Imagine working on a class project for weeks—producing creative ideas, testing hypotheses, creating experimental designs and gathering feedback through a series of interviews—only to realize, the problem that really needed solving was something entirely different.

A group of JMU undergraduate students experienced this “pivot” on a grand scale while working with the international government entity NATO as part of a JMU X-Labs course in Fall 2018. Originally tasked with a logistics problem of moving troops efficiently across Europe, the students soon found that the culture of decision-making within NATO was the real culprit.

The ambiguity in solving real-world problems is a part of the JMU X-Labs experience. Using a lean launchpad methodology, Hacking for Diplomacy students work together through a process of trial and error, continuously gaining feedback—and pivoting—throughout the semester. The methodology requires students to develop hypotheses and test their viability by conducting multiple interviews with stakeholders each week.

In 2017, JMU became the first and only institution in the nation to offer Hacking for Diplomacy exclusively to undergraduate students. By 2018, H4Di added NATO as a client.

The Fall 2018 team, First ACT, recognized a need for faster and more effective decision-making.

They created a minimum viable product: a decision-forcing exercise to accelerate troop deployment. With overwhelmingly positive feedback at conferences in Norfolk, Virginia, and Croatia and another H4Di class scheduled in the fall, JMU X-Labs’ work with NATO was far from over.

The Fall 2019 group, renamed Fast and Furious Decisions, was tasked with making the MVP a reality.

By the end of the semester, after a series of interviews, meetings and discussions, the team produced a computer application to help assess and test decision-making among NATO officers. The app includes a personality test that evaluates the kind of decision-maker the user is—specifically, where he or she falls on the risk spectrum. Then, the officer is presented with a few scenarios embedded with common problems and is forced to make a decision.

The goal is for the NATO school in Oberammergau, Germany, to adopt the decision-forcing tool. As part of their training, NATO officers would be required to put their decision-making to the test.

In the future, X-Labs hopes to continue working with NATO—whether it’s expanding what they’ve already produced or addressing another concern.