agile, bmnt, business model, corporate innovation, customer development, diux, h4d, hacking for defense, lean, lean launchpad, lean startup, stanford, steve blank

1. aquaLink
Navy divers perform challenging tasks under difficult conditions that have long-lasting health impacts.
How might we protect both the short- and long-term physical health of our nation’s divers?
aquaLink is a system of wearable devices that records data critical to diver health and safety,
and makes it actionable through real-time alerts and post-usage analytics.
TEAM
Dave Ahern: International Policy/Defense Acquisition
Hong En Chew: Hardware Engineering
Rachel Olney: Product Design
Samir Patel: Mechatronics/Finance
SPONSOR
Brian Ferguson & U.S. Navy Special Warfare Group 3
U.S. Special Operations Command
aquaLink
This Week Previously Total
Users 8 9 17
Buyers 0 2 1
Experts 2 10 12
Interview Breakdown

2. Customer Discovery
Hypotheses Results Actions
Vitals Data in 3 phases:
1. During the mission:
emergency alerts only
2. After the dive: for rest
period diagnostics
3. Long-term: for research on
dive health prognostics
Stakeholder interviews.
Diver MVP
During the mission and long term are
the most important. They trust their
divers to manage in between. They
trust them to manage their own health
during missions.
Vitals and Data
Divers will want real-time alerts regarding
vitals (and put up with the additional
gear/procedures) of issues that threaten
mission success.
Researchers want data on vitals, the
rebreather (air consumption), and the dive
computer (dive profile).
New Equipment
Divers may not be very receptive to
new equipment especially if it is not
a massive value added
Operator and Stakeholder
interviews.
MVPs
Many people expressed a huge
interest in new equipment. They are
not very happy with current equipment
and are very receptive to new gear.
Because the operator does want new
equipment. We have to prevent cognitive
overload if they want to add all sorts of
features that we believe are just nice-to-
haves.
Geolocation
Requirements (resolution, range)
are highly dependent on the
particular use case, and current
methods are full of pain points but
no single problem is seen as top
priority to solve
Stakeholder interviews.
Communications MVP
Everyone we spoke to said this is the
holy grail of problems. However, this
doesn’t add to solving health
problems.
Working on some workarounds that may
allow the operators to get a GPS fix.
Experiments

3. Customer Archetype
● Male, age 21-32
● Competitive, driven, physically fit, mentally resilient
● Volunteers to join the Navy; spends 2-4 years training
● Volunteers to become a Navy SEAL; spends 1.5-2
years training
● Volunteers to join SDV; spends an additional 3-6
months training
● Driven by problem solving and technical mastery
● Not naturally focused on the long-term health impacts
● Highly specialized; constant pursuit of optimization

4. Mission Model
Need funding from sponsors for
further R&D/manufacturing
Need evaluation/ certification by
NEDU before field deployment
Early adopters
Operators Must Benefit During
Mission for Buy-In
KEY PARTNERS KEY ACTIVITIES
KEY RESOURCES
VALUE PROPOSITION BUY-IN / SUPPORT
DEPLOYMENT
BENEFICIARIES
MISSION BUDGET MISSION ACHIEVEMENT FACTORS
- Problem sponsors: Navy
Special Warfare Group 3
(NSWG-3), U.S. Special
Operations Command (SOCOM)
- Military diver-related
research organizations: Navy
Experimental Diving Unit
(NEDU), SOCOM Human
Performance Resource Center,
Naval Underwater Medical
Institute (NUMI)
- Commercial partners: medical
device/wearables companies,
mil-spec dive equipment
manufacturers
- Fundamental cycle:
hypotheses -> MVP (rapid
prototyping of hardware/
software) -> stakeholder
interviews to evaluate MVP ->
pivot and repeat
- Defence procurement
expertise: course staff,
sponsors, DIUX, liaisons
- User expertise: military divers,
scientific divers
- Medical expertise: med sch,
SOCOM HPRC
- Hardware/software prototyping costs (RDT&E from NEDU or SOCOM)
- Purchase of existing products on the market for evaluation (NSWG3 or
NAVSOC N-8).
1. Feasibility: At the end of the quarter, NSWG3/SOCOM decide that our
proposal merits further development and initiates their internal processes for
funding/pilot testing/field deployment
2. Performance: Our prototype should demonstrate that all critical features can
be integrated within given size/weight/cost specs
3. User satisfaction: Seamless integration into current SOP Divers develop SOP
to upload data as part of recovery process.
Obtain device validation and
approval from NEDU
Pilot test with a select group of
users in NSWG-3
Scale up to many units in and
beyond NSWG-3
Direct users in NSWG3 and
other military divers
Military diver-related research
organizations e.g. NEDU,
SOCOM HPRC, NUMI
- Divers: Integrate vital and
system monitoring with real-time
display capability
- Medical Staff: acquire the real-
time data in a digestible format
Medical Staff: Create the
Navy’s first long-term
repository of diver health
data: detailed dataset to
improve training/operation
protocols and predict and
prevent long-term injuries
NAVSOC/SOCOM Procurement
Specialist. (Initiated by
NSWG3’s N8, approved by
NEDU testing.)
Air Force and Navy Pilots

5. AquaLink Value Proposition SDVT-1 Diver
-Develop tailored platform to
sync individual diver data in
central repository accessible by
medical professionals
-Provide Human Performance
staff with acute feedback to
optimize diver performance
- Synchronize oxygen system
and vital monitoring through
wireless connection system
- Possibility of co-opting existing
commercial communication
device (UDI)
Wearable Sensors
and Data
Repository
-Extremely proficient and adaptive divers
-Access to world class medical
professionals and performance coaches
-Relatively agile procurement/acquisition
process
- No singular interface for all
Dive information
-No ability to monitor vitals in real time
-No ability to maintain flexible
communication between divers
-No overall locational situational
awareness
Conduct
underwater
operations for the
U.S. Military
Value Proposition Canvas

6. AquaLink Value Proposition Doctor at Naval Health Research Center
-Integrate sensors to collect
vitals identified as critical
information gaps (core temp,
HRV, blood-oxygen, etc)
-Ruggedize monitors/sensors to
enhance collection capability
-Develop data sync function that
minimizes operator requirement
AquaLink
Integrated Sensor
platform
-Funding and approval flexibility
-Scheduled access to divers for testing
-Institutional credibility and established
pathways for testing, procurement, etc
-Durability of current monitors insufficient
to withstand conditions
-No central repository for data collected
Collect and Analyze
data on Diver
Health
Value Proposition Canvas

7. Workflow (After)

8. Hypotheses Moving Forward
The individual divers should monitor their own vitals during the mission
and the leadership trusts them to.
System should deliver real-time value in the form of system checks (oxygen levels, kick count, etc) to
generate operator buy-in
A heads up display is the ideal form of information transmission during a dive.
Any system should be modular in nature to allow for the integration of evolving technology (geolocation
and communication)
System should pair data transmission with a critical function to force data collection

9. 15596
Accelerometer for Distance
traveled
Receive from sensors/ upload data
Measure ambient psi for health data
Compute/ etc.
Monitor tanks
Accelerometer
for kick count
Measure heart rate, BP, core
temp, O2 saturation

10. Communication Link MVP