Research, Development, and Innovation: Why Transition Should be a Key Focus of Your R&D (Part 3)
Emma Benjamin, Consultant II specializing in stakeholder engagement and strategic communications in the public safety and rural broadband domains
Washington, DC
Government science and technology organizations face intense pressure to deliver game-changing research & development (R&D) results to their customers. These results should maximize emerging technology capabilities while demonstrating return on investment (ROI). As described in How to Innovate, not Duplicate (Part 1) and Why Stakeholder Validation is Critical (Part 2), agencies responded to this pressure by creating R&D portfolios that unintentionally lead to duplicative solutions and sacrificing requirements validation with stakeholders for speed. This problem is further exacerbated when transition is not part of the R&D process, resulting in incompatibility, noncompliance, and low adoption rates.
Causes of Transition Challenges: Agencies are often confronted with multiple challenges when transitioning solutions, as transition considerations are frequently secondary in the R&D process. Furthermore, transition challenges are typically attributed to three factors:
A greater focus on functional and outcome-based requirements, often overlooking how outcomes will be realized through transition. Example: Identifying requirements for how long a drone can fly and forgoing how the battery technology can be commercialized.
Establishing transition requirements in a vacuum with low stakeholder perspective. Example: Assuming that the drone battery can be developed by industry at scale without asking industry about their manufacturing capabilities.
Not continually re-evaluating transition requirements to account for changes in policies, regulations, laws, and stakeholder needs. This is especially prevalent with new and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). Example: Developing operating restrictions into drone software without accounting for new Emergency Operating Requests capabilities, which public safety might need to override in an emergency.
Overcoming the Challenge: Overcoming the three challenges outlined above includes preparing ahead of time, leveraging the best and brightest, and constantly re-evaluating to stay ahead of potential roadblocks.
Let’s dive into how to overcome these challenges in more detail:
#1: Build transition into the R&D process. Mature and well-defined R&D processes are critical to delivering intended outcomes and transitioning those outcomes to your stakeholders. Your processes should include policies and standard operating procedures that clearly outline how functional, design, and transition requirements are collected. Furthermore, the processes should include how said requirements should be collected at the onset of the effort, the intervals or triggers for re-evaluating the requirements, and how transition requirements are factored into R&D risk.
#2: Leverage Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Assume that your R&D effort does not account for all perspectives at the onset and that outside input is needed to identify regulations, policies, and user requirements. Specifically, leverage SMEs to stay ahead of outside factors that can influence transition such as drone regulation which has changed to allow public safety greater flexibility. SMEs also bring intimate knowledge of the past trends and connections to stakeholders in the field (end-users). Helpful hint: The table below includes several best practices for working with SMEs.
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Research | Read relevant journals, publications, and articles to identify the most frequent contributors to your field. |
| Travel | Meet your stakeholders where they are; join your boots-on-the-ground stakeholders to test solutions and gain valuable insights to guide your transition activities. |
| Events | At outside events, engage with stakeholders who show interest and passion in your solution and follow up with further opportunities to connect, including invitations to your own hosted events. |
| On-site tours | Invite stakeholders to your facilities to see your research in action. |
| Partnership opportunities | Design R&D projects that require industry or academic input and create unique opportunities for collaboration. |
| Workshops | Host workshops to showcase your R&D and attract relevant subject experts to contribute their insights. |
| Working groups | Establish working groups with outside advisors from academia, other government agencies, and relevant industries to advise your solution design and transition requirements. |
#3: Continually evaluate transition requirements. Emphasize continuous evaluation in your R&D process, specifically when it comes to the ongoing analysis of requirements. Phase gates or milestones serve as key opportunities to conduct a re-evaluation of requirements and often align well with existing R&D schedules. Additionally, embedding stakeholder validation (often a key source of transition requirements) throughout the R&D life cycle is important, as described in Why Stakeholder Validation is Critical (Part 2). Examples include working directly with firefighters to understand how an early prototype of a new glove fits and functions. Both the evaluation and validation are critical tools that you can use to stay ahead of policies, regulations, and laws that could impact R&D outcomes while also accounting for changing stakeholder requirements.
How Corner Alliance Can Help
Corner Alliance has 14+ years supporting science and technology centric organizations with their research and development programs and portfolios. Our consultants across several agencies such as DHS, NIST, NTIA, and DOE have experience providing data-driven insights that allow organizations to understand current and emerging trends including regulation and legislation. We also possess broad subject matter expertise, including public safety broadband communications technology. Corner Alliance helps the government transition solutions to their clients by ensuring transition considerations are part of each step of the solution building process.
Author
Emma Benjamin, Consultant supporting the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Division, has a mission to contribute optimism and an eye for detail to every project and solution, big or small. She is a strategic communications and digital marketing specialist with backgrounds in political communications and public affairs. She holds a master's degree in Media and Strategic Communication from George Washington University.