Advana UI/UX Solutions

Challenge Summary

Description

The CDAO is looking for recommendations and solutions for operating models and approaches to quickly delivering capabilities across an existing program. The desired solutions need an approach to perform user research, validate designs, create a unified design system, implement telemetry, and develop applications through iteration, launch, and post-launch of any solutions. Solutions and approaches should quickly deliver capabilities and improve the user experience for CDAO customers.

Additional Information

Submission Deadline:

11/14/2022 at 11:15 AM EST

OPEN CALL FOR INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS

The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) is initiating an open call for innovative solutions to solve Department of Defense (DoD) problems. Innovative means any technology, process, business practice, or any application of an existing technology, process, or business practice that enhances mission effectiveness for the Government. The objective of this Call is to attract and identify best-of-breed solutions to solve the problem sets identified.

This Open Call to Industry is considered to have high potential for pilot project awards that may be accomplished via Other Transaction Authority (OTA) for Prototype Projects pursuant to 10 USC 4022b (formerly 2371b). As such, assessment activities conducted in furtherance a potential pilot project award agreement are considered competitive in the same manner as a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) or Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO), and solutions will be assessed independently of one another primarily for technical merit. The procedures outlined in this Open Call are considered to satisfy the reasonable effort to obtain competition in accordance with 10 USC 4022b.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Multiple problem sets we’re looking for innovative solutions
New problems expected to be added to tradewindai.com every quarter
Assessment of submitted solutions on a quarterly basis.
Submit your solutions at any time while problems are published
Pay attention to assessment deadlines, if any, identified

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED

Background Information

Advana is a multi-capability platform that targets a broad Department of Defense customer base, to include consumers of data and builders that develop applications and provide insight to data on the platform. The DOD is interested in improving the customer experience across its many personas and to support scaling of applications and the multiple complex offerings of Advana. Advana needs a unified design of its platform and all published applications that provide the customer with simple navigation, easy understanding of offerings, and access to capabilities.

Problem Description

The CDAO is looking for recommendations and solutions for operating models and approaches to quickly delivering capabilities across an existing program. They need an approach to perform user research, validate designs, create a unified design system, implement telemetry, and develop applications through iteration, launch, and post-launch of any solutions. Solutions and approaches should quickly deliver capabilities and improve the user experience for CDAO customers.

Capability Gaps

We are interested in improving the user experience for users of Advana which consists of the following capability gaps. For all of these, we are particularly interested in how you deliver these capabilities rapidly across an already established program. Please demonstrate your operating model for delivering these artifacts at scale across an enterprise, from requirement gathering to delivery to DoD operational networks such as NIPRnet, SIPRnet and JWICS networks.

1. Customer Experience

a. New users need to quickly understand what Advana is and all the services/applications offered

b. New users need to be able to identify which Advana applications/tools/services meets their needs, and subsequently request access

c. We need a scalable approach to the above as we expect our products to double, triple over time

d. New users need to be able to understand who to contact regarding specific products to learn more / form strategic partnerships

e. New users need to be able to request services they don’t see currently offered

f. Current users need a customized landing point to Advana that lists only their current products but also a way to see what else they could/should have access to

g. Users in a microsite/community space (customized clone of Advana) need to be aware of Advana as a whole and what else Advana can offer it

h. We want to be concise in language when explaining our value proposition

i. There may be other use cases we have not uncovered – we expect the team to perform research to uncover these personas and discover their needs. We assume this may results in UX/UI work and a redesign of the website and underlying information architecture

2. Unified Look and Feel:

a. Wherever a user is on Advana (website, applications), they should know and feel like they are still in Advana and vs. Advana being a repository/collection of disparate products. This includes visual and interactive components that need to be aligned

b. A user needs a way (i.e., global navigation) to navigate throughout any/all of the products under the Advana platform

c. Community spaces / microsites need to be aligned with Advana design

d. We need a source of truth single source of truth of scalable UI elements and UX guidelines that multiple design/development teams can access

e. We expect that this source of truth needs to be customized for each underlying technology that an application/product developed on Advana is using

f. Development teams need to be able to pull from a source of truth and implement them into their applications

g. We need processes in place to streamline adoption and enforce the design system across multiple product development teams

h. We assume this may result in a design system that provides front-end visibility and code to pull

3. Content Management:

a. We need a way for multiple teams to update and maintain website content

b. We need a way to potentially displaying controlled unclassified and classified information

c. We need content to be aligned / meet certain standards with the rest of Advana

d. We need a way for eliminate bottleneck from updating static sites

e. We assume this may be solved with a content management system

4. Customer Research Engine:

a. We want to understand the performance of the website/applications and how customers are interacting with these components

b. We need processes for implementing and tracking workflows across an existing platform at scale

c. We need a way to tie this with higher-level goals and/or inform requirements

d. We need a way to store, manage, and access user research collected across the organization; we need a way for stakeholders to search/edit/add/pull from such a repository

e. We need a way to unify research artifacts whether they come from telemetry, user surveys, interviews, etc.

5. Front End Development:

a. We need processes and expertise to take designs into development

b. We need input from development to inform design of technological constraints

c. We need expertise to maintain launch of any solutions and for post-launch sustainment

Expected Outcome

With the launch of any proposed solutions, CDAO expects customers to land at Advana with a clear understanding of what Advana is and what products and services we offer. We expect customers to be able to navigate the myriad of product offerings and interact with individual products with consistent visual theme and UX, with an understanding and ability to navigate to the rest of Advana with ease.

