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It’s been nearly a year since private equity firm H.I.G. Capital acquired ZimVie’s spine division and renamed the new entity Highridge Medical. Ryan Watson was brought onboard to head the company’s research and development efforts and believes he’s fortunate to work for a spine-focused company that’s passionate about building a robust product portfolio to advance patient care.
Watson, Highridge Medical’s Vice President of Research and Development, has added to his R&D team and expanded the company’s engineering capabilities. “Our primary focus is to activate additional projects by accelerating ongoing efforts or launching new ones,” he said. “The emphasis is scaling up our capacity for innovation.”
The past year has been a whirlwind for Highridge Medical’s leadership as they worked to rebrand the company. “It’s a complete redefinition of how we operate,” Watson said. “We have all the right ingredients. The strategy is sound, and we have a solid foundation to build upon. With focus and alignment, we’re well positioned for success.”
Watson recently shared his thoughts about what it takes to lead a team of engineers who are looking for spine’s next big thing in a company that prioritizes R&D.
Consider the Impact. Watson maintains a “project hopper” — a pipeline of planned projects that are ready to activate as soon as resources become available. When deciding which projects to prioritize, he evaluates their potential overall impacts. Will they fill a product gap by catching up to existing offerings on the market? Are they a differentiating device that will allow Highridge to stand out in a meaningful way? Or are they entirely new opportunities that could create groundbreaking innovation?
Every project Watson pursues is important enough to warrant an allocation of resources, but he concedes that they don’t all carry the same weight. “We prioritize initiatives based on their potential overall impact,” he said. “While we strive for success across all projects, establishing rank order helps us direct our attention to where it’s needed most.”
When Watson identifies projects to launch, he makes sure they align with Highridge Medical’s business roadmap to ensure a balanced cadence of product deliveries.
“If every project won’t produce a product for three to five years, you lose opportunities to demonstrate progress in the near term,” Watson said. “While business analysis might show that long-term projects have the highest potential for revenue growth and patient impact, focusing exclusively on long-term, high-impact initiatives can create challenges.”
He aims to create a mix of projects with immediate deliverables and longer timelines. This approach serves two key purposes. It helps to maintain a steady stream of deliverables, ensuring the R&D team consistently brings value to the business. It also maintains a constant cycle of new products and momentum.
Watson’s team is passionate about developing differentiating devices, which often serve niche markets, but they can’t ignore the importance of core products that generate consistent revenue.
“Pedicle screws are the largest segment in spine surgery, so we need a robust screw system as part of our portfolio,” Watson said. “We must focus on developing foundational products to fund and continue to develop innovative solutions.”
Champion Collaboration. R&D success demands more than just engineering expertise. It requires a cross-functional effort involving marketing, quality assurance, regulatory support and supply chain.
“If you grow only one part of the organization without strengthening the others, you risk becoming imbalanced,” Watson said. “That’s why we’re being mindful not to overextend or overcommit in product development, even though it’s an exciting segment of the company. Growth in one area must be matched with resources elsewhere to ensure overall success.”
Watson’s R&D team provides realistic project development timelines, delivers the product and collaborates with other departments to assess the impact. Highridge Medical’s marketing team is instrumental in developing the business case for new products, building hype and targeting customer retention.
The collaborative structure creates a pipeline that balances relevance and cadence to ensure that each product launch not only meets the company’s business goals but also maintains the momentum and engagement necessary for long-term success.
“When a product launches, we want it to hit the market with existing awareness and demand — not as an unknown entity,” Watson said. “By the time it’s ready, we aim to have created interest and engaged customers.”
Hire Innovators. Watson doesn’t prioritize hiring young engineers; he instead focuses on recruiting talent with the specific qualities that his team needs.
“That said, there’s still value in keeping up with the evolving experiences of engineering students who are entering the workforce,” he explained. “Their education and exposure to technology are vastly different from what more experienced engineers have encountered during their early careers. Technology changes over time, and it’s crucial to maintain the right mix of talent who are at various stages of their careers.”
Watson believes it’s important to build a pipeline of next-generation talent, much like the efforts he makes to maintain a hopper of forward-looking product development projects.
“Injecting fresh ideas and perspectives into the team ensures that we stay future-focused and adaptable to technological advancements,” he said. “Balancing experienced hires with emerging talent is critical to sustaining innovation and driving growth over the long term. It’s valuable to bring in someone who will challenge the team to think differently. That can help you stay adaptable and innovative as the company continues to grow.”
Focus on Execution. From the outside perspective, Highridge Medical’s resources and innovative culture appear to make Watson’s job easier, but implementing product development projects can sometimes prove more difficult than planning them. “With more projects come potential distractions, and we need to carefully prioritize and follow through on the most impactful initiatives,” he said.
Watson points to the importance of having skilled project managers in place, because simply having the right ingredients and a solid recipe doesn’t guarantee success. “The real challenge is delivering on potential,” he said. “Building trust and confidence within the industry takes time, but it’s fragile and easily lost with a few missteps. Momentum can quickly shift if expectations aren’t met.”
Effective R&D teams are in constant cycles of productivity, according to Watson. That doesn’t involve stagnation or lack of change. It means consistently moving projects forward and adapting them as needed. “Working in a steady state creates a natural rhythm that ensures everyone on the team is at full capacity and achieving the outcomes they’re working toward,” Watson said.
Stay Connected. Watson’s team maintains close working relationships with the company’s surgeon customers and stays current on the research they’re conducting. “These relationships allow us to gain direct insights into the challenges surgeons face on a daily basis,” Watson said. “By understanding their struggles and needs, we can improve our products and identify gaps or areas for incremental innovation.”
It’s important to make incremental improvements to existing products, but it’s also essential to identify breakthrough, visionary ideas. “Some of the most transformative products on the market today have come from clinical research,” Watson said, “so we prioritize exploring unmet clinical needs and developing solutions in these areas.”
Watson acknowledged that evolutionary projects are riskier and require more R&D efforts, but could yield significant breakthroughs. “We aim to have at least one or two high-risk, high-reward projects in our pipeline,” he said.
Highridge Medical’s engineers also attend annual conferences to check out emerging technologies in exhibit halls and sit in on educational talks. Watson said attending industry meetings proves invaluable because various companies pitch their products, some of which could be integrated into Highridge Medical’s pipeline or evolve into entirely new ideas. The company has the unique opportunity to not only learn about these innovations but also consider how they might complement its own offerings.
Watson sees benefit in filling the company’s pipeline with organic development and strategic acquisitions. “Together, they create a flywheel effect,” he said, “One feeds the other, ultimately helping to fund and drive our R&D efforts.”
