Bring a formula revision, supplier evidence, trial observations and stability/compatibility results. Ask whether another formulator can retrieve the reasoning and identify the exact tested composition.

Compare recording effort, search, permissions, method/result review and handover ownership. A notebook can preserve useful research context; a LIMS can control sample/testing work. Choose by the workflow, not by assuming either category stops being useful.

Technical development and commercial launch management get bundled together in vendor marketing and separated sharply in real organisations. R&D is about what works. NPD is about what ships, by when, into which markets.

They meet at the formula, which is why they belong on one record even when they're run by different people with different tools. The launch side is covered on NPD software.

We're the right answer where development work needs to be searchable later and to flow into a controlled specification without retyping, with Willow surfacing prior trials and raw material history at the point of decision.

We're the wrong answer for discovery science needing deep analytical instrument integration, and for teams running a handful of products a year where a good spreadsheet genuinely holds.