The Clorox Company
09/10/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/11/2024 16:10
Get to know Michelle Claudnic at R&D for Clorox Professional
Get to know Michelle Claudnic at R&D for Clorox Professional
September 10, 2024
Michelle Claudnic is senior director of research and development for the Clorox Professional business unit - but it's just the latest area where she's been able to apply her engineering skills during 18 years with the company.
"I've had the opportunity to develop products in a lot of different spaces at Clorox," says Michelle, "and the work really starts with finding a problem: What does a consumer need? Now that I'm working in business-to-business, the end user might be a janitor, it might be a teacher trying to clean their classroom. And what we're looking for is a way to make their job easier."
"So you identify the need, and then you have technology that has to either be developed or applied to meet that need," she says. "Our scientists are formulating, prototyping, testing, engaging and trying to see how well our technical solution can solve the problem."
A great solution can't work in a vacuum, though - Michelle and her team need to make it real. "You have to throw in the business piece, which is, 'Can we do this at a cost that makes sense for anyone to buy it and for Clorox to sell it?' That's what I call the perfect triangle of product development, which is the need, the solution and the business case," she explains. "It's fun trying to make those puzzle pieces come together."
Team members across a variety of specialties - from chemical and mechanical engineers to material and data scientists - work together to tackle problems from all angles. "Working here is always about problem-solving, and that's what engineers do," Michelle says. "We need lots of different ways to think about the technical problems that we have to solve and how to bring them to life for a consumer."