Case Study: Team Fleetwise - Identifying Buyers, Champions, and Saboteurs
How the H4D Stanford University team Fleetwise went from class project to successful startup
The following is an excerpt from the NEW textbook Hacking for Defense, a graduate-level course taught at more than 70 colleges and universities worldwide and on three continents. More than 2,000 students have successfully completed the program.
Team Fleetwise was a 2021 four-member Hacking for Defense team that worked to solve a problem sponsored by the Air Force’s 4th Logistics and Readiness Squadron (LRS). LRS was suffering from vehicle breakdowns inhibiting the ability to maintain aircraft. The team hoped to solve the problem by leveraging analog data collected by the Air Force to help it conduct vehicle maintenance before the vehicles broke down (See the team’s final presentation from Steve Blank).
Beneficiary, Buyers, Champions & Saboteurs
Early on, Fleetwise stood out as a team when they began categorizing their interviewees as Beneficiary, Buyers, Champions and Saboteurs in an organizational chart (Figure 1 below) as soon as the team began interviewing stakeholders (something that many teams only begin doing after several weeks of interviews). During their initial interviews Fleetwise confirmed that Fleet Management and Analysis (FM&A) controllers were their main Beneficiary (green circle), but remained unsure which people were Buyers, Champions, and Saboteurs. The first step Fleetwise took to identify these groups was by reviewing their interview notes and org chart to hypothesize that three organizations had the potential to be Buyers and Champions and two were potentially Saboteurs (orange circles).
Figure 1
Fleetwise conducted interviews with the three organizations they thought could be Buyers or Champions. Interviews with Flight HQ proved that the organization did not consider ground vehicle maintenance a high priority, as the emphasis was on supporting the warfighter and how the flightline operations could be impacted. However, Air Force operations critically rely on ground vehicle readiness. When ground vehicles break down, aircrafts don't fly, sorties are not complete, and missions risk failure. In fact, Flight HQ only cared about vehicle maintenance after breakdowns took place and when aircraft could not be serviced inhibited mission success. Flight HQ was neither a Buyer nor Champion. Knowing the organization’s apathetic stance was useful because it saved Fleetwise valuable time and energy attempting to solicit them for support.
Buyers and Champions
Interviews with LRS HQ proved the organization to be more supportive. After all, LRS was Fleetwise’s Problem Sponsor. LRS HQ was enthusiastic about the intended solution because it would streamline their processes and save them time. Interviewees were happy to provide feedback on future MVPs, but none of the LRS HQ interviewees volunteered to help Fleetwise. The lack of proactive support caused Fleetwise to disqualify them as being a Champion. However, despite not being proactive with their support, Fleetwise learned that LRS contracting officers had previously purchased the current solution the Air Force was using to manage vehicle maintenance and would likely be the contracting officers that would make the purchase once Fleetwise’s product was fully developed. LRS HQ was not a Champion, but it was a Buyer.
Finally, Fleetwise interviewed FM&A controllers which were the team’s Beneficiary. FM&A controllers continued to be excited about Fleetwise’s work. One controller excitedly explained that Fleetwise’s solution “sounds exactly like what we are looking for!” Another interviewee was so excited about the intended solution that he volunteered to introduce Fleetwise to his boss and help the team identify opportunities to work with the Air Force before the team could even ask. This proactive person was the Champion that Fleetwise had been looking for and became vital to the team’s success.
Saboteurs
The two organizations Fleetwise thought could be Saboteurs were a defense contractor, named Leidos, and an Air Force organization named Vehicle Support Chain Operations Squadron (VSCOS).
During interviews with contractors, Fleetwise learned that the company owned the contract for the vehicle maintenance software the Air Force was currently using (and, according to their Air Force interviews, did not like). Contractor interviews confirmed that the company was a potential Saboteur because Fleetwise’s intended solution would render the contractor’s solution obsolete.
Fleetwise also confirmed that the Vehicle Support Chain Operations Squadron (VSCOS) officers were Saboteurs. VSCOS officers were simply opposed to Fleetwise solving the problem because a Fleetwise solution would make VSCOS’s work redundant and, ergo, cost them their jobs.
Searching for Buyers, Champions, and Saboteurs helped Fleetwise refine and focus their time, resources, and energy on those they could gain support from. In just two weeks of interviews, Fleetwise classified five organizations as Buyers, Champions, Saboteurs, or as not being relevant. Throughout the process, the team constantly updated their org chart with ever increasing precision until they were able to identify specific people by name at each organization (See the blue-colored boxes under each of the organization in Figure 2 below. *Note that names have been anonymized).
