Here's how you can master the specific logical reasoning techniques used by experts in R&D.

So, polar opposite to Inductive reasoning, which involves drawing specific conclusions from general premises. One of the easy examples to understand Deductive Logic is to formulate a scenario regardless of Industry you are in, with at least 2 premises. Example: Premise 1: All employees must complete safety training to work on-site. Premise 2: XYZ is an employee who works on-site. Conclusion: Therefore, XYZ has completed safety training. I mean, one should not underestimate this logic by any means. In complex scenarios with way more premises, it can lead to mumble jumble of a hypothesis if not implemented carefully. I hope this helps to formulate your own deductive approach.

So, this one is a very interesting approach. During COVID-19 period, we had this topic raised in multiple employee meetings where the company wanted to understand how remote work was affecting employee productivity (including me as well btw). And after almost same conclusions being sketched over and over, our team introduced the "Inductive Reasoning" rationale vs "Logical Reasoning" to better capture the employee sentiment, work morale, flexibility in scheduling meetings, which helped the firm move from specific data points to broader generalizations. But the catch was not the conclusion but revelation that suggested "remote work can be beneficial for productivity across SIMILAR companies and industries".

Our client planned to launch a new tech gadget and needed to conduct market research to understand potential customer needs, preferences, and market trends. Since, any market research relies foundationally on critical thinking at the ground level, in my experience, asking open-ended questions that require more than yes/no answers, like “What do you think about…?” or “Why do you believe…?” fosters a culture of inquiry in teams which further encourages team members to use collaborative and critical thinking to analyze information better.

With the changing landscape in technology, it has become integral for any organization to delve into and try new creative problem-solving techniques in order to refine the research better. In my opinion, Crowdsourcing, Mind Mapping, Shift from Document centered approach to Human centered (Approach Framing) and SCAMPER technique are one of the most effective techniques tried and tested by myself. I personally endorse the "6 Thinking hats" hack to get a better view of any problem from different verticals.

These forms of reasoning and thinking are best understood as approaches or ways of consideration that help us to slow down, take a closer look at our subject and situation, look for patterns, and question how those patterns were set. It is important to remember that these are helpful tools, a bit like weights we might use to build muscle, but being good at it doesn’t mean we are “right”. Take the following example: All bathtubs are things of titanium. All things of titanium are time-travel machines. Therefore, all bathtubs are time-travel machines. If the first 2 premises were true, the last sentence (the conclusion) would be true. So it’s valid in form, but it is not true. It helps us exercise our thinking, not arrive at objective truth.

Coming from Techno-functional background and being always surrounded by new software/version releases while providing Saas, the most powerful technique (Hands Down), was, is and will be in future as well, is "CI/CD" - Continuous Integration and Continuous Development. With the advent of automation, it's now more than necessary for survival of any ERP/Software/Cloud business to operate and be sustainable at the same time. Automating the integration and deployment processes to ensure that code changes are continuously tested and deployed, reducing the time to market is the key to be meaningful and economically viable. Add "CFL"-Continuous Feedback Loops by establishing human feedback loops to quickly identify and fix, to be MVP in any domain.