Executive brief 01 april 2021

2. Under a Title 15 Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA):
• SOCOM
• Inter Agency Partners
• Industry Partners/Fellows
• FFRDC’s/Labs
• Academics/Interns
• Hackers/Makers
“Big Tent” philosophy which includes:
+ =
ERDC
Doolittle
NPS CFIC MGM

3. A platform designed and
operated to help solve
challenging Warfighter
problems through increased
collaboration and innovation.
I. Create and maintain a platform to accelerate
delivery of innovative capabilities to USSOCOM
II. Facilitate capability refinement thru
exploration, experimentation and assessment
of promising technology
CHARTER

4. Challenges provided by:
• Components (404)
• TSOCs and SOF Units (80)
• HQ/J-Staff (40)
Mechanisms:
• Projects (236)
• Collaboration Events (74)
• Assessment Events (36)
• Tech Talks (28)
• Prize Challenges (25)
• Rapid Prototyping Events (7)
• Hackathons (7)
• Combat Evaluations (2)
IMPACTS
Knowledge Transfers (441)
Validations (220)
Collaborative Project Orders (48)
Consignments (74)
Transitions (34)
SOF
Challenge
Identified
SOFWERX
Mechanism
Applied
Opportunity
Released to
Ecosystem
Submissions
Due
~ 30 Days
After Release
Gov Downselects
~ 10 Days After
Submissions
Received
1-on-1 Event
with
Government
How it WERX

5. Lessons Learned
Adoption Profile
Psychographic
Social Technographic
2.5% 13.5% 34% 16%
34% 16%
Social Proof
Scarcity
Innovators
Technologists
Creators
Early
Adopters
Visionaries
Early
Majority
Pragmatists
Late
Majority
Conservatives
Joiners &
Spectators
Late Mass
Skeptics
Inactive
The Tipping
Point
13.5% 34% 34%
2.5%
Critics &
Collectors
• Maintain momentum.
• Pivot quickly when it doesn’t work.
• You can’t force adoption; the best idea
doesn’t always win.
• Find products for your customers, not
customers for your products.
• Own the numbers and don’t do
innovation theater.
• Execute fiercely and demand excellence.
• Build a team of committed stress
reducers.

6. Types of Innovation:
Consequence
Negative
Payoff
Little Great
Likelihood
High
Speed
Slow
Fast
• Incremental
• Serves existing customers or markets. It
may involve improved, refined, or
“incrementally better” products or
services.
• Adjacent
• Involves expansion to an adjacent business
or customer arrangement. This innovation
typically leverages the company's expertise
but does so in new or innovative ways.
• Transformational
• Requires the creation of entirely new
businesses to serve new markets and new
customers.
Risk Assessment:

7. How Are We Different?
• Flexible, non-FAR business
methodologies and processes
• ~86% of submissions come from the
SOFWERX non-traditional ecosystem.
~14% come from Sam.Gov.
• Neutral facilitation and ideation
• Easy to access & reduced barriers
Why SOFWERX?
• Quick Wins for the Warfighter
• Fail Fast / Cost and Risk Avoidance
• Refine/Inform Requirements
• Flexibility through additional contracting
mechanisms

8. Join the mission:
sofwerx.org/ecosystem