Page 17 - The Cormorant Issue 24 Crest Publications

students were mightily impressed, for Innovators are always impressive.
H4MOD required us to fully immerse ourselves in our problems from the get-go. We were expected to conduct 10 interviews per week, with anyone and everyone who had heard about the topic to get their opinion and allow us to fully understand
what problem we were dealing with. This was
a hugely rewarding, but also massively time- consuming activity. As thoroughly professional and diligent military officers, we found ourselves becoming obsessed with our problems and helping our respective organisations. We had industry mentors steering us every week and were getting a solid dopamine hit from working on something real and tangible, rather than reading another academic paper. Innovators are do-ers!
By the end of the 8 weeks we had presented our problem sponsors with several options and in some cases, had developed a prototype solution or even Minimum Viable Product. Of course, our problem sponsors were grateful; their engagement with us had been a fascinating time for us both, and they were excited about the prospect of working with H4MOD and the next generation of Defence Innovators in the future. Innovators are always exciting!
Of course, we had our challenges along the way; it was hard to interact with each other remotely, let alone with over 80 interviewees over the course of the module. We became masters of Zoom small talk and asking probing questions to quickly get to
the bottom of an issue, or extract key information. Innovators are excellent rapport builders.
But, all in all, the experience was a positive one. Future MSc students will be assessed in different ways, and we knew that COVID placed some unique restrictions on our course.....but Innovators are always positive and we’ve all taken something away from the experience, including firm friendships and some excellent industry contacts.
Oh, and did we mention that Innovators are the future of Defence?
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