Kim Crider on Balancing Shiny Objects and Foundational Infrastructure

by Jon Forisha on May 01, 2026

When Kim Crider, Founding Partner at Elara Nova, became the Air Force's first Chief Data Officer, she had no mandate, minimal staff, and skeptical four-star commanders. Her CORONA presentation changed everything: using actual pilot retention data and analysis, she demonstrated how insufficient training aircraft was driving attrition. The Secretary's response unlocked buy-in across the service.

Kim shares how she did it: start with the decision you need to make, then work backwards to determine what data you need, where to get it, and how to manage it. This problem-first approach drove real outcomes, from identifying landing gear failures caused by excessive fuel loads to optimizing mission planning.

She also warns defense leaders that tech disruption means nothing without adoption infrastructure. AI capabilities, for example, fail at scale without proper data centers and power systems. Invest equally in disruption and the foundational infrastructure that enables adoption — test environments, integration capabilities, and the cultural shift needed for people to work effectively with new technology.

Topics discussed:

Establishing the Air Force's first Chief Data Officer role without mandate or resources, then proving value through CORONA presentation.
Implementing problem-first data frameworks that work backwards from decisions to determine required data sources and management.
Balancing tech disruption with adoption infrastructure including data centers, power systems, test environments, and cultural integration.
Addressing space domain awareness and command-and-control capability gaps.
Using operational prototypes, realistic testing environments, and modeling-and-simulation infrastructure to prove integration before deployment at scale.
Learning from Viasat, SolarWinds, and Colonial Pipeline attacks that reshaped defense industrial base cyber posture and supply chain security.
Avoiding shiny object syndrome by investing in foundational infrastructure alongside platforms to enable cross-domain, multi-orbit resilient capabilities.

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