Through the Harvard Kennedy School’s Technology and Innovation in Government field lab, our student team has been working to help Kessel Run, the U.S. Air Force’s internal software factory, deliver software faster and better.
We’ve spent the semester interviewing Kessel Run and DoD employees to understand how their problems, solutions, and processes have changed as they grew from a small startup handful of individuals to a larger organization of more than 1,200. We started our work by asking questions to current civilian and military employees, branch chiefs, military innovation groups, and the Commander of Kessel Run.
Brainstorming Solutions
Our initial interviews revealed many internal frustrations; including concerns about the hiring process, employee onboarding, technology development, programming practices, the build-it-yourself culture, and client acceptance. We spent weeks brainstorming simple and large, easy and impossible, and proven and unique solutions to each problem statement we heard.
In the end, we compiled all of our thoughts into a research document that outlined each pain-point and proposed several solutions found through academic and market research.
Table of contents from our research document - an overview of every topic we researched
We used this document to guide numerous conversations with Kessel Run Commander, Colonel Enrique Oti and Lieutenant Colonel Aaron Capizzi, iterating until we ultimately focused on two points: onboarding and continued employee training.
After narrowing in on these focus areas, we agreed on four major ideas:
“Hack the Air Force” - Create an annual, one-week Kessel-Run wide hackathon where cross-branch Kessel Run teams work towards innovative solutions for some of the most challenging problems within the U.S. Air Force.
Overhaul Employee Onboarding. Make the onboarding content branch-specific, onboard new employees in cohorts, and simplify and condense the onboarding training program.
Formalize Continued Training Opportunities. Centralize and publicize all of Kessel Run’s continued training opportunities for employees by providing access to Coursera and Pivotal licenses, encouraging externships, and supplying “lunch-and-learn” sessions.
Train the Enabler. Create a formalized training process for Kessel Run “enablers”, which are employees that on-boardees shadow.
Since narrowing to these four ideas, we’ve spent the past two weeks prototyping low-fidelity versions, and then quickly iterating on them as we receive feedback from Kessel Run employees across branches and positions. Below is an example of a low-fidelity prototype for how Kessel Run might change their onboarding structure.
Example of an onboarding prototype
By walking through this example with employees across branches, we have been able to make critical changes to the proposed onboarding content, timeline, and structure. Over the next few weeks we will continue to iterate and test each of our prototypes in order to ensure that our final products are not only usable, but address a few of the key challenges that Kessel Run is facing.
If you want to learn more, or have thoughts on our project, please contact us at innovategov.kesselrun@gmail.com.
Meet the Team
Lauren Lombardo is a first-year master in public policy student at Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Daniel (Danny) Ragheb is a senior at Harvard College studying neurobiology, government, and psychology.
Kyle Witzigman is a first-year master in public policy student at Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Carra Wu is a junior at Harvard College studying math, computer science, and economics.