To support the above goals, CDAO expects developers and designers to have processes in place for allowing distributed content management and quick and accurate implementation of design to launch. We expect customer research to be operated and managed in a way that allows any stakeholder to find and use artifacts to drive requirements and verify designs. Lastly, we expect development to deliver on designs and any telemetry required to gain insight into user behavior.

Project Objectives

Improve the user experience meeting user goals informed by customer research

Develop a unified experience across the website and platform

Rapidly deploy/re-deploy standards and operating models for these artifacts at scale across an enterprise for an established program

Example Milestones

Sitemap / revamped information architecture

Page and template designs via wireframe, prototypes

Front-end to design system for designers and developers

Integrated content management system

Dashboards pulling customer telemetry and feedback

Research repository and processes for requirement gathering

SUBMIT YOUR SOLUTIONS!

This Open Call to Industry identifies a multiple-round, competitive assessment process to identify solutions that best solve DoD problems.

Unfortunately, there aren’t 40 great ideas; there are likely 1 or 2. This process enables us to focus on the few ideas and solutions that have technical merit and take action with a pilot project award. As a result, not all solution providers will participate in all rounds or obtain a pilot project agreement with the Government.

We also need flexibility as we learn new things during new assessment activities. The Government may skip or combine rounds as necessary to collect and assess information as it relates to proposed solutions. Further, the Government may go back to earlier rounds with clarifications and additional requests as necessary to identify successful solutions that will meet intended pilot project objectives. Finally, the Government may initiate steps toward a prototype project award at any round.

ROUND 1 – Discovery Paper (DUE NOV 14)

If you have solution that addresses any of the listed problems, we would love to hear about it. Submit a brief discovery paper for us to assess. CDAO and select subject matter experts may invite those that have the highest potential to solving the problem to Round 2.

ROUND 2 – Digital Proving Ground (DPG) (DEC 7-8)

The goal of the DPG is to allow our Industry partners to have the opportunity to pitch in a fast-paced environment with contracting professionals poised to execute rapid pilot project awards. If selected to participate at the DPG, you will receive instructions on whether to prepare for an informal one-on-one technical discussion, demonstration of a solution, “Shark Tank” pitch, or something similar to better understand your solution. Conversations may continue outside of the DPG if additional information is needed to understand detailed solution offerings, determine the feasibility of teaming between separate solution providers, and/or make a Round 3 determination.

ROUND 3 – Project Award

The Government reserves the right to make one, some, or no pilot project awards based on the Round 2 results. Successfully negotiated awards are intended to be Other Transaction Agreements under 10 USC 4022. An award under 10 USC 4022 may result in a subsequent award of a follow-on production agreement without additional competition based on successful prototype completion.

FEEDBACK DURING ASSESSMENT

If you are not chosen for a subsequent round(s), we will make our best efforts to notify you in writing as soon as practical. If you are invited to any round, subsequent round(s), or a return to earlier round(s), we will notify you via email with details and instructions on what information we are looking to assess. We are not able to provide instructions in advance due to the individual variance between problem sets and unique circumstances that may impact a pilot project. We care about transparency and providing timely feedback to help you improve your offerings, but sometimes our team is simply overtaxed. We are currently working to build in automated feedback mechanisms into the Tradewind Exchange, but in the meantime, we greatly appreciate your patience if we hit a resource limitation and cannot provide you the feedback you deserve in a timely manner.

NOTICES

Special Notice on Judges

Non-Government, subject matter expert (SME) judges may be used any assessment activity. Such assessors will be operating at the direction of the Government and through signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). The Government understands that information provided in response to this open call is presented in confidence and it agrees to protect such information from unauthorized disclosure to extent required by law. Your participation in any round of assessment under this Open Call indicates concurrence with the use of Non-Government SME judges.

Living Document

This Open Call supporting the Tradewind Prototype Challenges is a living document which is intended to evolve as our business processed are automated, we apply new business practices, or streamline any activity or workflow. All information presented within this document is subject to change. Specifically, the problems identified will be updated throughout the life of this Open Call. You check in regularly for updates at tradewindai.com.

WHAT DO I SUBMIT IN ROUND 1?

Submit a 2-page Discovery Paper by 0900 Eastern Time on November 14, 2022 answering the following questions and instructions. We will not dictate format, but ask you answer the questions in the order provided.

PROBLEM ALIGNMENT: How well does your solution map to our published problem(s)? Argue the solution you’re providing is a perfect fit to solve the published problem(s).
VALUE PROPOSITION: Why is your solution the best approach from a technical perspective? If you can convincingly refute alternatives to solving the problem, please briefly do so. If applicable, also consider arguing why the end user/warfighter would prefer your solution.
OPERATIONAL IMPACT: Looking only at the DoD personnel who will be impacted by your solution, argue that their jobs or lives will be significantly improved if your solution is adopted. What is the impact of your solution vs. today's solutions?
END USER DEMAND: Make your best pitch to the end user/warfighter directly. Why would an end user judge want to adopt your solution? To the extent that you can, make the case that end users -- once they experience your solution -- will ask for it themselves.

QUALITY OF PROSE: Prove you write clearly. Prove you argue convincingly.

Challenge Details

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