Rick Pedersen of Old Norse Consulting on Knowledge Gaps in Product Development

From People Solve Problems by Jamie Flinchbaugh

December 10, 2025 · 22 min

About this episode

Rick Pedersen discusses the unique challenges of product development and the importance of creating new knowledge.

Rick Pedersen, owner of Old Norse Consulting, joined host Jamie Flinchbaugh to explore why product development demands a fundamentally different approach to problem-solving than traditional business processes. During their conversation, Rick explained that while most business functions involve transactional processes that can be documented and repeated, product development centers on building knowledge to solve problems that have never been encountered before. Rick draws a clear distinction between information gathering and genuine knowledge gaps. He explains that a true knowledge gap exists when answers cannot simply be looked up or obtained from an expert. Instead, teams must invest time and resources in building prototypes, running tests, or conducting simulations to create new knowledge. Rick advises teams facing uncertainty to document potential knowledge gaps quickly, then filter them to determine which require actual investigation versus simple research. The conversation revealed how knowledge creation serves as the lifeblood of product development, much like flow serves manufacturing. He emphasizes that the real value in product development comes from creating new…

People in this episode

Host: Jamie Flinchbaugh

Guest: Rick Pedersen

Topics covered

product development
knowledge gaps
problem-solving
business processes
innovation

Keywords

product development
knowledge gaps
problem-solving
innovation
business processes

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Old Norse Consulting