Our approach to UX research

Outcome-based UX research, managed end to end

Akraya runs UX research for enterprise product teams as a managed service. Your teams get the research they need, when they need it. We scope it, run it, and manage it, so you add capacity without adding a person to supervise.

Talk to our UX research team

Trusted by Fortune 500 enterprises worldwide

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The problem

Your research backlog grows faster than you can staff it

Your product teams need more research than your internal team can run, from usability tests before a launch to roadmap and AI research. Hiring another researcher takes months, so you look outside, and most options still leave you with a problem.

Large consultancies give you scale, but they are slow and expensive

They can support large programs, but ramp-up takes time and the researcher assigned to your work may still need to learn your product, users, and domain.

Boutique agencies give you expertise, but capacity is limited

They are often strong for one focused study. They become harder to use when several product teams need research at the same time.

Staffing vendors give you a researcher, but you still run the work

They solve the sourcing problem. Your team still scopes the studies, directs the researcher, and owns the delivery, which works well when you have the bandwidth to run the work yourself.

Akraya gives you another option. You get the research capacity, and we manage the work behind it.

What Akraya is

A managed UX research partner for enterprise product teams

Akraya runs UX research as a managed service. That means we take responsibility for getting the research delivered. Depending on the engagement, we can handle:

✓Research intake and scoping
✓Study design and methodology
✓Participant recruiting
✓Interviews and contextual inquiry
✓Usability testing
✓Quantitative and mixed-methods research
✓Synthesis and prioritization
✓Stakeholder readouts
✓Recommendations
✓Researcher management
✓Timelines, resourcing, and continuity

Instead of adding another researcher for your team to supervise, you add research capacity that comes with the management layer already built in.

 

 

What stays with you, and what moves to Akraya

You keep

The roadmap, the research priorities, the product questions, and the final product decisions.

We take on

Scoping the work, staffing it, running the research, managing delivery, and making sure the findings arrive while your team can still use them.

You keep control of the strategy, and we take more of the execution off your plate.

From our clients

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Their responsiveness, attention to detail, and collaborative approach have made them a valued extension of our team.

eBay
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Akraya’s excellent customer service is quick to respond to our requests. They are one of our most valued suppliers.

PayPal
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Consistent delivery starts with strong partnerships and Akraya’s makes a real difference.

CDW PMO Team
“

Their team has demonstrated exceptional responsiveness and a genuine commitment to understanding CDW’s unique requirements.

CDW PMO Team

Our principles

How we run every UX research engagement

Six principles shape how we work:

We start with the decision your team needs to make, then work backward to the method that will answer it. That keeps every study focused on something the product team can actually act on.

A hardware study, an AI interaction study, and a quantitative benchmark each need a different background. We source the researcher who fits your product, users, and question, from PhD-level human factors and quantitative researchers to AI interaction and hardware specialists, so you get the right fit for the study.

The same researchers stay with your program whenever possible. They already know your product, users, and past studies, so each new study starts with context instead of another onboarding period.

Akraya's PMO handles the operating work that usually lands on the research leader: timelines, resourcing, continuity, service levels, and delivery. If needs change or a researcher is unavailable, we manage it, so your team is never left covering gaps.

We use AI to speed up analysis, documentation, and research operations, while researchers still lead the sessions, the synthesis, and the judgment. You get a shorter research cycle without giving up rigor.

Our engagements are outcome-based: we structure them around defined deliverables and outcomes, so you can tie the work back to decisions. Did it change the roadmap? Kill a bad assumption? Catch a usability problem before launch? That is the story you need when budget conversations come up.

Engagement models

Choose the research model that fits your needs

You can work with Akraya in two ways, both managed by us. The difference is whether you need ongoing research capacity or one fast answer.

Embedded UX research

A dedicated researcher works inside your product team over time. They join the team's meetings, learn the roadmap, build context on your users, and run research continuously as new questions come up.

