August 15, 2023

8/15/23: A big thumbs-up for State’s tech transformation; a user experience boost for the Air Force; adding fuel to the fire for the Pentagon’s need for speed

33 minutes

The State Department’s “Tech for Life” initiative will give each employee her or his own phone number to connect to the department’s IT. The CIO at the State Department, Kelly Fletcher, says the department is running two pilot programs this summer. Karen Evans, Partner at KE&T Partners, and Managing Director of the Cyber Readiness Institute and former E-gov Administrator at OMB, and former Chief Information Officer at the Department of Homeland Security, explains why she thinks “Tech For Life” is a ground breaker.

Kelly Fletcher on “Tech For Life” on Fed Gov Today TV

The Air Force is about a year and a half out from the “Fix Our Computers” LinkedIn post that sparked a rethinking of internal customer experience in the service. But that post wasn’t the beginning of the service’s customer experience journey. Colt Whittall has been Chief Experience Officer at the Air Force and Space Force for about four years. On the newest edition of Fed Gov Today TV, I ask him what the Air Force’s U-X operation was thinking, and doing, when the “Fix Our Computers” furor started.

The Defense Innovation Unit is taking on the Pentagon’s need for speed in hypersonics. The Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities program’s goal is more hypersonic tests, more often. Barry Kirkendall, Technical Director for Space at DIU, tells you about the program’s mission and goals.

Photo: Barry Kirkendall via LinkedIn