2. Army Small Business Innovation & Research
Partner: U.S. Department of Defense (DoD); Army Small Business Innovation & Research (SBIR)
Date: November 2023–September 2024
Category: Customer Experience, Design Research, Prototyping, Stakeholder EngagementDescription: The U.S. Army’s SBIR team worked with a team of designers from the Lab at OPM to investigate the needs and challenges of potential users of a tech marketplace. The team’s findings informed the ongoing development of a user-focused tool that fits within the Army’s innovation ecosystem.
Research included semi-structured interviews with over 50 stakeholders both internal and external to Army, including small business owners who had partnered with DoD, were currently developing technology with Army or other military, or were seeking to do so in the future. Deliverables included design artifacts that supported development teams in iterating on tech marketplace prototypes.
Ecosystem map of small business innovation against Army budget levels. Project timeline for background research, semi-structured interviews of relevant stakeholders, and delivery of findings. User persona groupings based on ecosystem of relevant stakeholders. Asking aspiring (red) and existing (purple) Army-partnered small businesses about desired use cases for the tech marketplace. Small business persona journey snapshot of partnering with Army innovation.