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OVERVIEW OF AFWERX Introduction and Structure of This Guide 4How AFWERX was Formed, a Brief History 8Project Highlights and News Articles 14Operations 19Mission Lead 24PART ONE: UNCOVERING IDEAS AND OPPORTUNITIES Spark Tank 36AFWERX Spark 41Virtual Tools 55Major Commands 63Senior Leaders 73PART TWO: CONNECTING WITH REAL OPTIONS AFWERX-DC Innovation Hub 77AFWERX-Vegas Innovation Hub 83AFWERX-Austin Innovation Hub 96AFWERX Challenge 103Tech Accelerators 110SBIR Open Topics, Now Evolved to Air Force Ventures 116Allies 122PART THREE: TRANSITIONING SOLUTIONS Agile Contracting and Acquisition 126 135Coaching and Facilitation 144AFWERX RESPONSE TO COVID-19When Given Lemons, Make Lemonade 148PARTING THOUGHTS The Battle Space of Hearts, Minds, and Ideas 155TABLE OF CONTENTS Empowering Next Generation Innovators and Innovations
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5WELCOME! We created this book to provide insights operations (2018Œ2019): how we began, how we evolved, and what we have learned. We would have with useful views of our innovation culture and structure that have produced results on diverse focus areas, such as: Driving Culture Change Microelectronics New Helmet Technology Leveraging Venture Capital VR & AR for Operations Perimeter Security Advanced Pilot Training Base of the Future When trying to explain AFWERX, we acknowledge that any model is incomplete (by necessity). Indeed, it is the our capabilities. In reality, we are a dynamic system with including Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Adam Smith, and Alexis de Tocquevile. In our most basic conception, AFWERX helps uncover innovation desires (demand) and matches them with innovation creation capabilities (supply) to help create new capabilities. Introduction and Structure of This Guide
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6The diagram on the previous page highlights the general position of the capabilities within our overall AFWERX system. If the labels look a bit cryptic, fear not! They are explained in the chapters ahead. Ultimately, all of our key highlights, lessons learned, and other interesting ideas that we wanted to share, based upon our AFWERX capability leaders™ experiences within their various their own style, with notable variations in length, tone, talent that is within our AFWERX Common Mind. The experiment of AFWERX is many things; uniformity is not one of them.The book is structured in the following way: Following the AFWERX Overview section, the order of the chapters follows the order of our capabilities in diagram; Part One focuses on how we uncover ideas and opportunities to Part Two focuses on how we take those ideas and opportunities and work to assess the opportunity to develop them in preparation for transition; Part Three focuses on how we then support the transition of the prototypes into the USAF for the of this process. It is the hard work of the many USAF team members that execute the transition. Without them, we would not be able to make any impact. Cofounder, AFWERX Introduction and Structure of This Guide
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9 Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. ALBERT EINSTEIN When we innovate, we create alternate realities. Whether an idea advances as a sketch on the back of a napkin, or because a prototype produces new data, the innovation process advances our thoughts, actions, and future options in ways never before known. Each experiment reveals new insights to follow or warnings about what not to follow. The Air Force continued to expand this experimental of the Air Force (VCSAF) in February 2017: Explore what an Industry Storefront and Innovation Organization could look like for the Air Force, similar to what USSOCOM had accomplished with their SOFWERX Innovation Hub.It was this moment when the foundation of AFWERX began to take shape, and it is here in this book where we Lessons Learned & Insights Shared . structure, authorities, and responsibilities, the will become.The raw materials for AFWERX were already being laid into blueprints in the Spring of 2017. They were organizations over the span of approximately four months in 2017 and under VCSAF direction, AFWERX was approved to stand up on July 5, 2017 (internally, we would be publicly announced by Secretary Wilson later that month). There were 11 iterations of AFWERX at the conceptual level, with each incorporating, scaling, and adopting new bits and pieces from many existing innovation focus to one focused on Air Force Innovation at large. Capabilities were connected where it made sense, scaled when appropriate, and established when gaps were This process created the blueprint for AFWERX, which has largely been followed for over two years. While capabilities have been added as new tools and other building blocks have remained in place, and models are merely adapted as new lessons are learned. Our construction story and metaphor also include that, despite having a solid blueprint, one of the earliest lessons learned from the creation of AFWERX was that How AFWERX was Formed, a Brief History
