I seldom talk about my job on this site. However, I wanted to take a few lines to talk about launching a product. While I can’t tell you what it is or when it will come out (don’t want to unnecessarily advertise) I can say that launch is almost imminent and it is exciting. We still have some unique challenges as we rush toward our newest target date (too many potential blog posts on deadlines), but the end is in sight.
Having been with a product from the decision to go forward, through the initial R&D, establishing intellectual property, alpha and beta-testing, and now to finalizing the transfer of the process from R&D to Manufacturing and eventually launch has been an amazing experience. I know as a former academic researcher that our grants to the NIH always contained the hope that our discoveries would be applicable to human health. However, we certainly didn’t conceptualize all the steps and time needed to actually launch a product (I am not even in a pharma company, so can only imagine the scale of the headaches they face!). I think that the process of product development could actually be applied to many of the decisions that are made by academic researchers of all experience levels. Certainly the concepts of team-work and multi-disciplinary interaction as used in a “industry setting” could be good teaching tools. Specifically, it is amazing how language plans such a central role in communicating between different groups (i.e. Marketing, Manufacturing, Engineering, etc). Even with highly educated people sitting together it is easy to talk past one another and end up with a lot of confusion and mis-direction and we aren’t even in competition with each other (in theory).
Anyway, I wish that every scientist had the opportunity to actually launch a product of some kind. It is an enlightening experience in terms of understanding the application side of science, problem solving, trouble-shooting and psychology.
Cheers
I wish that every scientist had the opportunity to actually launch a product of some kind.
yeah… it’s called a ‘paper’.
Richard – I respectfully disagree. A paper can be a bitch to get out the door, for sure. The critiques can be hard to read and the work can get frustrating…However, it is not the same and that is why I wish everyone could see this other aspect to getting something out to the world.
Whether it is getting a paper published or launching a product scientist certainly have the opportunity to have a unique set of experiences that most people don’t ever get to “enjoy”.
Having done both, I have to agree with Craig. There are certainly similarities, but the two experiences are (and definitely feel) quite different.
Having done both, I actually feel more attached to papers.
Me too, because my papers were much more of a personal achievement. The products I helped to launch were very much a team effort.
I love my papers, and am very proud of the work that went into them. However, I am just so excited about this product. More because of knowing all the bull
shitoney that we had to go through to get it to this point.Certainly, Cath, it was a team effort and I think that is what I really enjoyed. Unlike academia where my experience was that the team concept looked good on grants but seldom worked, I have a great team here and we have functioned (with our share of prima donna’s and bench warmers) as a team.
Almost congrats on the launch! I love the varied aspects and teamwork involved in product research and development and bringing products to launch. There is a whole other side you’ll presumably experience post launch as you work with researchers using the product; I find this equally rewarding.
With regard to papers, I have to agree with Craig and some of the other posters; product launches versus paper acceptances are two entirely different beasts. Having said that, I’ll grant that there are a number of similarities in my mind with mid to large consortium projects (eg human genome sequencing project, hapmap, 1000g).