How can R&D help your product stand out from competitors?

R&D can help you create an incredibly annoying AI algorithm that will bother every R&D professional with dumb, bland, generic questions about the benefits of R&D. This will help those who carefully unfollowed their more naive connections still have an inexhaustible amount of garbage on their feed, which in turn will convince them that Linked...--sorry, I meant your company--has a functional R&D department, and is not just playing all day with ChatGPT.

In field of pharmaceutical industry: In my opinion, research can differentiate a product in several ways. Since the end user of the drug is the patient, the biggest issue that should be observed is that the ease of administration of the drug which should be considered during the design. With field surveys, the problems that caused the competitors to not appear well, such as side effects, the frequency of use, the route of administration, etc., should be investigated and then try to solve them. The physicians requirements to treat the disease should be one of the priorities, for example, timing, site of action, etc.

R&D activities can be adjusted and designed by seeing competitors' strengths and weaknesses. The best tool to do this is to use a SWOT matrix. - Identifying the weaknesses and strengths of competitors prevents your weaknesses from occurring. - Identifying the strengths of others will encourage you to continuous improvement. - One should be careful of threats - Finally, turn threats into opportunities. In this way, you have to update products in your market upon your client's needs by a reasonable price.

R&D will support the product innovation process and the feature uniqueness will provide to the user experience by creating value that is not provided by completion product. R&D plays a key role in enhancing the customer satisfaction.

By having a strong relationship with your R&D teams, commercial and sales teams can be empowered with comprehensive understanding of their products to enable approaches that can be more suited to address customer concerns before they are approached; would you rather buy something from someone who knows everything about their product, or someone who just knows the key points? Collaboration between the two empowers both R&D and sales; helps focus R&D project direction and helps sales know all they can about products.

R&D 90% of the time is science based and 10% is trial and error, on paper everything seems easy but practically it's considered another level, maybe after months of studying and prototyping you can go back to square zero due to some unexpected failure, however you have learned well about this issue which unlikely to happen again

The "cost" of R&D depends on the type of company. For retail manufacturer R&D is relatively cheap compared to the cost of marketing and promotions. For a B2B company, R&D may be highest cost investment in the future of a corporation.

Os desafios do P&D e Desenvolvimento, pode-se destacar: *necessidade de uma equipe qualificada, com amplo conhecimento do produto; *custo alto de manter o projeto pelo tempo necessário;

The challenges of R&D is basically not from the theory or the papers that you can obtained online/patents. The actual challenge is the part where you need to convert all these theoretical information into actual product. Based on the feasibility study, everything can be very perfect. When you convert these R&D lab study into actual production scale, a lot of unknown situation will happen. Another possible challenges is nowadays everyone is asking their problems through ChatGPT. Although AI are helpful but in actual situation, things can get very wrong. They need to understand that the development of AI is based on the data feed to the system. If data feeding is wrong, the output will bring you to no where.

The biggest challenge a inventor encounter during R&D when going down a pathway is getting too focused on its outcome - specially the one you hypothesize and expect and develops a bias due to your "sunk-time theory". Remaining exploratory in your approach, pivoting when unexpected things come along, putting effort to understand the unexpected twist while simultaneously selecting pathways that yield "not what you want" but explain "what you did not expect" leads to some of the most breathtaking discoveries.

Acquiring actionable insights from user behavior is pivotal for refining a product, and a key best practice. Utilizing analytics platforms, for example Pendo.io, offers a clear view into user interactions, feature adoption, and overall usage patterns. A data-driven approach ensures that development is acutely aligned with the areas of the product that users engage with the most. By tracking real-time metrics, product teams can prioritize enhancements on features that matter to users, ensuring resource allocation is both strategic and user-focused. Such tools not only quantify the 'what' in user behavior but also help in understanding the 'why' behind it, making them indispensable in the iterative process of product optimization.

Design of Experiments to validate/invalidate a theory, assumptions, to prove outstanding questions, to demonstrate limitations, to connect and explain with known fundamental science by eliminating other noisy correlations are key to charting a right path for R&D. For best practices - independent repeatability, reproducibility, accuracy and errors accounting, explanation with known science, and peer communication and reviews remains the gold standard of successful R&D.

When prototyping and testing your product with end users, a key skill to develop is the ability to observe and listen. What excites the end user about your product? What angle might you develop with sales to better sell the product? What did you think they would easily understand, but now you see they missed or struggle with?