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10the builders tasked to construct the building need well- carpenters, and electricians do not work with masons, you may wind up with a bathroom where the sink drain is in the wrong spot, or where exterior lighting cannot be attached to a brick wall without hampering structural integrity. 2017 as a Coalition of the Willing, similar to how many steering group, with membership from four separate Three other organizationsŠthe Air Force Strategic Development Planning & Experimentation (AF SDPE) US Air Force Warfare Center (USAFWC)Šwere tasked with aiding in the execution of AFWERX, alongside contracted support from the Doolittle Institute and Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation (VT-ARC). This created a model in which roles and responsibilities to being crossed, and no single individual was ensuring that the building blocks were aligned to create a single cohesive foundation that could support a tower of innovation activities. six months to reset this structure with a signed AFWERX Charter that established a single AFWERX Mission collectively sharpened the various AFWERX focus areas, that approach to innovation creation came at a cost most optimal. For example, execution models between Air Force organizations that had been established with handshakes could later go a bit sideways as people left various that work against progress. Less than clear roles and responsibilities caused unnecessary issues between the Failing to do so can set the organization back months as roles and decisions are slowly sorted out while operations proceed. LEARNING FROM OTHERSMany Air Force innovation organizations had already come and gone before us. Past organizations like the Battle Labs and AFRL Tech Connect left valuable lessons learned. Present organizations like the Defense Airmen Powered by Innovation (API), AFRL, the Center for Rapid Innovation (CRI), and AF SDPE were actively pursuing innovation missions for the DOD. Still, other contracted innovation hubs run by intermediaries like SOFWERX, Wright Brothers Institute (WBI), Doolittle working with the Air Force and pursuing Tech Transfer and innovation missions in support of DOD Innovation. These organizations would inform and help shape the organizational construct of AFWERX. Aside from these organizations tackling the innovation mission, something new and exciting was happening with innovative and entrepreneurial members of the Air Force. A few had started grassroots initiatives such as base-level, innovation Spark Cell groups, partnerships with experienced commercial Technology Accelerator businesses, and Airmen competitions geared toward How AFWERX was Formed, a Brief History
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11decision-makers. They were willing to join the fifusion of With all of these existing pieces, creating a single organization to align them all meant that each what the organization would look like. Standing up a new organization with a new mission that cut across all three domainsŠAir, Space, and CyberspaceŠmeant that very beginning. Nothing happens overnight. Although it may sound paradoxical, Caesar Augustus™s advice of fiMake haste, ourselves) while executing the AFWERX mission.PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS Great for Building Trust, Poor for Execution Models new place, with new people, or tackling a new problem, vacation, only talking to friends at social gatherings, or trying to solve new problems using the ways we have solved other problems in the past. While you can argue that this is often a great way to begin, there comes a time when you start to understand that to truly drive changeŠin your personal life, your relationships, or your experiencesŠwhat seems comfortable and easy may not When AFWERX was launched, it was truly a Coalition of the Willing. No one had any experience establishing an innovation organization hoping to drive change for innovation coalition was simply a handful of individuals, with unique experiences, relationships, and desires, all working towards a common goal. We had no budget of our own, no contract vehicles of our own, no people of our own, and we were thrust into a space where many others had tried and failed. actions leveraged personal relationships. The reality we faced was simpleŠindividually we may have proven ourselves capable of handling minor league challenges well, however when collectively called upon as a group lack of collective experience with producing results left many with reasons to think that we were little more than rookies. Our training was questioned, our ability to play well with others was untested, and while one player may be trusted by some, others were unknown. We were all in a new place and we gravitated to who and what we knew. We found the people we played ball with in collegeŠwho knew us and could speak for us. We used these relationships to earn our teammates™ trust. As you may expect, this is what we worked with for the as the rookies who seemed likely to stick around, and while our personalities may not always have meshed, we were all playing well together. The personal relationships we had brought to the major league allowed us to build trust and had kept the team moving forward. But as we would soon see, this was only half of the challenge. The larger issue was that we had come with nothing of our ownŠno funding, no contracts, no manpower billets. We were the replacements who had been borrowing our teammates™ bats, cleats, and gloves. That approach workedŠuntil it didn™t. How AFWERX was Formed, a Brief History
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