Human: – Many innovative organizations are putting together small (2-7 people) R&D teams in Sweden to work on innovative and important innovations and proof of concepts that can be developed into products and companies. To enable this customized and new R&D setups are required taking best practices from relevant industries adapted to Swedish teams and working culture. We need to have a framework optimized for small teams through these stages.

Swedish teams today need to find a way to contribute and stay relevant in a global R&D space increasingly dominated by larger superpowers.

Suggested Approach: Innovate on innovation

Small teams need to be smart about how and where they spend their time most effectively. A relevant strategy for small R&D teams is to blend together the best practices and learnings from the relevant successful producers from various industries, including our own specific learnings relevant to Sweden and apply it to our specific needs for each project. This allows us to have a framework and guiding principles to help us adapt our teams and methods for a wide variety of R&D projects.

• Guiding Values: Our core tenets: innovation, efficiency & openness.
• It’s creative: R&D is actually a very creative process, and teams should be managed like a creative team, not just a combination of skills. Learnings from the creative industries can be applied to technical R&D teams. The same rules that apply to creating a successful piece of creative work such as a game, film or album. How can we bring the ideas of great creative producers like Rick Rubin to the tech R&D world?
• Don’t skip the research: Adequate research is often not done, there is a tendency to start engineering and getting your hands dirty soon. Doing proper research and studying success and failures can save a lot of time and resources. Engineers have to be open to old and new ideas and not have to do everything themselves if not necessary – everyone should take pride in their work, but not feel like they need to protect their skills or position. There are always new tools and technologies that replace what we have done before, we need to know what skills to let go off and which ones to embrace and evolve. Also, some ‘old’ ideas can still be very relevant today and should not be overlooked. A system for evaluating ideas objectively is very important for the team to agree on.
• Creation vs Curation: There should be a balance between choosing the best available technologies and resources versus creating these from scratch.
• Small and Compact: Teams should be small, starting from 1-2 members but then growing up to 5-7 members. We want the teams not to be too large, since it’s important that we have great communication, combinations and shared goals amongst team members.
• Retrospectives: So many times we charge into the next project without analysing what worked or could be improved from the previous project. Sometimes distance from the project is needed to be able to look at it with objective eyes and extract the most value and future improvements from previous experience. Having productive retrospectives help avoid repeating mistakes.
• Diversity: Good R&D teams have to be neurologically diverse, with a mix of personality types, ages, background, creative and structured thinkers. Goals for everyone have to be closely aligned with final project success; success is measured by group goals, not individual deliveries.
• Safe but still challenging: A good psychological space is needed to get the best results from small experienced teams. Management is there to support these teams, not to look over their shoulders. Everyone is trusted and supported to do their best work. 
• Clear Vision & Focus: We need to have a clear vision of what problems are more important to solve. It is easy to spend valuable time on solving problems that are not key to our final goal.
• Embracing Positive Criticism: The team needs to be managed in a way that allows them to express their technical creativity, have great communication between team members where they can give positive critique, develop these skills of communication where needed. In Sweden we are not always comfortable or experienced in the different methods of productive feedback and criticism, but this can be learnt quickly. This could be a big advantage once a Swedish team can take advantage of this extra level of insights and learnings.
• Supported: Give members adequate resources, support and trust to reach their goals. Much can be learned from the ‘skunkworks’ setup for rapid R&D.
• Open Minded: Be open to shortcuts, new technologies and external partners with unique capabilities and have good methods for evaluating them: speed vs control etc.
• Adapted to Sweden: We need to focus on methods that work with Swedish culture which can also include: high-specialization, non-confrontational, non-hierarchical.

What can hold Swedish R&D back?

Sweden has many positive elements that makes it great for R&D, but has some challenges to overcome to enable rapid R&D programs. For each of these challenges there are solutions that can be applied.

• Consensus Culture: Harmony and consensus decisions in large groups get too slow for rapid R&D. You sometimes have to go against consensus to create new things.
• Too ‘Nice’: Non-confrontational, not comfortable with critique, need to learn these skills to be able to give positive and supportive criticism to the greater good of the project.
• Jäntelagen: Can go against being outspoken and breaking away from established norms.
• Early Specialization: The Swedish education system often promotes early specialization, which can lead to siloed expertise and a narrow focus. This might limit multidisciplinary approaches that are important in solving complex R&D problems. We need people that are comfortable with wearing multiple hats.
• Underestimating ‘soft’ skills: Technical skills are more important than people skills. For each ‘technical’ project you need an equal measure of ‘people’ skills to be able to deliver the end-result in a way that is satisfying to the team and end customer.
• Diversity: Sometimes there can be a lack of diversity, since Sweden is not the center of the world, with an ever greater polarity between the US and China leaving many European R&D groups in a tough position. Not everyone can be convinced to live so close to the arctic circle!
• Summer holidays, winter flus: In Stockholm we underestimate how much time will be lost each year due to summer holidays and people being sick during the winter. This can create quite small windows where the whole team can be working together and focused, sometimes as small as 3-month windows. Projects might need to be structured to take advantage of these effects.  

