{"id":7,"date":"2023-02-25T18:07:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-25T17:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racheldubois.fr\/?p=7"},"modified":"2024-05-25T17:53:13","modified_gmt":"2024-05-25T15:53:13","slug":"coaching-rd-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racheldubois.fr\/index.php\/2023\/02\/25\/coaching-rd-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"Coaching R&amp;D teams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p id=\"ember45\">After my talk at ProductWorld2023 I received a lot of questions, amongst which this one from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/ACoAABa8RqsBpe2ehz4pr-R4O42QdVp0_eL21Kk?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_detail_base%3BpR%2B5BYzRTSCV4v%2BCfHpYOg%3D%3D\">Abdelillah HASSAM<\/a> !<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>\u201c Might be a wrong question but that\u2019s why I wanted to ask it to you Rachel Dubois. I notice that your are an agile coach for R&amp;D teams.. Do we coach R&amp;D teams the same way that we coach other product teams? How do you navigate through uncertainty that comes with it (I guess) with no factual roadmap ? Thanks for your feedback\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember47\">I really enjoyed thinking on how to answer properly, as it is quite tricky! One&#8217;s approach to coaching R&amp;D teams would be highly influenced by its industrial background, by the cultural markers of the company, by leadership style &#8230; and also coach background (Product, Craft\/ Tech, leadership etc \u2026 ) &nbsp; This answer is thus 100% subjective and not a statement not \u201cthe answer\u2019&nbsp; in any way \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember48\">First I wanted to address the roadmapping aspect, and&nbsp; the potential underlying assumptions that R&amp;D organizations\/teams don&#8217;t use roadmaps to guide and orient their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember49\">It is my belief that a roadmap can be an effective tool also for R&amp;D teams to help them align, plan and prioritize their work. But it requires a slightly different approach than traditional product roadmapping, and of course it should not be a &#8220;over engineering detailed plans of committed deliverables&#8221; \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember50\">Here are a few tips for roadmapping with R&amp;D teams:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Focus on problems and opportunities<\/strong> => In R&amp;D, the focus is\u00a0 on solving complex open-ended problems, so use those as the basis for the roadmap.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Build in flexibility:<\/strong> R&amp;D work is quite unpredictable, so remember that roadmaps are only forecasts, aka bets one makes based on today&#8217;s knowledge. Thus focus on short-term roadmaps that allows for experimentation and flexibility, and regularly re-evaluate and adjust as new information becomes available.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Be inclusive and involve teams:<\/strong> R&amp;D work is often highly specialized, and the best ideas for solving problems come from teams . So be super inclusive, encourage folks to share their ideas and insights, foster experimentation, and allow free communication with healthy friction around projects.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Prioritize based on impact: <\/strong>R&amp;D work\u00a0 involves a lot of experimentation and exploration, and lot of hypotheses might take you to dead ends or might burn more resources (time, $, energy\u2026) ; prioritize projects based on their potential to solve the key problems identified , use rationals and data, and provided guardrails (leading and lagging indicators, constrains, etc) At Spotify we use the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.product-frameworks.com\/DIBB.html\">DIBB framework<\/a> to structure that in lightweight way and connect our ambitions to our north star goals and mission.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Communicate, communicate, communicate<\/strong> (ad\u00a0 libitum): create traction based on\u00a0 transparency, this will nurture alignment, while team autonomy will enable speed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember52\">From the coaching point of view, I find that coaching R&amp;D teams is similar in many ways to coaching any other product teams, especially <strong>when R&amp;D is the Product.<\/strong> I also acknowledge some&nbsp;unique challenges and needs that come with working in R&amp;D, and the biggest is <strong>acknowledge the uncertainty !<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember53\">It&#8217;s important to understand the exploratory nature of R&amp;D teams. As&nbsp; a coach, you can help team members understand that uncertainty is a normal part of the process and help them develop strategies for managing it. Due to my scientific background I tend to guide teams using the scientific process \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Formulate our hypothesis<\/strong> based on observation and previous knowledge.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Conduct background research<\/strong> => review the existing literature to gain a better understanding of the topic and determine what has already been tried, studied.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Design the experiment<\/strong> => develop a plan for how to test the hypothesis. This includes identifying the variables that will be studied but also selecting a study population (work with Designers and UX folks !!)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Collect &amp; analyze\u00a0data:<\/strong> Be obsessed by data, and leverage the competencies of Data Scientists &amp; Data Researchers to analyze the data and look for patterns or relationships between variables.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Draw conclusions and communicate results within the R&amp;D organization<\/strong>, allow others to review, comment\u00a0 and replicate to further confirm or refute our hypothesis and choose : should we pursue ?\u00a0 Should we pivot ? Should we kill the initiative ?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember55\">This approach puts an emphasis on learning and on collective intelligence for growth :<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>As a coach, you can <strong>help the team focus on what they are learning<\/strong> and how they can use that knowledge to inform their work.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You can also help by <strong>creating a culture of experimentation and provide support for testing and iterating<\/strong> on ideas : support teams during hack days, encourage \u201c Whaf if\u2026 \u201d scenarios,\u00a0 foster innovation with fast prototyping and cheap mockups that helps teams tests their ideas, work on bringing in end-users and customers so R&amp;D teams have direct access to them.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>R&amp;D teams often work across disciplines and may need to collaborate with experts in different areas. As a coach, you can <strong>help teams develop the skills they need to work effectively with others and build strong partnerships<\/strong> : supporting stakeholders identification and involvement, coach to grow informal leaders,\u00a0 create safe spaces for healthy conversations &#8211; make it safe for folks to give and receive constructive feedback<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember57\">Hope it helps !<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember58\">Thanks for this opportunity that pushed me writing my first article \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After my talk at ProductWorld2023 I received a lot of questions, amongst which this one from Abdelillah HASSAM ! \u201c Might be a wrong question &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thinking","latest_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racheldubois.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racheldubois.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racheldubois.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racheldubois.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racheldubois.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racheldubois.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8,"href":"https:\/\/racheldubois.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions\/8"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racheldubois.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racheldubois.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racheldubois.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racheldubois.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}