Menu

R&D: Selecting And Evaluating Ideas As Priorities Shift

Life has rapidly changed since the onset of COVID-19. I'm missing my daily Starbucks, chats with my co-workers and learning the joys of living in 800 square feet. My main interaction with the world is looking outside my window. As I watch the comings and goings of the streets below, I think, How will this time broadcast its impact to the broader American life?

Entrepreneurship and Innovation are cornerstones of any society. We become safer, healthier, and more resilient economically, socially, and politically through the spread of ideas. In fact, experts have argued innovation is the only way for an advanced country like the US to grow over the long run. 

So, do the idea engines in the brilliant minds of our peers simply stop during this period of social distancing?

History would tell us no. In fact, Shakespeare wrote King Lear while in Quarantine and Issac Newton’s theory of Gravity germinated during the Bubonic Plague. While I don’t think I will be writing the next literary masterpiece or a breakthrough scientific theory, someone will. How do you ensure that as an organization you continue to capture these ideas and push them forward to innovate? 

The capture, evaluation, and communication of RDTE (Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation) is easier said than done. Particularly in large organizations with diverse needs, it's not as simple as designing a prototype, flipping a switch, and delivering to the field.

Needs must be collected, routed to the appropriate evaluators, and tracked for performance during the R&D lifecycle. Then, results need to be communicated out to the field and acquisition authorities. These activities often live offline in disparate systems, which contributes to redundancies, dependencies, and delays.

Problems in these areas not only slow down the speed of innovation, they can have critical impacts on mission sets. Warfighters need the latest technologies to meet evolving threats. Farmers need technologies to stop the spread of pests that endanger food supply. And now more than ever, doctors, nurses, and first responders need cures. MIT Technology Review has noted that while the demand is greater than ever, the US is still struggling to come up with ideas and technologies to meet our needs.

Organizations have to accelerate the speed of solutions for these critical gaps and need tools to help them do so.

Traditional Program Management methodologies just won't cut it.  Needs are rapidly developing with vital consequences if unmet. 

Organizations must have tools that allow them to rapidly identify, assess, and evaluate incoming R&D proposals from gap conception to solution selection. They also must have references at their fingertips to their entire portfolios. 

Imagine the ability to quickly understand all evaluated technologies for controlling the spread of Infectious Disease(s) with a few strokes of the keyboard. Or the ability to pivot and quickly decipher trade-offs. If more R&D is needed on Infectious Diseases, how will this impact the development of the latest Weapons Systems? With needs developing at an unprecedented pace, the question becomes 'How do you balance so many emerging needs with limited resources?'

Targeted algorithms and AI can help you answer at least some of those daunting questions.

Capturing your universe of ideas in a single automated method, evaluating them rapidly against a common framework, and understanding WHAT to select and WHEN is our bread and butter at Decision Lens. We create automated ways to gather ideas, tools for prioritizing them, and then apply algorithms and AI to make recommended scenarios about where the organization should focus to achieve its mission.

Not only are we experts in Planning, but we’ve also worked closely in many of your organizations and understand your mission priorities clearly. We understand that the decisions you make on a day to day basis are critical and far reaching. And we want to help you decipher the information at hand in a clearer, faster, and more concise fashion. 

Our experts, along with our solutions, work hand in hand with you to break through organizational madness and emerge with crystallized paths forward that align to your strategic objectives within your given constraints. 

Now more than ever, the world needs brighter and better thinkers. Organizations also need ways to RAPIDLY capture these ideas, evaluate them, and communicate them at scale.

If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it's that our world can change overnight. Your organizations and organizations must be able to get to the starting line at the same speed to preserve the very things that make you great. 

Decision Lens wants to be part of that race with you. Contact our Solutions Experts to learn more.

 

Want to hear more? Check out our video where we continue this discussion!

Watch On-Demand Now

 

Let's get started

We have been modernizing public sector planning for 15+ years, evolving our solution to meet the needs of today while delivering the cutting-edge capabilities of tomorrow.

Request a Demo

Explore Categories