Three product lines mapped to the productization spectrum. Tech Vector ships first. NorthStar second. Defense BD third. In that order, earned not skipped.
The fastest, cheapest path to a credible federal product is almost always to extract existing IP, not to invent something new. Your delivery history is a gold mine of hidden IP that you've already proven works in federal environments.
Book 1 describes four levels of federal productization. Level 1 is a packaged service with fixed scope and fixed price. Level 2 is a productized service where IP-leveraged delivery replaces labor arbitrage. Level 3 is a tech-enabled platform with a light services wrap. Level 4 is pure SaaS with self-serve and credit-card acquisition. The goal for a services firm trying to productize is almost never to jump to Level 4 first. The goal is to build recurring revenue at Level 2, earn the right to climb, and use that base to fund the authorization path.
| Product Line | Current State | L2 Form | L3 Path | Sequence | Gross Margin Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tech Vector | Guided-query construction tool against 200M-doc corpus. Functional. Unsold as a product. Phase I lineage: DERIVES from FA8649-21-P-0756 scope (AI commercialization-partner identification via patents/grants/financial). Direct textual match. See A2 derive-extend-complete-mapping for full argument. |
Quarterly "universe pack" on a named technology area. Structured PDF output plus point-of-contact for follow-up. Delivered on NorthAI machines, GCC High or GovCloud environment. | Self-service query access with usage-metered pricing and a dashboard showing results over time. Requires light FedRAMP authorization step. | First SKU. Ships within 30 days of engagement kickoff. | 60-75% gross margin at L2. Tech Vector has the cleanest standardized core. |
| NorthStar | Conversational intelligence assistant against the same corpus. Buyers love it. Cannot procure it without an ATO they cannot fast-track. Phase I lineage: EXTENDS Phase I via conversational-interface modality over same corpus and methodology. Strong fit (INFERRED). |
Structured Q&A session against a defined technology domain. Transcribed and indexed output delivered within 5 business days. The buyer gets the indexed answer set, not a license to the tool. | Managed conversational access via GovCloud tenant with dedicated ISSO support. Depends on L2 Tech Vector proving the delivery model first. | Second SKU. Builds on Tech Vector cadence. Ships once first recurring contract is booked. | 55-70% gross margin at L2. Conversational delivery adds analyst time that compresses margin vs. Tech Vector. |
| Defense BD | Go-to-market analytics layer surfacing procurement movement across defense program lines. Closest to operational integration, hardest to scope as a product. Phase I lineage: EXTENDS Phase I via the financial-data dimension. Strong fit (INFERRED until Tim's Phase I report locks down the financial-data definition). |
Quarterly "budget posture" brief. Named line items the buyer cares about, ranked by movement velocity, delivered as a structured memo with one analyst call for context. | Live dashboard against buyer's planning cycle. Requires CHN vehicle alignment and deeper data integration than L2 form requires. | Third SKU. Ships once the first two SKUs have demonstrated the delivery cadence and the gross-margin math holds. | 50-65% gross margin at L2. Highest analyst-time dependency of the three; margin improves with codification. |
Three reasons, drawn from Ch 6 of Book 1 on hill selection.
First, the deliverable is the most tangible of the three. A universe pack on a named technology area is a thing a buyer can hold. A CLIN can attach to it. An obligation can be placed against it under existing CHN paper. The buyer does not need to understand the tool to understand what they are buying.
Second, the engineering change required to ship L2 is minimal. The query construction and the output generation already work. The productization work is scoping the standard deliverable, building the output template, and defining what configurable surface the buyer gets to adjust. That is a 30-day sprint, not a 6-month build.
Third, the buyer set is the warmest. Office of Directed Energy is the documented fan. DIB policy offices and tech-transfer shops at OSD components fit the same profile. These buyers have procurement authority over discretionary intelligence tools in the $50K-$150K annual range, which is exactly where a Level 2 productized service lives.
