Product Thinking Episode 246: Rethinking the Role of R&D
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Sep 19, 2025 The podcast dives into the intriguing dynamics of integrating R&D within product management. It highlights different roles of R&D, such as market experts and technical teams, using healthcare and education as real-world examples. The discussion warns against R&D drifting into academic territory, stressing the importance of aligning efforts with customer needs and business value. The presenters emphasize treating technical R&D as a platform team to enhance its impact and relevance within the organization.
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R&D Often Acts As Content Experts
- R&D often functions as subject-matter or market experts rather than pure lab researchers.
- Rename or reframe them as content or market experts to match their actual role and influence product direction.
Real Examples From Healthcare And Education
- In healthcare, R&D hires pharmacists to advise on pharmaceutical components and trends.
- In education, R&D staff create course content while PMs design the software surface for it.
R&D As A Platform-Like Technical Team
- A different R&D archetype is highly technical data scientists building algorithms and models.
- Those teams resemble platform teams and focus on scientific and algorithmic work more than product-facing features.