Dedicate a product delivery team

The enclave needs an integrated product team¹ to be successful. This team should be focused specifically on delivery; releasing working software, validating with users, and iterating on learnings. Unlike tiger teams, usually composed of policy or subject matter experts, this team should develop functional prototypes and integrate feedback from users to develop the enclave, rather than rely on policy or rulemaking as their measure of success.

The product delivery team should consist of people with a variety of skill sets including front end development, back end development, data science, technical security, HCD, and product management. This team should be wholly dedicated to the enclave without other roles or responsibilities.

Members of this team should be DoD employees who would oversee the work done by both DoD and contracted employees. Team members should be mid to senior level people who have technical and government experience and understand how Congress and the DoD work. Team members should also be competent at managing existing and future contractors. Hiring inexperienced or junior team members risks spending months getting up to speed and correcting errors.

The enclave product team should prioritize HCD and focus dedicated resources on service delivery. These specialists will be responsible for making sure the product works well for intended users, bringing best practices for intuitive design to future iterations. Without these resources, the enclave will be built based on guesses and assumptions, once again delivering a product that does not meet user needs and is therefore abandoned.

1. The IPT is technical in nature and distinct from the Integration Team mentioned in recommendation #28 that is tasked with implementing all of the Commission’s findings, PPBE Commission Final Report March 2024 ↩