rest of the class. Urgency and “good-enough” decision making will become ingrained.

Course Requirements

Together, you and your team will embark on a journey of discovery – of beneficiaries and “customers” (end-users), of problems (and pivots), and most importantly of yourself. In order to document and assess your discovery, you will prepare rigorously for the weekly class and do the following:  

1. Attend all classes.
2. Watch lecture videos online in full and completed any required reading.
3. Prepare your Mission Model Canvas updates.
4. Speak to at least ten (10) stakeholders, beneficiaries, or end-users.
5. Complete the necessary Value Proposition Canvas(es).
6. Update team blogs with your weekly achievements.
7. Finalize a solution that meets the requirements of your problem sponsor.

Student Assessment

The course’s activities are designed to get you “out of the building” and into real discovery. That effort will show up in your weekly reports. This course is team-based, therefore 85% of your grade will come from your team participation and the team’s progress toward your final project. Your peers will also grade your contribution to your team.

15% - Individual participation in class

This consists of four parts:

1. Quality of the written feedback provided to other students as peer-to-peer comments during class presentations throughout the semester
2. Attendance at every class
3. Timely viewing of ALL course videos and completion of beneficiary discovery interviews (Those who fall behind will be counseled individually concerning commitment to their teams and will develop a plan for closing the gap.)
4. A grade from fellow team members at the end of the course (in the form of a private message sent by each team member to the teaching team assessing the relative participation of other team members’ performance and productivity throughout the semester).

30% - Out-of-the-building progress as measured each week by the quality of weekly blog write-ups and

the mission model canvas updates and presentations. All team members are expected to perform interviews and contribute to the weekly blog entries. All team members must:

1. Update the mission model canvas weekly
2. Identify which team member did which portion of the work
3. Report in detail on what the team did each week
4. Write weekly blog updates. (Each team will create a blog in a dedicated Slack channel.)

25% - The team’s weekly “lessons learned” presentation (See syllabus for weekly content requirement and format.). Team members must:

1. State how many interviews were conducted that week (include on cover slide).
2. Present detail on what the team did that week, including changes to canvas.
3. Follow the assigned topics to be covered each week as outlined in the syllabus. Team members will be called on randomly to present their team’s findings that week

30% - Team final presentation