agile, bmnt, business model, corporate innovation, customer development, diux, dod, h4d, hacking for defense, lean, lean launchpad, lean startup, nsa, stanford, steve blank

1. Skynet
Sam Gussman (creative generalist), Alvin Goh (hacker), Olga Musayev (project
development), Kevin Mott (project manager)
Liaisons/Mentors: Steve Behmer, Ryan Blake, Wayne Chen
# Interviewed this week: 12
1 User, 5 Experts, 4 Engineers, 2 Business Leaders
# interviewed total: 70
Developing autonomous drones for
situational awareness.
Helping prevent battlefield fatalities by
pinpointing friendly and enemy positions.

2. Customer Discovery
Hypotheses Results Actions
DARPA is a potential
partner
Interviews,
research, talking to
experts
Partially validated. DARPA is interested in our
project in that it relates to ATAK, and they
were very excited about us the first time we
talked to them. They became less excited
during the second conversation, and they
might want us to check off their “wishlist” for
ATAK development.
Keep working together, but stay
independent.
Find out their priorities and
motivations.
Find out what they can give us and
what we can give them.
Border patrol is a
potential beneficiary for
the product as we
currently envision it
Interview with JTF-N
planning Officer.
Interview planned
with 3-5 BP station
chiefs in JTF-N AO
Partially validated. Border Patrol wanted
facial recognition, but we don’t understand
why (do they have a database of of faces?).
Investigate the motivation for facial
recognition. Is border traffic primarily
smuggling or alien activity?
Person recognition is
doable
Interview, research Validated. Multiple experts have said it’s
doable. However, we don’t have a training set
for aerial drone feed, and we’re not sure we
can replicate results with front-view imagery.
Try to find aerial dataset. Keep working
on finding a computer vision expert.
Experiments

4. Mission Achievement
Organization Beneficiary Mission Achievement
SOCOM Tactical operators Increase awareness of surroundings with minimal operator input.
PMs Get the right equipment to troops at a reasonable cost.
DARPA ATAK PM Get ATAK utilized in multiple military organizations, create a plugin
ecosystem to add value over time
TAK sUAS plugin
team
Fully implemented plugin features
DHS Border Patrol Improved ID and tracking of suspected illegal border crossers
Potential
commercial
partners
Kespry/OceanIT/
motionDSP
Decreased R&D Costs, new revenue streams, relationships with US
Government customers. Improvements to existing technology
Skynet Team Skynet (Us) Awarded SBIR phase 1 & 2 OR Transition to S&T acquisition process (via
SOCOM) or corporate partnership

5. Mission Model Canvas
- Fly autonomously on route
Phase 1: Computer vision:
recognize people, vehicles
- Integration with ATAK
Phase 2: Computer vision:
classify people into friendlies,
enemies, civilians
- Stand alone from ATAK
- Augmented Reality
- SOF (green beret, ranger,
SEALS)
- SOCOM, RRTO, CTTSO,
JCTD, CTO
- ATAK Program
-Kespry, OceanIT,
motionDSP
-Stanford Computer Vision
Lab
- Programmable drone
manufacturers (eg: Solo)
-DARPA
- Increase situational
awareness of potential
threats and collateral
damage
- Provide low-cost method of
reconnaissance
- New contracts and revenue
streams
- Opportunities for tech
development
-Added value to current
program/technology
- Low-cost detection of
movement and people at
border
- Increase ability to respond
to sensors
-Job, mission, meaningful
work
- Fulfill S&T Topic of Interest requirements
- Establish and meet Key Performance Parameters (KPPs)
- Discover what’s possible under SBIR OSD-162-003X
- Achieve 80% accuracy rate on detecting people, with few false positives
- Fulfill the DARPA wish list of technical features
- Improved identification and tracking of suspected illegal border crossers.
Get awareness w/ demo
days, technical experiment.
conferences, etc.
-S&T UAV Topic of Area--
submit white paper
-SBIR Phase 1 Grant
“How to” youtube videos,
customer support
-Exchange expertise and
collaborate
Fixed:
- Equipment - drones, development toolkits
- Software design & engineering
Variable:
- Costs of maintenance, updates, and training
-Demonstrate utility + low-
cost- gain support from senior
personnel
-Show opportunities for new
revenue streams
-Add utility to current program
of record to increase adoption
-Start a company that can pay
a salary
Beneficiaries
Mission AchievementMission Budget/Costs
Buy-In/Support
Deployment
Value PropositionKey Activities
Key Resources
Key Partners
- Programmable Drone
- Computer vision SDK
- ATAK API + source code
__= New
SOCOM
- Tactical operators - SOF
(SF, Ranger, SEALS,
MARSOC/Recon, drone
operators)
- SOCOM PMs- Small UAV
S&T PM, Acquisition PM,
Kespry, OceanIT,
motionDSP, Stanford CV
lab, drone manufacturers
DARPA
Tactical Technology Office-
Persistent Air Support
Project
ATAK Program Manager
DHS
Border Patrol
Skynet

