Hacking 4 Defense with Steve Blank and Pete Newell

I was pleased to have Steve Blank and Pete Newell return on the Acquisition Talk podcast to talk about the five-year anniversary of the Hacking 4 Defense program, or H4D. In the program, university students partner with defense organizations to solve problems. But they aren't simply handed a requirement and asked to figure out a technology solution. The students immerse themselves in user stories by interviewing dozens of operators and even walking a mile in their shoes. They then create minimally viable products and iterate to an innovative solution. This combination of problem curation and lean methodology provides students with invaluable experience at the same time it delivers value to our government. Over the five years, H4D grew into Hacking 4 Everything, or H4X. It includes courses on homeland security, diplomacy, energy, oceans, sustainability, and national health service. The program is taught at roughly 50 universities, more than 2,000 students have gone through the course, 450 national security and intelligence problems addressed, and 14 startups were formed. One tremendous statistic is that at Stanford, close to 40 percent of H4D students chose to continue solving problems for national security, which as Steve notes is "pretty amazing when their career paths include working for Facebook or Google or whatever the hottest startup is." Without H4D, these students would likely have graduated without ever considering the option of solving the government's hardest problems. No wonder the program got official support and is now funded by Defense Innovation Unit. This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. Soundtrack by urmymuse: "reflections of u". You can follow us on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at AcquisitionTalk.com.