1. Collaboration: Foster teamwork across departments for market-aligned development. 2. Consumer Focus: Prioritize features that resonate with target consumers. 3. Agile Methods: Embrace flexibility for quick iterations and adaptation. 3. Talent and Resources: Invest in skilled staff and cutting-edge facilities. 4. Continuous Learning: Stay updated on trends and technologies for ongoing improvement.

Always having the radar on, is important. 18 month ago Generative AI, went in! How shall we adapt to that? And just now is there anything else appearing?

In addition to above: - Competitor comparison (Quality & Cost) - Ecofriendly or sustainable products - New technology like Nano - New packing technology - One product multiple usage - Save water, save time, durability of usage. I think there are many parameters to make a unique stand, for that R&D place vital role.

A good R&D strategy allows to develop more suitable and sustainable solutions. This will allow to differentiate in the market, anticipate market trends and needs, and having a longer life cycle of the set solutions.

Making the product intuitive to use and intuitive to understand are some other keys for success. The less a sales person has to explain about how to use the product or its technical features and benefits, the easier it will be to sell and adopt.

Yesterdays R&D, is today's topline! Today's R&D could be tomorrows topline - IF it is done properly! Important to realize....

R&D significantly enhances sales development by creating self-selling products. It aids in generating leads through showcasing unique product features and benefits. Leveraging the R&D story enhances trust and credibility, demonstrating expertise and customer focus. Furthermore, showcasing R&D results as evidence of quality, performance, and reliability helps in closing more deals and retaining customers.

The Research and Development Department helps in developing solutions to market and currency fluctuations. And also in the company's global spread.

Alignment and agreement is needed not only between these two front and back-end functions but all the functions who connect and support them, manufacturing, sourcing etc. Tools are all good to answer “the HOW” but most essential is the intention to break the functional silos, at all levels. Too often goals of these functions become divergent enough that common corporate goals remains unfulfilled despite of the hard work of all parties.

For R&D and sales, accurate communication, setting project expectations, and defining clear limitations are also important. Both have different points of view that contribute to product success, so it's essential to listen to both parties and respect each other's expertise—always keeping the best interest of the product and company vision in mind.

By establishing and continuously nurturing a feedback channel between sales and R&D, the two teams can keep each other aligned. Sales by making R&D aware of market trends, customer interests or aversion, can help in R&D set their vision and budget for short or long term. R&D can also seek information about their ongoing projects from potential prospects through the sales team.

Ensuring synergy between R&D and sales is key for effective product development and market success. Foster regular, transparent communication between teams using tools like Slack, Zoom, or Google Workspace. Educate the sales team about product features and value propositions with tools like Loom, Gong, or Chorus. Recognize team achievements using platforms like Bonusly, Kudos, or Nectar, fostering a collaborative environment that drives innovation and revenue.

There are two ways to compete using R&D. 1. Make it 25% better and 25% cheaper than the competitor. 2. Develop a new product with new features that does not exist in the market place. Go with courage of conviction.

One more tip I would like to leave for your consideration. It is mentioned in the iconic book by Daniel Kahneman ‘Thinking, fast and slow’. Originally invented by Gary Klein the technique is called pre mortem analysis and can be applied whenever making important, strategic decision like big R&D investment, Ask your decision makers to imagine that a year later they are explaining why the project failed. It is not designed to stop new initiatives but it may add an interesting perspective. It changes how we look at it so we can discover blind spots in planning.

I strongly believe in the idea of innovation "inside the box" and not "think outside the box". Its better to be inside the box and make that box bigger and complex as you understand it more for discover new things over the knowledge that we have built over generations already.

Companies' R&D departments impact other departments' efficiency, notably sales. Your significant scientific and commercial thinking in meeting market needs has been investigated and considered by R&D. Therefore, your customers and local and worldwide marketplaces will recognize your professional strength. They trust both common and novel products. I truly think research and development projects benefit companies. Although some R&D project outcomes appear unwelcome, they are useful since they clarify the company's direction and avoid improper investment. A professional company needs an R&D department to compete in the market and succeed.

Innovative R&D is the cornerstone of competitive differentiation. By harnessing cutting-edge tools like AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics, R&D can transform insights into superior products. This fusion of technology and creativity is essential to outpace competitors, providing customers with solutions that offer enhanced efficiency, better user experience, and new capabilities, thereby securing a market edge in an ever-evolving industry landscape.