Dynamic systems are systems within which changes occur all the time. Such systems are organisations, innovation projects, etc. It is a well-known fact that interaction and commitment from a range of professions is needed to achieve competitive results in product development projects. Especially when innovative development is carried out, it is of the utmost importance that product developers interact intensively in every link from sub-suppliers to customers, users and society if they are not to lose important signals from any part of the chain or be unaware of important and unforeseen events that will inevitably take place during a development process. Dealing with product development therefore means dealing with complex adaptive systems for which unpredictability increases with the number of people involved and the longer the development process takes. As a consequence, researchers must consider different approaches to research in order to improve their knowledge of practical product development and to produce useful theories for practitioners acting in a dynamic world. This paper deals with such considerations. One conclusion is that the most information-intense situation is reached if researchers act as project leaders of product development projects, which is called performing Participation or Insider Action Research (IAR). This line of action does, however, present a complication in that performing IAR often demands that researchers have some practical industrial experience in advance. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.