R&D is challenging. The elimination of old styles and the creation of brand new solutions never come in a flash, but are the results of years of gestation and cultivation.

When you search the term “R&D” on a search engine, you will find that it is defined as research & development, creative application of new knowledge in science and technology, substantial improvement of technology, products... improvement or creation, which is enough to prove that the career of “R&D practitioners” is never an easy one.

We decided to set our sights on Project Manager Gan Xiaofeng, the winner of the honorary title of “Seeker of the Light” in 2021. Gan was the project manager of DH-615 AI Automatic Hematology Analyzer with RET, a new product of Dymind for fluorescence analysis and intelligent “ultimate” joint inspection, and he worked on the overall R&D of the product with his team.

Gan said that the R&D is a tough process, and that for a team starting nearly from scratch, every step of the way was tough. His team struggled for two years to turn a concept into a product.

Keep swimming against the tide

Prior to his appointment as the project manager of DH-615, Gan was responsible for the R&D of the application software and instruments regarding hematology.

The choice that Gan made when he left the school gate at the beginning of his graduation in 2006 has sealed his 16-year relationship with hematology. At first, Gan believed that his choice was one following the trend, so he did not hesitate. Unlike those new “R&D practitioners” who still feel lost and confused, Gan chose to engage in the R&D of medical devices for he was well aware that his personality made him destined to bury himself in work.

In 2013, Gan left a large domestic medical device company and chose to have a new start with Dymind. Leaving a mature platform, he had to examine what “real skills” he had developed, and uneasy with years of stable development, he hoped to make changes.

In the early days of the company, the biggest challenge faced by Gan was data collection. The period from August to September, the hottest season in Shenzhen, was also the most difficult time for the project, for problems such as data loss and disorder often occurred. Although all members, to a certain extent, were freshmen then, the problems could never be set aside, and finding a viable solution was urgent. In such circumstances, Gan could only force himself to face the dilemma, made bold attempts, and constantly sought the right solution. No matter how many obstacles he faced, he never got frustrated and always believed that he could finally make it if he persisted. After the whole team was soaked in sweat day in and day out for more than a month, the problem was finally solved. Without leaving himself time to celebrate, Gan went back to bury himself in new challenges.

For more than three years, Gan had worked with his team to build and continuously optimize Dymind’s application software framework from scratch, hoping to facilitate future projects. At that time, Gan had a passion and a unique insight into application software, but did not yet expect that a few years later, he would open a different R&D era and step into a broader area of expertise with his expertise.

Insist on pioneering

On the way to becoming a real R&D practitioner, Gan never thought that he had smooth sailing, as various difficulties came one after another.

In 2019, Gan left his familiar application software position and decisively chose to serve as the instrument R&D manager, even though he lacked competence in the whole process of project development and the whole backend process then. Years of experience in R&D have made Gan a man who is willing to start and believes that competence can be improved by learning. Shifting from a technical to managerial role, Gan began to think about how to function the team in an integrated and efficient manner.

Adapting to such a role change was not easy, but Gan never complained and always presented himself in high spirit as long as he was sure that he could achieve the goal of multi-faceted self-breakthrough.

In the pursuit of team growth and success, Gan and his team had achieved continuous self-development and developed better work habits and ways of thinking in dealing with people, controlling projects and analyzing processes. Gan could have continued to specialize in the easier technical route, but by nature, he loved challenges and put himself against the “whetstone”, intending to sharpen himself into a sharp knife that could carve out Dymind’s high-end blood hematology instruments in the future.

He is a completely humble person. To other R&D practitioners, he had already been a shining star of Dymind’s R&D department, but in interviews he kept saying that he hadn’t done enough and could have done better.

Perhaps, it is such mentality of never being complacent that enabled Gan to keep widening his horizon like a tall and resilient bamboo.

Insist on taking up the heavy burden

In 2020, Dymind realized that we desperately needed a high-end product to break the ice. However, starting from the primary-level market, as we did seven years ago, we had no products to refer to, sufficient information to learn from, or a high-end product development platform, exposed to obvious difficulties and pressure.

