What are the key criteria for evaluating the technical feasibility of your R&D project?

Three questions should be answered before investing time on R&D project project proposal: 1. Why and What: The project outcome 2. How: process flow diagram for achieving the project outcome 3. When: Time frame to achieve the outcome

After defining the value proposition, you need to make decision with no emotion, sometimes the project won't pay off but you're loved by it.

Think ahead of the market and look for the future world needs and people wants. Creating values for your idea is core aspect before getting into the project and R&D

The first and foremost thing one should brainstorm on the R&D project is "what is the future of a future project". You should have clear vision on feasibility of a project to run on minimal budget with higher profit margin, self dependent knowhow, ability to withstand the unforeseen fluctuations, persuading communication skills, wider marketing opportunities and possibility to scale up.

To ensure you are covering all bases, involve key stakeholders in this needs assessment phase. This includes not only the development team but also product managers, designers, and even end-users if possible. By gathering diverse perspectives, you can uncover different facets of the project requirements that may not be immediately obvious. This collaborative approach ensures that the technology stack you choose is not only technically sound but also aligned with business goals and user expectations.

We can call this as setting a benchmark. It can be either a competitor products or a set of standards for your product or service. Having a correct benchmark is important before going with R&D.

To harness the full potential of your project, engagement across your entire organization is pivotal. Involve key teams and partners linked to the innovation's impact, as their insights enrich the process. The subsequent stride is outlining the project's technical requirements. This entails specifying product/service details, features, functions, and performance benchmarks. Equally vital is anticipating technical hurdles, risks, and uncertainties in the development journey, along with a robust mitigation strategy. Gauge the project's time, cost, and resource needs, aligning them with your budget and capacity. This holistic approach sets the stage for a well-grounded technical roadmap.

We also need to check in the market demand and changing trends and scalability too. Example if we are into consultancy service we need to think about custom requirements that can come from customers do we have the capability to scale or customise

The journey from concept to reality in R&D pivots on defining technical requirements with precision. This transformative step breathes life into the innovation blueprint. My exploration of technical landscapes is molded by my dedication to merging vision with practicality and infusing innovation with precision. To me, technical requirements surpass mere specifications; they embody a symphony of insights across the organization. Collaborating with stakeholders across teams and partners is pivotal. Their diverse perspectives illuminate avenues and challenges, enhancing the resonance of technical requirements. This collaborative spirit propels projects towards impactful roadmaps.

Idea Validation or Solution Validation. You need to check the market fitness of your idea and find the innovation sweet spot. When validating you need to consider it’s desirability, feasibility, viability and integrity of the product or service.

To ensure the technical feasibility of your R&D project, thorough customer engagement is essential. Conduct in-depth interactions with your customer base, adopting a two-pronged approach that explores both their pain points and potential solutions. Validate the market through an array of methods including comprehensive market research, customer surveys, interviews, and focus groups. This comprehensive approach yields invaluable insights and data from your target audience. Simultaneously, analyse market dimensions, growth trends, and opportunities, informing a strategic positioning of your solution.

In my experience market research is very helpful ..but what happens most often is the organisation gets comfortable with one or two successes and forgets that it’s not a good situation to be in with one or two drivers for the major revenues ..we must always look out for diversification and expanding our domain expertise …

Market validation is a critical step in R&D feasibility, as it helps to ensure that an innovation meets real-world needs and is aligned with compliance. This involves evaluating desirability, feasibility, viability, and the product or service's inherent integrity. It also requires engaging with customers to understand their pain points and potential solutions, as well as conducting market research to gather data on market size, growth trends, and opportunities. By taking a holistic approach to market validation, organizations can ensure that their innovations have a real impact on the market.

Involving consultants might help …depending on the project prototypes could also turn out to be very expensive so a weighing of various options needs to be considered

We can simply say ‘Go with Lean Startup Terminology’. Start with a prototype and test in the target market portion with an MVP.

You should pay attention to the industrial feasibility of your prototype from the beginning. You can do everything with a 3d printer, but could be unfeasible with industrial tools.

The landscape of prototyping techniques presents a diverse array of options, spanning from rudimentary models to intricate, high-fidelity designs. These methods encompass approaches like paper prototyping, which involves sketching out concepts on paper to swiftly visualize ideas and gather initial feedback. Additionally, rapid prototyping leverages 3D printing and other advanced technologies to swiftly create physical models for more in-depth testing. Wireframes and mockups provide interactive visualizations of user interfaces, aiding in refining the user experience. Prototyping serves as an invaluable vehicle for substantiating assumptions and hypotheses.