NorthStar depends on conversational interaction, which resists scope-fencing. The risk is that the next question is always a new question. Tech Vector needs to establish the delivery precedent first: what a "standard engagement" looks like, how follow-up questions get handled, where the scope boundary sits. Once that precedent is set on Tech Vector, applying it to NorthStar is a pattern-match, not a new design problem.
Defense BD is closest to operational integration. The buyer wants a live view of their planning cycle, not a quarterly artifact. That live-view form requires deeper CHN vehicle alignment and more integration work than the first two SKUs. It ships third, after the gross-margin math from SKU 1 and 2 is proven and the delivery cadence is documented.
| Milestone | Window | Owner | Output | Gate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SKU definition locked | Weeks 1-3 | Productization Lead + Builder | tech-vector-sku-spec-v0.html | Steward reviews. Operator signs off on delivery feasibility. Spec is the contract with the buyer. |
| Delivery template built | Weeks 2-4 | Builder | Universe pack template (PDF structure + cover + appendix format). One sample deliverable on a named technology. | One internal test run against a technology area the Operator selects. Output reviewed by both founders. |
| CLIN structure drafted | Week 3 | Productization Lead + Operator | CLIN 0001 (standard quarterly deliverable), CLIN 0002 (onboarding / scope setup), CLIN 0003 (custom add-on, T&M). CHN paper reviewed for vehicle fit. | Legal review by CHN counsel. Not a new vehicle. Fits under existing CHN contracting structure. |
| Pricing set | Weeks 3-4 | Productization Lead (inputs to Raise Narrative Lead) | Anchor pricing for three tiers. Pricing range memo cross-references pricing-range-memo-v0.html. | Anchored to comparables. Not a T&M rate. Not an hourly number. A named deliverable at a fixed annual price. |
| Outreach to 3 named buyers | Weeks 4-6 | Operator | Three named organizations in Tim's existing network. Each receives the one-page SKU brief and a request for a 30-minute call. | At least one call booked before week 6. No free pilots. Every engagement is at contract price or not at all. |
| First contract signed | Weeks 6-10 | Operator + CHN operations | First recurring-revenue contract under CHN paper. CLIN 0001 signed. First universe pack delivery scheduled. | Signed contract is the milestone, not a handshake or LOI. Revenue recognition begins on delivery. |
| First delivery completed | Weeks 8-12 | Builder + delivery analyst | First universe pack delivered to first customer. Follow-up call scheduled within 5 business days of delivery. | Customer confirms receipt and schedules follow-up. Delivery is logged as the first proof point in the raise-diligence narrative. |
| Post-delivery retrospective | Week 12 | All | What worked, what was outside the 70% standardized core, what scope-fence held vs. bent. Inputs to SKU spec v1. | Retrospective memo produced before starting SKU 2 definition. The 3-customer threshold clock starts here. |
SKU 2 launch is not calendar-driven. It is milestone-driven. All four conditions below must be true before NorthStar moves into active SKU definition:
| Condition | Metric | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| 3 signed contracts on Tech Vector | 3 paying customers at full price. Not pilots. Not discounted trials. | Book 1 Ch 6: three customers = repeatability. Two is a pattern. One is an anomaly. |
| Delivery cadence documented | A written playbook for the Tech Vector quarterly delivery, reproducible without Stephanie on every run. | SKU 2 depends on the delivery model being codified. If Stephanie is still the only person who can run the delivery, adding SKU 2 doubles the founder-dependency, not the revenue. |
| Gross margin at or above 60% | Measured across the first three Tech Vector deliveries. Not projected. Actual. | NorthStar is more labor-intensive per engagement than Tech Vector. It cannot be launched into a margin environment that is already under 60%. |
| ConMon cost path identified | The FedRAMP path memo is complete and the ConMon cost is built into Tech Vector pricing. | Adding a second SKU before the compliance cost is modeled means the second SKU will be priced wrong from day one. |
These are the questions this roadmap cannot answer from outside. They are inputs to the founders for the next conversation, not action items for HARBOR to resolve.