The people behind the tech: finishing up my time at Kessel Run

About the author: Toni Friedman ’21 was a Product Manager Intern with Kessel Run. She is a current second-year student in the Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy (MIP) program at Stanford University.

Co-funded by FSI’s Global Policy Internship Program  
                                            

In my previous post I wrote about the culture shock of working for the first time both in a tech company and within the DoD. (Detachment 12, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, aka "Kessel Run," is a tech organization within the DoD, where I spent my summer as a Product Manager Intern.)

After working through initial barriers of language and getting the lay of the land, I was eager to jump in in a more hands-on capacity with the duties of a Product Manager. I did, in the end, get to try everything on my list: facilitating discussions with the developers and designers, leading conversations with stakeholders, and writing and organizing stories in the backlog. I also got to be a part of the initial research and development of a new suite of features for Blazon (the product team I was on). This particular new set of features was tricky for various reasons--both business and technical--which made it a great case to learn how a Product Manager might balance competing needs, while still moving the product forward.

Other opportunities to get to know Kessel Run as a larger organization also presented themselves. I participated in a hackathon to improve communication within Kessel Run, where I got to work with a whole different team of developers and witness their ability to build something from nothing on a time crunch. I got to shadow portfolio leads, and see how they kept track of the many moving pieces of each product's timeline and how they each fit into the bigger picture of the organization.

Meaningfully, I also got to be in two Product Manager exploratory groups that brought together PMs from across the organization. This, to me, was fascinating, as Kessel Run’s existence is rather unique, bringing in Silicon Valley frameworks developed for the commercial sector to the realm of the DoD. For example, the metrics group I was in focused on how to better use (or not use) quantitative metrics as a measure of success and to inform future product changes. While many commercial tech companies can depend on a reliable stream of feedback and data, for security reasons, information flows differently within the DoD context.

Another group focused on team dynamics; for this group I conducted surveys and interviewed individuals across different teams and roles. I presented my findings to a group of Product Managers, facilitating a discussion on surprising findings as well as issues that needed more time and attention. I was impressed by how open people were to talking to me about their experiences, and was happy to help jump start a positive discussion around team dynamics at the organization.

Zoom thoughts:

• I’m still holding out hope that I’ll finally be able to meet the team I’ve been working with all summer in person sometime soon! It will be strange to see people without a beach background.
• Given the inherent awkwardness of Zoom, I was pleasantly surprised by how much genuine fun my team managed to have online. Best online games hands down: Skribbl and Codenames.

My office for the summer:

My office mate for the summer:

Disclosure: The expressions and opinions here are my own and do not reflect the policies or views of the Department of Defense, U.S. Air Force or Detachment 12, AFLCMC.