6. Next Week
New Hypotheses Actions
DARPA can be a useful partner Interviews,
research
Flesh out DARPA as a beneficiary. Find out their motivations,
positions in organization, mission, goals, abilities and
resources. Create Get-Keep-Grow diagram.
Find out what they can offer us and what they want
from us.
Border patrol can be a potential
beneficiary.
Interview with
3-5 Border
Patrol Station
Chiefs
1) Flesh out Border patrol as a beneficiary. Find out their
motivations, positions in organization, mission, goals, abilities
and resources. Create Get-Keep-Grow diagram.
2) Investigate the motivation for facial recognition. Is border
traffic primarily smuggling or alien activity?
Explore potential partnerships
with commercial companies.
Meetings Meet with Kespry, MotionDSP, Stanford Computer Vision Lab
Pictures of a frontal perspective is
a good approximation of aerial
perspective
Interview,
research
Partially validation through ‘opinions’ from experts, need to
train a basic model and test it on frames taken from a drone
video.
Experiments

7. MVP 1.0
https://youtu.be/V1I8rcmAJus

8. Get/Keep/Grow Diagram
Awareness
S&TorSBIR
acquisition
Joint
Programof
Record
Up-sell
Unbundling
Adoptionby
otherAgencies
Keep Customers

9. Get / Keep / Grow – SOCOM
Get
Strategy: Awareness, Excitement, Pressure on Management, Acquisition through
S&T or SBIR process
Tactics: Demo days, industry days, company nights, technical experimentation
events, yearly conference, quarterly exercises, cold calling, referrals by network,
hackathons, focus on Tier 1 Units (e.g. JSOC) and echelon 1 PMs
- Both operators and PMs
Keep
Strategy: training, support, iterate. Support phone number, support email, Field
Service Representative
Tactics: Maintenance program & warranty, quality customer support, youtube
training videos “How to do X in 5 mins”
Grow
Strategy: Get adopted by other agencies, upsell, develop dual use
Tactics: Unbundle from ATAK, develop new interfaces (AR), upgrade to object
classification, partner w/ traditional vendors and manufacturers, become joint
program of record, work with CTTO, RTTO and other agencies.

10. Get / Keep / Grow – Border Patrol
(SWAG)
Get
Strategy: Ethos, Excitement
Tactics: Utilize preexisting SOCOM contracts to build ethos, Demo / industry
day, quarterly exercises
Keep
Strategy: Become program of record, training and support
Tactics: Take steps to become program of record, maintenance program &
warranty, quality customer support, youtube training videos “How to do X in 5
mins”
Grow
Strategy: Get adopted by other agencies, upsell, develop dual use
Tactics: Unbundle from ATAK, develop new interfaces (AR), upgrade to
object classification, partner w/ traditional vendors and manufacturers, become
joint program of record, work with CTTO, RTTO and other agencies,

