Product Development Consulting
Turn R&D into a competitive advantage.
Build the right products. Launch them faster. Scale innovation predictably.
We help companies turn customer insights into better product and portfolio decisions, accelerate development with AI, optimize products through Cost Engineering to meet cost and margin targets, and build world-class R&D organizations.
Blog Post
Flying across the sea, propelled by AI
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To help Emirates Team New Zealand successfully defend their America’s Cup title, we introduced them to a new sailor: a...
Blog Post
How Team Visma | Lease a Bike and McKinsey are racing smarter with AI
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In cycling, races are won by seconds—and with an AI system that turns complex race inputs into actionable insights, coaches...
Blog Post
With gen AI, Merck and McKinsey transform clinical authoring
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McKinsey has partnered with the pharmaceutical giant Merck to build a gen-AI application for authoring clinical-study documents....
Article
Automotive product development: Accelerating to new horizons
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New market entrants have cut automotive time to market in half. Established players need to speed up, or they risk being left...
McKinsey Direct
The next horizon: Engineering simulation for an AI-powered world
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As AI and its uses advance, the scope of engineering simulation is changing, redesigning the way engineering is done and moving...
Operations Blog
Using Cleansheet as central analytical approach
Cleansheet has enabled significant impact to clients across multiple industries, including industrials, retail, and telecom.
Proprietary tools and assets
We pair deep expertise with proprietary tools, labs, and AI—spanning Design-to-Value, digital twins, and advanced analytics—to help you accelerate development, reduce cost, and bring better products to market.
Design-to-Value/Lab
Balance what customers truly want with cost and technical constraints using global labs, gen AI co-pilots, and product digital twins—McKinsey's approach to design to cost consulting, grounded in what customers actually value.
Growth by Design Offerings
Transform portfolios, innovate new products, and reduce complexity using deep customer insights and advanced analytics.
Product Digital Twins
Build virtual representations of products over their lifecycle to analyze, simulate, and optimize performance, cost, and time-to-market.
Cleansheet
Our flagship R&D cost optimization consulting tool uses fact-based cost engineering at scale to identify savings opportunities and build should-cost models (Cleansheet) grounded in physics and manufacturing reality.
QuantumBlack, Deep Learning Surrogates
Apply Deep Learning Surrogates (DLS) and generative AI to run engineering simulations up to 100x faster, speed concept generation, and embed AI across the product-development lifecycle.
Culinary Excellence Center
Support innovation and renovation for food and beverage companies with sensory testing, ingredient formulation, product teardowns, and dedicated kitchen lab space at our Atlanta Design Lab - get in touch.
Kimberly Borden
Senior PartnerChicago
Serves clients in the Aerospace & Defense and Automotive & Assembly Practices, focusing on strategy, operations, and transformational...
Anna Herlt
Senior PartnerMunich
Advises companies as they seek to optimize the value of their research and development investments, particularly within the automotive...
Dave Fedewa
PartnerAtlanta
Serves clients in consumer and retail and leads consumer durables and our growth by design work
Elia Berteletti
PartnerSeattle
Advises high tech, consumer electronics, and automotive and assembly clients on digital and agile R&D transformations; leads...
Mithun Kamat
PartnerDallas
Helps aerospace, defense, industrial, and technology companies with strategy, product, margin expansion, and technology-enabled...
Alessandro Mattozzi
PartnerStockholm
Helps global industrial groups improve their products through value-centered design and cost-efficient operations
Dmitry Mishustin
PartnerTokyo
Supports automotive, medical device, and consumer clients in optimizing margins through operational excellence, procurement,...
Chang Li
PartnerTaipei
Focuses on product strategy, R&D productivity, and procurement transformation across high-tech and advanced industries, with...
Shivanshu Gupta
Senior PartnerBengaluru
Leads McKinsey’s Advanced Industries in India, and is a leader in our global Operations and Advanced Industries Practices
2026 R&D Leaders Forum Event Recap
Rewiring R&D for the age of agentic AI
Agentic AI is transforming research and development (R&D), promising significant acceleration and economic value, but widespread scalable impact remains limited due to organizational challenges rather than AI technology itself. Leaders recognize the need for redesigning workflows, data foundations, and operating models to fully harness AI’s potential.
2025 R&D Leaders Forum Event Recap
Breakthroughs in AI-augmented R&D: Recap from the 2025 R&D Leaders Forum
As a collaborative partner, AI is becoming an accelerator of product development, a transformer of product ideation and concept testing, and a force multiplier for engineers and R&D teams.
2025 R&D Leaders Forum speaker
James Zou on integrating AI agents into biology R&D and drug discovery
James Zou, an associate professor of machine learning at Stanford University, discusses the role of AI scientists in biotech, pharmaceutical discovery, immunology, and more.
2025 R&D Leaders Forum speaker
Transforming R&D with AI: Breaking barriers and boosting productivity
AI holds the power to accelerate innovation in R&D, but realizing its potential will demand that organizations rethink how they work and overcome the barriers to adoption.
End-to-end support across the product journey
Product development rarely stands alone. Explore the McKinsey capabilities we bring together to drive transformation across the full product lifecycle.
Operations
Read about how we combine strategic thinking with hands-on pragmatism to help our clients achieve world-class operations.
QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey
Reinvent your organization and accelerate sustainable and inclusive growth with AI consulting from QuantumBlack, the AI-arm of...