By necessity, attacking multiple gaps in the marketplace means we’ll have different products in different stages of development. We designed our innovation teams to mimic this reality so we could support each stage of development appropriately.

Our initial product discovery phase is led by our product management team with close collaboration with internal technology champions. This phase is focused on blue sky brainstorming and market research. They are tasked with identifying the areas of highest opportunity or need and framing potential solutions. More ideas go to the cutting-room floor than make it on through our pipeline.

Next, our research and innovation (R&I) team is responsible for executing our phase zero stage that is focused on generating the initial definition and concepts that we believe will address the unmet needs and market opportunity. The R&I team consists of a fully independent, cross-functional team from all engineering disciplines, clinical, and marketing. This team takes a nascent idea and builds it into a robust prototype ready for engineering and pre-clinical testing. During this phase, it is also expected that all major risks are identified and mitigations are proposed, including convergence on major architectural decisions.

Finally, our research and development team will execute the product development and commercialization phase that will require them to formalize the development effort, finalize the product definition, work within design control processes, generate a technically sound and manufacturable design, and transform the proof of concept solution into a world-class product. During this phase, it is also critical to continue to solicit feedback from all users who will interact with the product and react to any gaps that need to be addressed. Once the design is frozen, a series of major tasks such as design verification, validation, and regulatory submission will require strategy and discipline to execute properly.

Importantly, each of these groups is deliberately kept separate and independent from each other, even housed in different facilities. This is so they can remain focused on their very specific tasks and avoid being distracted by or pulled into the problems of another team. This does not mean that no communication or ideas flow between the teams. We encourage cross-pollination between programs through formal and informal interactions.

Lessons learned in medical robotics development with Enrique Romo, VP Research & Innovation Noah Medical

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