Figure 2
Leveraging Champions
Throughout the course, the FM&A Champion provided detailed feedback on Fleetwise MVPs helping the team to understand what did and did not work and why. In addition, the Champion took it upon himself to support the team. Before meeting the Champion, Fleetwise had trouble identifying LRS contracting officers who had procured a vehicle maintenance solution. The Champion scanned the [Fleetwise’s] org chart and reached out to the organizations the team was unable to get to on their behalf. After the class, the Champion continued to support the team by identifying potential funding opportunities and writing letters of support for those opportunities.
Learning from Buyers
Interviews with LRS contracting officers (aka Buyers) gave Fleetwise detailed information on the requirements a software solution would need to meet before it could be used. Additionally, Buyers helped Fleetwise create a timeline of the certifications and Decision-Maker approvals needed as they developed their technology. The contracting officers also shared the steps previous companies took to deploy their solution. This information led Fleetwise to several opportunities and provided the team with company and Decision-Maker names that Fleetwise would later interview to learn more about the deployment process (to be discussed in the next chapter).
Dealing with Saboteurs
At first, Fleetwise was unsure how to handle their Leidos and Vehicle Support Chain Operations Squadron (VSCOS) Saboteurs so the team completely avoided them. While avoiding them, Fleetwise attempted to deliver their software solution to the 4th LRS. VSCOS found out and - because their jobs were, they felt, threatened - did everything in their power to block Fleetwise from delivering the solution. In other words, the more Fleetwise tried to ignore, avoid, or go around VSCOS, the more dangerous the Saboteur became.
Eventually, Fleetwise realized they had to stop running and hiding and directly engage with VSCOS. This change of strategy allowed them to gain vital, if painful, feedback about VSCOS, their handling of the process, understanding of the problem, and intended solutions. Fleetwise asked VSCOS about their pain points. The epiphany for Fleetwise came when they realized VSCOS was also suffering from servicing and maintaining the readiness of over 100,000 vehicles across 100 Air Force bases and sought to protect their work. This knowledge enabled Fleetwise to align the value of their solution provided FM&A controllers with VSCOS. Once Fleetwise was able to show that their work was a complement, not a replacement to VSCOS, the organization became more supportive.
As a result, and while VSCOS did not become a Champion, they stopped blocking Fleetwise. It was then that Fleetwise realized that they learned as much from their Saboteurs as they did from their supportive FM&A beneficiary since Saboteurs do not hold back in providing direct, candid feedback. Fleetwise maintained email correspondence with both organizations to continue learning from them and to safeguard against either derailing the deployment of Fleetwise’s solution.
Over the course of 114 interviews with people from twenty different Air Force bases, Fleetwise developed value propositions and validated each across a range of Air Force personnel. Fleetwise gained buy-in and support because they carefully built, reviewed and maintained relationships with Buyers, Champions, and Saboteurs. By the end of their H4D process, Fleetwise deployed a beta version of the software tool to maintenance personnel at the 4th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. The team’s Champion rushed to tell the team’s story and share its solution across the Air Force. Unbeknownst to Fleetwise, he even nominated the team for the DoD Chief Information Officer (CIO) award, which the team won at the 15th Air Force Level and the Air Force’s Major Command Level. Another submitted the team’s solution to the 2021 Logistics Officer Association Trailblazer National Award for Small Business Team, which they also won.
The Solution
Team Fleetwise would go on to become a predictive maintenance company named FLIP, which stands for Fleet Logistics Intelligence Platform, which aims to digitize the Air Force’s use of spreadsheets and whiteboards to create a predictive maintenance tool. FLIP can predict 92% of vehicle breakdowns within 30 days, which saves the thousands of hours in vehicle downtime and labor and most importantly, it increases the Air Force’s readiness to deploy and fight. FLIP is currently live at 3 Air Force Bases, and used to manage over 2,500 vehicles. Over 30 bases around the world have signed letters of interest to deploy FLIP. The positive feedback and traction received, has captured the attention of VSCOS, the Air Force organization that was once a saboteur. FLIP is partnering with VSCOS to scale the platform across the enterprise. As part of this partnership FLIP will also provide cleaning data and analytics services for the enterprise. FLIP has learned what are VSCOS’ pain points and addressed them, while continuing to provide value to the LRSs. FLIP has turned VSCOS, a potential saboteur, into a Champion.
In summary, Fleetwise succeeded because they took the following key steps. They:
Revisited past interviews and used an org chart to identify potential Buyers, Champions, and Saboteurs
Conducted interviews to test their hypotheses about which people and organizations fell into which category
Engaged from their most fervent Champion to gain support and learned from their Saboteurs
To learn more about the H4D Textbook, visit h4dtextbook.com.