Venturing into the realm of R&D feasibility, the trail to innovation's heart is often paved by the creation of a prototype—a tangible testament to technical viability. From my perspective, this phase is where concept and reality meet, where theories are transformed into tangible evidence of potential success. In my view, the landscape of prototyping techniques is a symphony of possibilities. From rudimentary models to intricate, high-fidelity designs, each approach serves a purpose. Paper prototyping offers swift visualization and initial feedback, while rapid prototyping leverages advanced technologies for physical models. Wireframes and mockups bring user interfaces to life, refining the user experience.

Protect your IP: Assess whether your invention is most suitable for protection by the following*: Patent protection, which is suitable for technical inventions and novel methods of manufacturing; Trademark registration, applies for most types of businesses, to ensure distinction and strengthen brand recognition of your product and company. This also applies for mobile applications and services; Design protection, to protect your business against infringement of your novel designs, such as chairs, lamps, tableware etc. *More than one type of protection may be relevant in your specific case.

Integral to assessing your R&D project's technical feasibility is safeguarding your intellectual property (IP). Early consideration of your ultimate IP goal is prudent. Such forethought steers the developmental trajectory, influencing aspects like publications and presentations. Embrace the varying shades of open source and closed elements within a single project. This adaptive approach tailors openness according to project segments, fostering collaboration while guarding proprietary aspects. By embedding IP protection considerations throughout, you fortify your R&D journey against potential roadblocks while fostering a balanced interplay of innovation and collaboration.

Choices span patents for technical inventions, trademarks for branding, and design protection for novel designs. The strategic selection, grounded in the uniqueness of the project, ensures that the innovation is fortified against potential encroachments. Incorporating IP protection into the R&D journey, from my standpoint, is a strategic dance. It requires foresight, woven into the project's fabric from the outset. It's about understanding the dual role of openness and proprietary elements—tailoring each according to project segments. This balanced approach fosters innovation while creating a buffer against potential roadblocks.

For science-based R&D, the path to market often demands an added layer: 1. Determine the reimbursement avenues. 2. Understand regulatory and compliance implications. 3. Assess the healthcare economics and patient benefits. Further, to maximize adoption: 1. Engage with key opinion leaders early. 2. Foster collaborations with healthcare providers. 3. Educate the market on the solution's distinctive advantages.

The journey to market entry, especially in science-based R&D, demands multifaceted considerations. Factors such as reimbursement avenues, regulatory compliance, and healthcare economics play pivotal roles. This layered approach ensures that the innovation aligns with the intricate web of healthcare dynamics. Within the commercialization plan, I advocate for early engagement with key opinion leaders—those who wield influence within the industry. This collaborative approach fosters alignment with market needs and enriches the innovation's trajectory. Collaborations with healthcare providers amplify adoption potential, while educating the market about the innovation's distinct advantages paves the way for sustained impact.

We need to consider the following things as well: 1. Availability of Technology 2. Size of the market 3. Cost of technology 4. Cost of the product or service in comparison with competitors product. 5. Integrity and impact of the product or service in the market.

I’d also consider capacities and capabilities, is the team sufficient and skilled enough (under both technical and soft skills standpoints) to carry on the project at pace. Or shall I need to invest on external resources to upskill/support R&D teams

Time to market, for hardware products. It can be very long. You should estimate as detailed as possible from the beginning and setup a realistic schedule.

In my view, what sets a project on the path to transformative success isn't merely technical feasibility, but the harmonious convergence of multiple dimensions. It's about assessing not only the technical aspects, but the human elements and the ecosystem in which the innovation will flourish. This comprehensive perspective is the hallmark of a project poised to not just succeed, but to redefine the boundaries of possibility. As we draw our discourse to a close, these insights remind us that the journey from concept to reality isn't a linear path—it's a symphony of elements that, when orchestrated together, create innovation's most resonant tune.

A balanced R&D program should have a mix of activity, including: - Incremental improvements, - Step change improvements, - Paradigm changing improvements. The relative balance of these activities will depend on the strategy of the organization. Many organizations fail to recognize the value of intellectual curiosity in R&D and as a result they tend to focus on incremental improvements rather than on business changing opportunities. Finally, organizations need to recognize and allow time for the "bolt out of the blue" ideas or the "ideas looking for a problem". These are where the paradigm changers come from. These ideas should be encouraged, but, screened quickly and stopped as soon as possible if not viable.