You’re leading an R&D team. What are the most important metrics to track?

In my Opinion: 1. Monitor R&D expenditures: Calculate the R&D project investment. 2. As a percentage of revenue: State the amount spent in relation to total income. 3. In contrast to rivals: Analyze R&D investment in relation to competitors in the industry. 4. Total amount: Keep an eye on the overall amount spent on R&D projects. 5. Think about other metrics: To evaluate the effectiveness and quality of R&D results, go beyond money.

Para ello es necesario realizar seguimiento a varias métricas para garantizar el éxito del proyecto. Algunas de las más importantes pueden ser: estado de cumplimiento de los objetivos propuestos en los plazos establecidos, productividad del equipo, calidad y el avance del trabajo, eficiencia en el uso de recursos, impacto de las investigaciones y la satisfacción del cliente.

High Research and Development (R&D) productivity implies that an organization can produce a significant output of valuable innovations relative to the input of resources invested, such as time, money, and manpower. To measure and improve R&D productivity, companies typically focus on the following aspects: defining clear objectives; ensuring strategic alignment; optimizing processes; managing talent; fostering collaboration and partnerships; managing the innovation portfolio; allocating resources effectively; leveraging technology; managing intellectual property; mitigating risk; and promoting continuous improvement. Organizations aim to ensure that their R&D efforts lead to successful and profitable outcomes.

A great way to track your culture is to implement a software for Pulse surveys. They are much more beneficial then traditional once-per-years surveys, not only because they are shorter and reduce the amount of time it takes employees to give their feedback, but also because they introduce a new dimension to results analysis: tracking over time. Typical survey questions would focus on to what degree you would recommend your organization as a great place to work, if you're excited about the organization's future, how you feel about your team, manager etc.

The most important thing to ensure is the team’s motivation over time. A pulse survey software is great for this in combination with retrospective talks as part of an agile process. If you have a highly motivated R&D team using an iterative approach such as SCRUM, they will self-organize to ensure the right competence. If they need support from outside the group, they will let you know. After this is established its really nice to measure the team’s ability to continuously deploy new changes and improvements. If the team can and also deploys very often its a great metric and indicator for productivity.