Some Important Questions in every project, often overlooked:

1. Let’s make sure we are solving the right problem: What is the core problem we are solving, who has come the closest to solving it? What do we need specifically to solve to help solve the overall problem if we cannot take on the whole problem?
2. Lessons Learnt? Can we use examples from other small R&D organizations? Has anyone else attempted to solve this problem? If so, what can we learn from others that came close? What obvious mistakes should we avoid?
3. What are the ‘known unknowns’ in the project? Will we need outside resources to help solve these? Can we get access to them? Can they work well with the rest of the team?

Our Creative Team Requirements:

There are some basic requirements needed for successful creative R&D teams:

• Right Environment: Working environment is set up for creative teams, with tools accessible and work on display, there are spaces for group work but also spaces where members can have privacy.
• Space for Focus: Team members can take 1-2 days at home to do ‘deep’ work, this needs to be agreed for everyone e.g. Mondays and Fridays are allowed, but everyone is in the office Tuesday to Thursday.
• Stimulating: Bring in interesting external resources and experts to bring new ideas and inspiration to the team. Other events can be industry events with a social aspect where our team members can be exposed to new ideas and people.
• Physical Health: Also look at the physical health of the team by offering healthy food, activities, possible massages and health therapists, personal growth advisors to help the team realize their full potential.
• Emotional Team Intelligence: Someone in the team should be sensitive to the mental health and overall morale of the team, be able to spot if someone is under strain or we are losing focus.
• Do non-work things together: there is always free food available if teams want to eat lunch together, non-competitive events such as attending a design exhibition, tradeshow, live music or fun event.

AI – How can the learnings from Rick Ruben, Sun Tzu, Tony Fadell and Kelly Johnson be applied to small tech R&D teams in Sweden?

By blending together these diverse insights, small tech R&D teams in Sweden can build a unique and dynamic framework that leverages their size, fosters creativity, and employs strategic focus to compete effectively in the tech landscape. Here’s how the combined insights can be effectively applied:

1. Authenticity and Vision (Rick Rubin): Develop products that align with your team’s core values and vision. Maintain authenticity in your work by focusing on passion-driven projects that can inspire innovation.

2. Strategic Focus (Sun Tzu): Identify niche areas where the team can have the most impact. Use strategic planning to focus efforts where you have a competitive advantage, and avoid spreading resources too thin across multiple projects.

3. Iterative Process (Tony Fadell): Emphasize rapid prototyping and iteration. Create minimum viable products that can be tested and refined based on feedback, allowing faster adaptation to market needs and changes.

4. Streamlined Efficiency (Kelly Johnson): Reduce bureaucracy and maintain a flat organizational structure. Encourage open communication and quick decision-making processes to enhance agility and responsiveness.

5. Team Empowerment (Rick Rubin and Kelly Johnson): Foster a collaborative environment where every team member feels valued and empowered to contribute. Ensure that leadership supports creativity and innovation while providing clear direction.

6. Agility and Adaptability (Sun Tzu and Kelly Johnson): Take advantage of being a smaller organization by staying nimble. Adapt quickly to technological advances and market shifts, leveraging your ability to pivot that larger entities might lack.

7. User-Centric Development (Tony Fadell): Keep user needs and experiences at the forefront. Conduct market and user research to guide development, ensuring that products are designed with the end-user in mind.

8. Balancing Vision and Practicality (Tony Fadell): Encourage the pursuit of bold ideas while maintaining awareness of practical constraints. Balance visionary goals with achievable milestones to ensure progress and momentum.

9. Strong Leadership (Rick Rubin and Kelly Johnson): Focus on strong, decisive leadership that can navigate challenges and inspire the team. Leaders should be technically knowledgeable and charismatic to guide strategic direction effectively.

10. Minimalism and Precision (Rick Rubin and Kelly Johnson): Simplify processes and focus on core functionalities. Remove unnecessary complexities in both product design and organizational procedures to enhance clarity and effectiveness.
11. Innovative Culture (Rick Rubin and Tony Fadell): Cultivate a culture of experimentation and risk-taking where learning is valued over rigid adherence to the status quo. Encourage creative approaches and reward innovative thinking.

Research:

https://www.valamis.com/hub/constructive-criticism

Audio Discussion on the topic: