Do you have any pointers for guides about how to implement this sort of methodology in software-based R&D? I'm currently in a small, partly research-focused team as part of a larger tech company, and it's proving a struggle to align our work with the rest of the dev squads who do all their work in 2-week sprints with max-2-day tasks. I'd love to better understand how research teams tackle this problem in other companies. It would be amazing if I could present an alternative strategy to management that's worked elsewhere.
The research breakthroughs will come from self-motivated, highly competent people. Figure out who they are, give them resources/help and get out of their way. Let them do nothing for 48 hours because it isn't nothing, they're thinking about what should be done. You're asking them to navigate a tremendous search space, and that will require unconventional modes of working. If you hired the right people, they should know better than you about how to best navigate that space. Keep them accountable over a 3-6 month time horizon, not a 1 week horizon. If they're juniors, they will need daily or weekly guidance, but not dictates or deadlines. Deadlines for artificial milestones do not make for better results, they degrade results because they force time-consuming proof of work. Researchers sometimes need active prodding if they are stuck in a local optima, but that's a different beast to predetermining specific tasks a week in advance. I'm assuming the talent bar is kept high so they can autonomously work in the above fashion, and I am assuming they are intrinsically motivated to produce results.
When it comes to less intrinsically motivated team members, I don't have useful advice. Maybe they can contribute to research output, but that would require more traditional management styles which I can't comment on.
When it comes to satisfying constraints imposed by other parts of the org, I can't usefully comment on this either.
Thanks. It is the "satisfying other parts of the org" part I'm struggling with, but it's helpful to see the reasoning laid out as you do in your first paragraph.
I guess the essential problem I'm trying to solve is how to respond when the MD or a product owner comes to me and says "The client wants our core algorithms to be adapted in XYZ novel ways. When can you deliver this?".