11. SkyNet: Value Proposition Canvas
- Image recognition software
applied on video feed
- Aerial perspective
- Hi-def camera
- Flexible deployment
Monitor the border
and respond to
emergencies, aliens
and complaints
Customer
Jobs
- border area is too large,
unable to ensure full coverage
- Impossible to look at the whole
border 24/7
- Limited aerial assets
Border Patrol
Gains
Pains
Gain
Creators
Pain
Relievers
- Survey more area without needing
more men
- Increased awareness when
entering situations
- utilize low-cost drone swarm
to increase border coverage
- distributed autonomous
drones ensure high refresh rate
across the whole border
Products
& Services
Drone with visual
recognition software

12. SkyNet: Value Proposition Canvas
- Knowing the locations of
friends/enemies/civilians
- Reduced ambiguity
- autonomous assessment of
aerial perspectives and video
feed Customer
Jobs
Shoot bad
guys without
getting shot
- Cognitive overload from
existing tools
-Manpower losses
- Hassle of systems not
communicating
SOF Elements (combat)
Gains
Pains
Gain
Creators
Pain
Relievers
-Increased situational awareness on
the battlefield
- Reconnaissance of
inaccessible places
- Integrate with current systems
that soldiers are familiar with
- Frees up another soldier
Products
& Services
Situationally aware
drone with visual
interface

13. SkyNet: Value Proposition Canvas
- Automatic patrol
- Facial Recognition of people
identified in vicinity
- Automatic threat detection to
flag security threats
Customer
Jobs
Force protection
Day-to-day security patrols
are manpower intensive
Difficult to be always aware of
surroundings
SOF Elements (non-combat)
Gains
Pains
Gain
Creators
Pain
Relievers
- Reliable 24/7 Security Awareness
- Knowing who lives around you, and
who doesn’t
- Ability to respond quickly
to threats
- Swarms of drones can
replace patrol units
-24/7 situation awareness of
surroundings
Products
& Services
Situationally aware
autonomous drones

14. SkyNet: Value Proposition Canvas
- Access into SOCOM
acquisitions
- building company’s presence
in military
Customer
Jobs
Make more money
Build customer
relationships
- Difficult to get large
contracts, technology still
maturing, only have limited
consumer market share
Commercial Partners
Gains
Pains
Gain
Creators
Pain
Relievers
-New revenue stream
-Potential long term partnership
- Contracts with military, willing
and eager to adopt new
technology (early adopters)
even if tech is not fully matured
Products
& Services
Partnership /
contract

15. SkyNet: Value Proposition Canvas
- Integrating drone camera feed
enhanced with image
recognition
- augmenting ATAK interface
with image processing Customer
Jobs
Manage ATAK
System under
cost
- Proprietary technology
that does not talk to other
tech
- low adoption rate, ‘fancy new toy’
that’s not used much
ATAK Project Manager
Gains
Pains
Gain
Creators
Pain
Relievers
-Increased value to ATAK program
- Easy integration with ATAK
- Promote culture of open-
source
- improving receptiveness to
ATAK
Products
& Services
Autonomous drone
with live video feed
integrated with ATAK

16. SkyNet: Value Proposition Canvas
-Image recognition software
first of its kind in the military
- tool could potentially be
applied across platforms (as a
software plugin) Customer
Jobs
Manage Programs
Fill gaps
- Tech is new and recognition
of potential enemy may trigger
blowback
- new technology always too expensive,
sometimes they don’t get used after
purchasing
SOCOM Small UAS PM
Gains
Pains
Gain
Creators
Pain
Relievers
- Provides new tool that existing
programs don’t provide
- Potential to scale
-Retain man-in-the-loop, test
software during training
stateside and slowly scale to
overseas.
- Maintain low costs by utilizing
COTS, consistently engage
user feedback at all stages of
development.
Products
& Services
COTS Drone with
visual recognition
software