What is an embedded UX researcher? +
An embedded UX researcher is a dedicated researcher from Akraya who works inside your product team on an ongoing basis, joins your meetings, learns your product and users, and runs research as new questions come up. You get continuous research support tied to your roadmap, and Akraya’s PMO manages the engagement so you don’t take on another role to hire and run.
Is an embedded researcher just staff augmentation? +
No. With staff augmentation, you rent a person and your team manages their work. With an embedded researcher, Akraya stays accountable for the research itself, the researcher builds strategy and capability from inside your team, and the program context lives with our PMO rather than one individual. You’re buying research we’re responsible for delivering, with a senior researcher working alongside your team every day.
How is an embedded researcher different from rapid research? +
An embedded researcher joins your team for a program, learns your product over months, and builds research strategy from inside. Rapid research runs a single scoped study that your own UXR lead designed, delivered in one to three weeks, without joining your weekly meetings. Many teams use both under one Akraya relationship: embedded for ongoing coverage, rapid for the urgent one-off.
Do we keep control of the research direction? +
Yes. Your team still owns the priorities, the product questions, and the decisions. The embedded researcher works with you to plan and run the research, while Akraya takes on the execution and the day-to-day management behind it. You stay in control of where the research goes without managing every part of how it gets done.
What does an embedded UX researcher do day to day? +
They join your team and your meetings, learn your product, users, and backlog, build the research strategy from inside the team, and plan and run studies continuously. You get research that keeps pace with your roadmap, so product decisions have current evidence behind them.
Can we get a full embedded research team, or just one researcher? +
Both. An embedded engagement can be a single researcher or a full research team, sized to whatever the work needs. Most teams start with one or two researchers on a product team and grow into a larger embedded team as demand increases across product areas, all under the same relationship and PMO.
How long is an embedded research engagement? +
The engagement is scoped to your program, so it flexes to the work. Some teams run a short-term push of a few months, others keep ongoing coverage across the roadmap. Most start with one researcher on a single product team, then extend the engagement or add researchers as demand grows.
What happens to continuity if the researcher changes? +
The program context lives with our PMO and the program itself. Methodology, history, and product knowledge are held at the program level, so if a researcher changes, the next one picks that context up and your team keeps moving. We stay responsible for quality across the whole engagement.
Who owns the research and IP, and do you work in our tools? +
Your research and intellectual property stay proprietary to you. The researcher operates inside your ecosystem and tools when required, and for confidential work, we can run research as an independent third party. Enterprise security, insurance, and procurement requirements are handled before they slow the engagement down.
How much does an embedded UX researcher cost? +
Pricing is per engagement, sized to the length and the amount of research your team needs, and scoped as professional services so procurement can evaluate it clearly. You can start with one researcher on one team and expand from there. Request a scope and we’ll price it against your roadmap.
