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

1. aquaLink
Fitbit for America’s Divers
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 wearable device 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
Support
MILITARY LIAISONS
Todd Cimicata
Chris Conley
Jameson Darby
ADVISORS
Colin Supko
Bob Brakeman
Ray Dick
Mike Hard
Adrian Mantoiu
Sean Murphy
Booze Allen Hamilton
Progress
Customer
Interviews
10
This Week
20
All Time

2. Key Takeaways from Class
In addition to our initial focus on NEDU as the key stakeholder to evaluate/certify new devices, we
have to figure out how who’s who in the acquisition process for NSWG3/SOCOM and which of
these people we need to get buy-in from.
Our problem is a gap that ideally would become a requirement and we need to figure out which
organizations within the DoD would own this requirement, which have suitable types on funding, and
who else within the DoD/IC would be interested in a solution.

3. Hypotheses going into Week 2
● Vitals and Data
○ The diver’s priority is mission success, vitals monitoring is not critical to that (as opposed to comms
and geolocation) and a device that does only that will not get buy-in from divers.
● Communication
○ They want to improve communication links between different dive pairs and between dive pairs and
the troop commander on the SDV.
● Geolocation
○ They want to have reliable and accurate geolocation that provides overall situational awareness.

4. “An Hour in the Life”

5. Communication Link MVP

6. Vitals Monitoring MVP
“Suppose we could deliver this - is this
what you are actually looking for?”

7. Hypotheses going into Week 3
● Vitals and Data
○ Divers will want real-time alerts regarding vitals (and put up with the additional gear/procedures) if
and only if the alerts notify them of issues that threaten mission success.
○ Researchers want data on vitals beyond the mission-critical ones, and data from the rebreather rig
gauges (air consumption), and data from the dive computer (dive profile).
● Communication
○ The most critical comm channel yet to be adequately realized is two-way comms between the
troop commander on the SDV and the diver pair(s) operating away from the SDV.
● 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.

8. Customer Discovery
Hypotheses Experiments Results Actions
Real-time vitals information is not
as important as the vitals for long
term research because real-time
data will not change the mission
Stakeholder interviews. All customers so far have
confirmed this. However, we are
refining our view of “short-term”.
Consider 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
They want to improve
communication both within a dive
pair and between the SDV and
dive pairs.
Used communication link diagram
to determine how critical and
adequate each link is.
Within a buddy team they already
have a communication
procedures.
What they are lacking is pair-to-
pair communication and pair-to-
SDV team communication
Focus on looking at
communication from pair-to-pair
and pair-to-SDV
They want to have reliable and
accurate geolocation that provides
overall situational awareness.
Stakeholder interviews. Geolocation requirements
(resolution, range) are highly
dependent on the particular use
case; current methods exist but
are full of pain points.
Differentiate the use cases and
their requirements, determine if
additions to the existing system
can enhance current relative
situational awareness

9. 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: Divers are excited 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 NSWG3
- Scale up to many units in
and beyond NSWG3
- 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
Direct users in NSWG3
and other military divers
Military diver-related
research organizations
e.g. NEDU, SOCOM
HPRC, NUMI
- Divers: Seamless
integration of real-time
vital monitoring,
geolocation, and
communication Integrate
vital and system
monitoring: alerts protect
diver from short-term injuries
NAVSOC/SOCOM
Procurement Specialist.
(Initiated by NSWG3’s N8,
approved by NEDU
testing.)

10. AquaLink Value Proposition Naval Special Warfare Group 3
-Develop tailored platform to
sync individual diver data in
central repository accessible by
medical professionals
- 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

11. Work Flow
NSWG 3NSWG 1/2 NSWG 4 NSWG 10 DEVGRU NSWC
NSW
SOCOM US Navy
Staff Staff
S&TL J8 HPRC N8 NEDU
UHPI
SDVT-1
Troop
Troop
Troop