Why Research Gets Squeezed in Lean Product Environments
In 2025, product teams are under pressure to do more with less. They need to ship products faster, validate ideas more efficiently, and adapt quickly to changing market conditions, all while managing with fewer people and tighter budgets.
Research often gets squeezed in the middle. Everyone agrees research matters, yet few teams have the capacity to run it consistently, and the result is a pattern most product leaders recognize immediately: decisions get rushed, assumptions stand in for evidence, and roadmaps tilt toward the loudest voices rather than the most accurate insights. Research does not disappear in these environments; it simply becomes reactive.
This is why Research as a Service is gaining traction. It gives lean product organizations something they have wanted for years: the ability to scale research without the cost, delay, or risk of hiring. Instead of waiting months for headcount approval or relying on an already overextended team to squeeze in one more study, RaaS allows companies to bring in the right expertise at the right moment and pause support when the need subsides. It introduces flexibility into a workstream that has been rigid for far too long.
The value goes beyond added capacity; it brings seasoned expertise that most product teams cannot easily maintain in-house. Product managers often try to fill research gaps themselves, but true user and market research requires methodological depth, bias control, participant management, and the analytical skill needed to turn findings into defensible decisions. RaaS teams bring structure and discipline to each project, leading to insights that hold up in roadmap discussions. For teams accustomed to ad hoc surveys or quick customer calls, the improvement in research quality is immediate.
RaaS also strengthens coverage across both user and market perspectives. Effective research spans different types of insight, and the pace of change in 2025 makes this breadth essential. AI expansion, crowded markets, and rapidly shifting customer expectations require teams to anchor decisions in current, unbiased evidence.
RaaS providers can support teams by offering:
This ensures teams do not have to wait for a major release cycle to justify running research and can maintain steady, dependable insight throughout the product lifecycle.
Cost is often the biggest barrier to building a research function, but RaaS flips the equation. Hiring a full-time researcher takes months, increases long-term spend, and locks the team into fixed capacity, regardless of fluctuating demand. RaaS turns research into an operational expense that can expand during high-impact initiatives and scale back when testing slows. It provides predictable, right-sized support each quarter, which is especially valuable in a year when product budgets face heightened scrutiny. Matching research capacity to demand becomes not just convenient but strategic.
Most importantly, RaaS strengthens decision making across the organization. When insights flow consistently, prioritization becomes clearer, roadmap confidence increases, alignment between product and leadership improves, and cross-functional trust deepens. Teams stop guessing and start acting with clarity, creating a noticeable shift from reactive workflows to resilient, insight-driven operations.
Summary
For 2025 and beyond product teams looking to build smarter without expanding headcount, RaaS is not a shortcut. It is a recalibration. Research becomes accessible, repeatable, and scalable, allowing teams to stay lean while maintaining high-quality insight. The product moves forward with fewer blind spots and far more conviction.
Akraya helps product teams scale research quickly and cost effectively with flexible Research as a Service solution. Reach out to us today.