S2. E5: Crossing that Chasm: Stories from the Frontline of Product Development

Warfighter Podcast

As a former Special Forces operator, Gareth Collier has had an impressive career to date, including responsibility for the development of the training and capability development of over 2,300 in the Australian Special Forces Command.

While a successful military career does not automatically translate to being successful in business, Gareth provides a text-book example of how it can be done. Combining skills and experience from his time serving with the commercial realities of doing business with the Australian Defence Force.

Gareth joined SimCentric in late 2015, as their VP of Strategy has been working closely with militaries around the world to take SAF Foresight (a tool for planning and preventing accidents in live firing exercises) from concept to a fully fledged product, ready to be put into service.

For anyone trying to do something similar, his story provides a step-by-step guide of how it can be done. This is not mere business school, case study theory, but the true reality of how ideas and technology should be developed for military and government users.

Gareth breaks down his product development strategy, covering:

• Market research phase
• Understanding the problem
• Engaging with real users
• Developing mock-ups of concepts
• Building networks in Defence
• Humility in understanding the problem.

A fascinating insight into the inspiration, hard graft and challenges that goes into the development of this product over the past 6 years.

Hosts:

• Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/
• Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/

Guests:

• Gareth Collier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gareth-collier-a08b7971/

Links:

• DASA (Innovation) Episode: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/ep-008-avoiding-the-innovation-valley-of-death/
• Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warfighter-digital/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgiH-cwmyc2I2Iyc8MLYtg
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WarfighterPod

Episode Sponsor:

Babcock has always operated hand in hand with our customers because their mission is our mission. Our people support the British Army by contributing to front-line support, delivering the capability they need, available to them wherever, whenever and however they need it. We ensure the British Army can focus on their missions safely by supporting their vehicles, both armoured and white fleet with skilled engineers and capability backed by long-term through-life engineering expertise.

We enable our defence and emergency services customers to do their job with our technical training programmes. We combine deep understanding and long-term commitment with constructive challenge. An embedded partner, focussed on outcomes. Globally, new defence and resilience equipment programmes and asset modernisation programmes are seeing a resurgence. Training personnel is a critical component to support these programmes.

Whether it’s applying engineering excellence or the latest technology, we combine our expertise with a practical mindset. Alongside our deep engineering experience, digital and data technologies will allow us to better understand, predict and enhance the performance of the assets we manage, make better engineering decisions to reduce risk and improve service delivery.