At this point, Gan determined to take on the burden of the project manager of the high-end hematology analyzer DH-615, and considering his excellent skills and experience, the company also gave enough trust and support to him and his team.

After taking over the position, Gan started with product planning and target setting. A high-end fluorescence platform cannot be created overnight, and even the well-known business competitor had invested at least four years before the launch of its first hematology analyzer. Without a favorable foundation, Gan’s project team could only break down the problems from the general principle and then solve them one by one with patience. Gan believes that being in a hurry is no good for R&D, and only confuses the direction and weakens the strength. He led the project team in deep research and made a great innovation by integrating the technical thinking of high-end hematology products into the product development inspiration, which motivated the members’ desire and sense of mission to “make something” and fostered a team that is relentless in its exploration and never compromises.

“During the R&D of DH-615, we repeatedly made many attempts. Limited by inexperience, we could only invest time and strove for qualitative change through quantitative change. None of us is smarter,” Gan said frankly.

As he impressed his project members, Gan always faces problems without fear and never compromises or makes a concession. So, how excellent is Gan on Project DH-615? He always has clear goals and plans. In 2021, he led his team to discover the iceberg beneath the water and achieve a phased breakthrough, dispersing the uncertainty and pessimism pervading among team members. He always believed that he could succeed and kept working with his team to strive for technical and business growth. He tore off the label of a technical talent, lowered his profile, and explored the true inheritance with the members. He strove to improve efficiency, kept an eye on time, and kept strict quality control to ensure technical delivery at all times. In addition, he was considerate and responsible, and never took up his members’ time even under great pressure...

Gan did not let up a bit until the product passed the TR4. Now, even though the DH-615 product has been successfully launched and facilitated Dymind’s high-end hematology software/hardware/quality control platform, Gan does not feel complacent. Instead, he believes that by reviewing, making new attempts, thinking, and discovering often can we continue to grow in the field of hematology R&D.

Saty true to the original aspiration

Except for Project DH-615, Gan has not served as the manager of any new project for the time being. The reason for this is that he believes that man, like a sponge, must have time to recover after being drained in a certain period and think about his original aspiration and ideal.

Just as he had put away the honors he had received, such as Outstanding Employee and Seeker of the Light, he believes that the trophy is only a period drawn to the previous stage, while the path beneath his feet is what he should focus on. Through all his experiences in the past two years, he has reached a new level of thinking, had more ideas and discovered more areas of interest. However, he is not in a hurry to show them, but is absorbing nutrients like a seed.

Perhaps influenced by Mr. Liu, whom he admired, Gan also wants to keep his ambition and focus on R&D, have a short stop to expand his knowledge of the industry, and walk around to get closer to users. He plans to add value to new projects by combining experience as a senior technical R&D practitioner, no longer acting as a manager.

His dedication to the field of hematology for 16 years probably stems from his unique belief as an idealistic R&D practitioner that he must truly make quality products, paying attention to details and thinking about every aspect.

If you meet the person who drives BYD Don, likes seven-seaters, and has slightly gray hair at both sideburns and a small round face, you may also find the calm and wisdom in his eyes through his glasses, for Gan is such an R&D person who was born to fight for his ideal.

Gan will continue to take courage and forge ahead with determination.

Gan in the eyes of R&D practitioners

Liu Zhizhi:

Gan worked in a large domestic medical device company for many years before he joined Dymind in 2013, so we have the impression that he is an experienced and down-to-earth person. I remember that in the early days of the company, Gan often worked overtime to speed up the project process. Once, Mr. Zhai returned to the company late and saw Gan debugging the instruments alone in the large laboratory. At this moment, the back of Gan became grand instantly and interpreted the hard work of Dymind people.

With the development of the company, Dymind has become a dark horse in the segment of hematology analysis, with a large share in the primary-level market. However, we lacked high-end products for rank hospitals. Gan took up the burden as the project manager of the high-end hematology analyzer for this purpose, and led the team to work hard and finally overcame various difficulties. At present, our products have been launched one after another. The hardships of the process impressed the project team, and Gan even more. Once, to speed up the task, Gan chose to stay overnight in the company, practicing the corporate culture of never stopping struggling.

