Quantum sensing and metrology is arguably the most mature quantum sector, with technologies such as atomic clocks and proton precession magnetometers employed commercially for decades. Nevertheless, new developments in quantum science are continuously enabling new sensing instruments and applications.  This talk will examine the interplay between research advances and real-world operation via a case study in magnetometry with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. Commercial deployment revealed the potential of NV magnetometers to fill a technology gap in accurate vector field measurement but uncovered an obstacle in the drift-prone bias magnets employed in standard NV devices. By developing a novel quantum control sequence similar to 2D magnetic resonance spectroscopy, we showed that it was possible to eliminate bias magnets while retaining vector field sensitivity. This example illustrates the importance of early commercialization to identify critical needs in quantum sensors, and the power of fundamental research to address them.