EP 75 — Elara Nova's Kim Crider on Balancing “Shiny Objects” & Foundational Infrastructure скачать в хорошем качестве

EP 75 — Elara Nova's Kim Crider on Balancing “Shiny Objects” & Foundational Infrastructure

Kim Crider, Founding Partner at Elara Nova, built the Air Force's first Chief Data Office with no mandate and skeptical leadership, then proved its value with one CORONA presentation that used pilot retention data to show four-star commanders exactly how data solves critical problems. Her framework: start with the decision you need to make, then work backwards to determine what data you need. She explains why defense technology fails when companies chase “the next shiny object” without investing in adoption infrastructure and shares lessons from three major cyber wake-up calls that reshaped the entire defense industrial base's security posture. She also breaks down why space domain awareness and command-and-control remain the biggest capability gaps. Chapters: 00:04 Introduction 01:10 From Air Force acquisition to 35-year career in technology 02:23 Translating between government and industry 05:29 Why the part-time military model works for technology roles 06:38 Standing up Aleranova Nova with 120+ partners 09:08 Building a mission-aligned consulting culture 12:07 Bringing in both military and industry expertise 13:27 How Aleranova Nova works with industry clients 15:58 Space is different: the holy crap moment 18:00 Understanding space through data and RF links 19:31 The data pivot where leadership started making data-driven decisions 20:36 Becoming the Air Force's first Chief Data Officer 22:15 The CORONA presentation that changed everything: pilot retention data 25:20 Working backwards from decisions to data requirements 25:37 RPA intelligence is the forgotten data problem 26:34 Space domain awareness and conjunction analysis challenges 27:42 How intuition vs data shapes operational decisions 28:56 The fuel consumption data story 30:34 Manual scheduling processes that still exist today 31:28 Agentic AI and autonomous capabilities 31:54 Biggest capability gaps in space operations 33:37 Experimentation and operational prototypes in space 35:23 Private capital and the shifting cost of space launch 36:56 Dangerous assumptions leaders make going fast 38:44 Investment priorities: where to spend and where not to 43:19 Supply chain vulnerability and cyber security investment 45:16 SolarWinds and ongoing breach risks 46:42 Balancing disruption with adoption infrastructure