.png)
Pryzm was founded with a simple but vital purpose: to simplify how technology gets delivered to the public sector—especially for national security missions where speed, accountability, and precision matter most.
My cofounders and I had each lived through the same challenges that face nearly every acquisition program today. We saw three recurring needs:
- Streamlined procurement processes that reduce friction between mission needs and emerging technologies;
- More flexible budget structures that allow program managers to plan and adapt across both current and future years of capability development;
- Greater accountability in how programs are measured and rewarded, ensuring that success means delivering outcomes, not just outputs.
We built Pryzm to meet those needs—but we always knew that technology alone could not drive change at the scale the Department of War requires. True modernization would require policy to evolve alongside innovation.
That moment has arrived.
Today, the Secretary of War announced a sweeping reform of the defense technology Acquisition lifecycle: a foundational reset of how the Department invests, measures, and manages its programs. Today I’m simply writing to appreciate how the changes introduced align directly with the core principles that inspired Pryzm from the beginning.
A Big Change for a Big System
At a high level, the memorandum establishes new standards built around three critical pillars:
- Accountability – Decision authority is being redirected to leaders closer to the operational problems they solve. With a new mandate on portfolio scorecards and real-time performance visibility, the enterprise will now measure success by outcomes, not just compliance.
- Budget Flexibility – A major reframing of budget planning and execution from the model of Program Executive Officers (PEO) built around defined technology domains to a model of Portfolio Acquisition Executives (PAE) that emphasizes collections of technologies that deliver more comprehensive effects will better enable adaptive planning. Further, the administration frames a greater integration of private capital to further empower leadership with the financial agility to modernize at mission speed.
- Speed – A mandate to broader use of Commercial Solutions Openings (CSOs) which emphasize available technology and smart regulatory streamlining signals a serious commitment to accelerating how technology reaches the field.
Time to Implement Change
From the mission we set years ago that is now brought into the spotlight today, we are proud to have built Pryzm’s government-facing platform directly in partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Office of the Secretary of War to implement the exact transformations of this policy shift with what we call the “Digital Thread of Every Defense Dollar”.
Through our active Authority to Operate (ATO), government users on secure networks can now access an intuitive, off-the-shelf system for connecting mission needs, year-of-execution finances, and portfolio structures directly to the vendors, contract documentation, and workflows of key stakeholders.
With executive direction now in place, the next phase begins: deploying the digital infrastructure of this reorganization, one funding line at a time.
And yes, there is a Part II here. Stay tuned, we’re just getting started.
– Team Pryzm
