It takes a teams-of-teams that’s cross functional in nature. In very broad terms, Apple is always the classic example. There’s Steve Wosniak and Steve Jobs. That speaks clearly to the point that there’s technically minded people — the maker, tinkerer, or coder-type person — and then there’s Steve Jobs — the managerial and business functions. The team of folks needs to come together.
More specifically, underneath the Air Force paradigm, the rules and regulations we have to adhere to because you want to do it above board, is “Hey, who is your FMer [financial manager]? Who is your legal rep? Who do you know from CE [cost estimating]? Who do you know from PA [public affairs]? These are all people… you should be looking for because at the end of the day, we have to live within the rules if we want to have the freedom to operate in a sandbox that we all want to.
That was AFWERX’s Tony Perez on the DisruptiveAF podcast, “Growing a community of defense innovators.” He recommends getting these business functions into the process early, because if you wait to engage until your ready to scale an idea, then it’s simply going to take time to get the funds, contracts, legal issues, etc., lined up. One good idea is a discussion with public affairs, which because they are close to the commander and understand his/her intent, you can craft your idea to align with their objectives so it will be hard for them to say “no.”
The context here is the Air Force “spark cells,” where airmen organically create innovation teams which try to solve real military problems — largely starting with a devotion of their own time. This kind of allocation of free time for small projects makes more sense then having a big idea and immediately briefing to senior leaders to get budget. However, as minimally viable products start to prove themselves out and use cases become understood, that leap into scaling must occur and it requires bringing the business functions along as well. It’s best to engage early and ask questions, such as, “When I’m ready to move this along, what will I need to have already done and how can I get you involved?”
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