Testimonials

“The DHS Science and Technology Directorate is putting representatives from all the research teams in the recently awarded contracts through SRI’s Value Creation workshop. I attended the two-day workshop this week. The group arrived from a variety of different organizations—academia, small companies, massive companies with different research projects and different levels of experience doing this sort of thing. I think it is fair to say that many arrived as skeptics. SRI put us through a set of instructions and exercises in a structured process to describe the need, approach, benefits, and competition of our projects—first in a one-minute elevator pitch, then by adding more elements in a three-minute presentation, and finally in a five-minute presentation. As you can imagine, the brevity forced focus. A key part of the process was the way the attendees and teach feedback was presented and acted on in the class.

"It is hard to do the workshop justice. It is a combination of the environment, energy, process, materials, teachers, and fellow students. The best way to convey it is that every attendee had dramatic improvement in their ability to present the value of their project. Dramatic is not hyperbole here. You had to see it to believe it. Hats off to DHS S&T for realizing the importance of this effort to maximize the impact of their research dollars and to SRI for a strong program.”

“I went into the workshop somewhat skeptical it would be useful. I was going to be the person in the workshop most difficult to impress—which I admit was probably true. I wholeheartedly agree: it’s hard to give the workshop justice.

"Even more benefit goes to taxpayers, who are more likely to see return on DHS technology investment. I wish I had gotten this training 20 years ago in grad school, but better late than never. Kudos to Doug Maughan and DHS’ Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate for their vision and execution.”