NSIN at William & Mary

The Details

The National Security Innovation Network and overseas partners sponsor programs at 70 international universities. Previously referred to as Hacking for Defense (H4D) it's more accurately about innovation. It is designed to provide students the opportunity to learn how to work with the Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC) to better address the nation’s emerging threats and security challenges. Unlike current practices in the DoD/IC that can stall and in some cases thwart rapid innovation, this course provides a platform that can develop new policies and prototypes that match DOD/IC users’ needs in weeks. Agencies or Commands in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community may provide follow-on funding to these student teams for further refinement and development of policy and prototypes.

In this class, student teams will tackle a set of problems provided by the DoD/IC community. Although we will assign teams a problem to solve, this class is not a product incubator for a specific technology or policy solution. Instead, it provides teams with a deeper understanding of selected problems and the host of potential policy and technological solutions that might be arrayed against them. Using the Lean LaunchPad Methodology the class focuses on teams to:

Solve extremely complex real-world problems
Rapidly iterate technology solutions while searching for product-market fit
Understand all the stakeholders, deployment issues, costs, resources, and ultimate mission value
Deliver minimum viable products that match customer needs in an extremely short time
Produce a repeatable model that can be used to launch other potential policy and technology solutions

We Work In Teams

The teams will self-organize and establish individual roles on their own. In addition to the instructors and TA, each team will be assigned a mentor (an experienced military member, entrepreneur, or consultant) and a point of contact from the problem sponsor to provide assistance and support.

Enrollment

This is a team-based class and has limited enrollment by application only. Individuals apply to the class independently and, if accepted, will work with the teaching cadre to form a team around a problem.

Student

The minimum cumulative GPA to apply is 3.2. This is a very intense class with a very high workload. We expect you to invest at least 10-15 hours per week.

Attendance & Participation

You cannot miss the first class without prior approval
The startup culture at times can feel brusque and impersonal, but in reality, is focused and oriented to create immediate action in time- and cash-constrained environments.
If during the semester you find you cannot continue to commit the time, immediately notify your team members and teaching team and drop the class.
If you expect to miss a class, please let the TA and your team members know ahead of time via email.
We expect your attention during our presentations and those of your fellow students. If you’re getting bored, tired or inattentive step outside for some air. If you are distracted by other activities, we will ask you to leave the class.
During your classmates’ presentations, you will be required to give feedback. Please be prepared to give your undivided attention to the team at the front of the room.

Deliverables

Meaningful customer discovery requires the development of a minimum viable product (MVP). Your team will present a weekly in-class presentation to show your progress. At the end of the course, your team will conduct an 8-10 minute presentation of the MVP, along with a ~ 2 min video summary for posting as well as a "Pitch Sheet" for the Team's sponsor.

Lean Launchpad

This class is not about how to write a business plan. It is not an incubator where you come to build the “hot idea” that you have in mind. Nor is the result a PowerPoint slide deck for a VC presentation.

This class combines Lean Startup theory with a lot of hands-on practice. Our goal is to give you a framework to test the business model of a startup while creating all of the pressures and demands of the real world in an early-stage start-up. The class is designed to give you the experience of how to work as a team and turn an idea into a solution for a real-world problem facing the Department of Defense and other government agencies.

You will be getting your hands dirty talking to around 10 “customers” a week, which for you will be the military, other government stakeholders, and end users. You’ll encounter the chaos and uncertainty of how a startup works. You’ll practice evidence-based entrepreneurship as you learn how to use a business model to brainstorm each part of a company, and experience customer development as you get out of the classroom to see whether anyone other than you would want/use your product. Finally, based on the customer and market feedback you gathered, you will use agile development to rapidly iterate your product or concept to build/design something customers would buy or adopt and use. Each block will be a new journey of discovery outside the classroom as you test each part of your business model and then share that knowledge with the rest of the class.