As Gan himself shared, he has completed the role change from an engineer to the R&D manager, and then to the project manager and his career advancement on the platform provided by Dymind. Accordingly, Gan’s career development process witnessed his great contributions to Dymind’s software platform, Project 1107, Project 1116, etc., supporting the company to keep moving forward. We, Dymind people, are different!

Xi Wujia:

With light in his eyes and direction in his mind, he has united his team to overcome technical difficulties. Gan almost worked late into the night every day, and I could often see him actively communicating with other specialized groups. With him, the team is hopeful about breaking the bottleneck. He is always full of energy, thinks about the big picture of the company and spares no effort in the forefront for product launches. He is always able to note the focus of issues with clear logic and lead the team in the right direction. Racing against time, he always goes ahead. He has worked together with his team to overcome various difficulties. He is the “elder brother” and spiritual role model of many R&D practitioners.

Zhao Liwen:

When talking about Gan, I have to mention that I met him by an interesting coincidence. One day in the second half of 2018, on the second floor of Cloud Valley, when I had just entered after clocking in, I saw Mr. Zhai walking toward me. I was wondering if I should say hello when I heard him say, “Welcome back, Bro.” As a million question marks arose in my mind, I saw Mr. Zhai chatting with a colleague behind me whom I had not met before. I wondered in my mind who this expert was. Then I raised questions with another colleague and learned that he is Gan Xiaofeng, a former technical expert at Dymind and the legend in the R&D department.

Since we were in different departments, I had relatively little contact with Gan in the early stage. In early 2020, after joining the team of Project 1116, I gradually got to know more about Gan. In 2022, I was in charge of Project 1117 with Gan and got a relatively comprehensive understanding of him.

During the development of 1116, the first high-end hematology product to be launched by Dymind then, the number of technical difficulties was far more than everyone expected. In such a circumstance, I never saw Gan making excuses or complaining. He always worked hard in silence with the team to overcome all problems with his excellent technical skills and leadership.

2021 was a challenging year for Gan. Due to a major technical bottleneck, the team members who had been working together for nearly two years all felt exhausted, with uncertainties about the future and pessimism pervading among them. At this point, Gan constantly encouraged them and took the lead in solving the problems, inspiring everyone with his spirit of never giving up.

In 2022, when the Project 1116 reached the home stretch, despite no major problems, minor problems kept appearing. At this point, perhaps many people thought that we could compromise appropriately to launch the project as soon as possible since the basic requirements had been met. However, Gan did not compromise. Upholding the concept of customer-focused approach and creation of first-class products, he led us to solve the “minor problems” one by one, fully demonstrating his style of making persistence a habit.

Gan is both a mentor and friend to me. I would like to describe Gan as never complaining, never giving up, and never compromising. Never complaining is a kind of strength. Never giving up is a kind of perseverance. And never compromising is an attitude.

Chu Simin:

When I see Gan’s work attitude and communicate with him, I can always feel the strength that a seed shows when it breaks out of the soil. In the face of all kinds of pressure, he is neither overbearing nor self-effacing, and always keeps thinking and reflecting. And he always tries to solve problems and never shirks them.

Li Yejian:

In our opinion, Gan is a person who pays great attention to details and is able to reach every aspect in the R&D process. He always encourages and even leads us to research thoroughly, and we often admire him for his curiosity and exploring spirt. We sincerely believe that he is a Seeker of the Light who devotes himself to the R&D course with practical actions.

Huang Xiaoni:

Underneath his calm exterior is a great capacity. In the communication on daily work, Gan is always calm and smiling. I did not realize the burden on Gan’s shoulders until I came across the R&D project. He always takes the work in the project strictly. I once heard one colleague saying that after working overtime and delivering documents to Gan, you have to hurry off work, or you will be caught by Gan workers to discuss the modification. Although it is a joke, it is enough to prove that Gan maintains a high sense of responsibility to clients and demands perfection in all respects. It is his pursuit of quality that subconsciously influences the entire team’s perception and makes us willing to work with him to achieve excellence at Dymind.