Dive into the unknown.

It’s of great importance to have a growth mindset. 

In my mind, R&D is a mode of converting cash into opportunities. As we are putting more emphasis on commercialisation, i.e.: converting opportunity back into cash, it’s valuable to interpret the business challenges, and to see how the work we do every day finds its way into those ambitions.

I attended some workshops with clients to work out the R&D roadmap and business model and this benefited me in terms of understanding the financial and business issues in their R&D process. It also makes me think that most technical people function optimally in one or two stages (like the proposing new ideas, conceptual and feasibility study) and may spend most the career in those stages; only a few moves with a project from start to finish (such as development, commercialisation, success). I am curious to know more about the life-cycle process. Therefore, I spent my spare time to read books and take online courses.

This gradually changed my perception of things. Take a new technology for example, I not only consider the technical advantage(whether it’s cool), but also ask myself about the initial target market, end-user experience and who will commercialise it.  

In short, I’m trying to become a research scientist but think as a venture capitalist.