Company
Department of Defense, US Air Force
Team
4 product managers
4 engineer
1 designer
My role
Lead user researcher / ux designer
Duration
1 month
Problem
The B-2 have remained largely unchanged since their maiden flight in 1989. Additional capabilities have been added and incorporated into the airframe software over the past three decades, working under the same "miracle a day" mentality that is unsustainable for software delivery. As a result, the Air Force's program has suffered long-term consequences and substantial delays to the comprehensive modernization effort of the B-2's systems, initiated in 2011. The modernization effort set out to achieve massive software changes in conjunction with hardware updates, which take one year of intensive maintenance to complete. This effort, managed by the Federal Government and contractors, has undergone several pivots due to technical complexity, scheduling breaches, and budgetary concerns.
Solution
Working with real users—pilots, Government program officers, and defense contractors—we recommended the Government and the defense contractors rebaseline their development timeline and work aggressively to determine a realistic schedule.
Process
In March 2019, Air Force Acquisitions leadership and the Program Executive Officer for Fighters and Bombers requested USDS’s team at the Department of Defense conduct an independent review of the modernization effort. Over about a month, our team visited four locations to conduct technical and programmatic interviews with the defense contractor, the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), the System Program Office leadership, program leads, engineering staff, and B-2 pilots.
After kicking off this effort, I recognized a major gap in the modernization efforts requirements: current pilots. Those responsible for being experts in piloting B-2s were not involved in requirements gathering for the modernization effort, making it impossible to meet user needs. I pushed to have two active duty pilots involved in conversations with contractors and the government, enabling their needs to be heard.
Outcome
The upgrade modernization effort was cancelled, with cause. The program also stopped work on the dismantled airframes going through the year-long rehabilitation, and these will be used for experimentation.
Our team empowered the government to save an estimated $800 billion while ensuring the capabilities of the B-2 fleet have not been compromised nor diminished.
This project was completed while I was working at the US Digital Service’s team at the Department of Defense.