Because the same researcher stays involved, each study builds on the last. Akraya manages the researcher and the program behind them.

Best for: ongoing research demand, foundational work, roadmap research, and product teams that need research sprint after sprint.

Rapid UX research

You give us one clear product question. We scope the study, recruit the participants, run the research, synthesize the findings, and deliver the answer in one to three weeks.

Best for: usability testing, pre-launch validation, design decisions, checkpoint studies, and questions that need an answer before the decision closes.

You can use both at the same time

One product group may need an embedded researcher, another may need a rapid usability study before launch. You don't need two vendors, both can run under the same Akraya relationship.

Staffing vs. managed services

Staffing gives you a researcher. Managed services gives you outcomes.

Akraya has spent almost three decades staffing large technology companies, so we know where staffing stops.

With staff augmentation, your team runs the researcher

The staffing vendor finds the right person and places them on your team. From there, your team directs the work: you set priorities, scope the studies, manage the researcher day to day, and own the delivery.

 

It is a strong fit when you have the research leadership to run the work and mainly need capacity. What you are buying is a researcher.

With Akraya managed UX research, we run the work

We use that same recruiting strength to find the right researcher, and we manage what happens after they are placed. Akraya scopes, staffs, manages, and delivers the research through an outcome-based, PMO-backed engagement with defined deliverables and service levels.

 

You keep the product decisions, we deliver the evidence behind them.

For procurement teams: Akraya UX research engagements are structured as managed professional services. The engagement is scoped around defined deliverables, outcomes, and service levels instead of researcher hours. We can also provide the security, insurance, data-handling, and participant-payment documentation required for enterprise review.

Security and trust

For research on products you can't expose

Enterprise research often involves unreleased products, sensitive customer information, and internal systems. We built the model around that.

Our researchers can work inside your systems and tools, so recordings, research data, customer information, and findings stay inside your environment instead of moving into a separate vendor setup.

Testing something that has not launched? We can run the study as an unnamed third party, so participants take part in the research without knowing which company or product is behind it.

We carry the security documentation, insurance, and participant-payment processes enterprise procurement teams typically review before a study can start, so research does not get stuck in review after your product team is ready to move.

If your users are spread across countries and time zones, we can staff researchers and recruit participants in the markets your product serves, while managing the work centrally under one program.

Akraya has spent 25 years working with large technology organizations across software, hardware, wearables, and AI.

Give your product teams the research capacity they need

Tell us where the backlog is growing, which product teams need support, or which decision needs evidence. We will help you scope the research, choose the right engagement model, and match the right researchers to the work.

Talk to our UX research team

Common questions

Questions enterprise UX research teams ask us

A staffing agency finds a researcher and places them on your team. Your team then manages that person and owns the research delivery. Akraya manages the work too: we help scope the studies, provide the researcher, manage delivery through our PMO, and stay accountable for getting the research done. You get the researcher and the program behind them.

We scope managed engagements around defined research work and outcomes instead of simply selling an open block of researcher hours. That means you know what Akraya is responsible for delivering and can connect the spend back to the research your product teams received.

Yes. Your team owns the research priorities, product priorities, and final decisions. Akraya works within that direction and takes on more of the scoping, execution, researcher management, and delivery.

Yes. Researchers can work inside your systems so sensitive data stays in your environment. We can also run unbranded studies on unreleased products and provide the security, insurance, and participant-payment documentation enterprise procurement and legal teams typically require.

Yes. We can support one product group or build a larger research program across several teams, markets, and time zones. The work can still be managed centrally through one Akraya program with one point of accountability.

We support foundational and evaluative research across software, hardware, wearables, AI, and other complex technology products. That can include user interviews, contextual inquiry, diary studies, usability testing, benchmarking, quantitative research, human factors, accessibility research, and human-AI interaction research. We choose the method based on the question your team needs answered.

Tell us what your product teams need help researching. We will help you turn that need into a clear scope, decide whether rapid or embedded research makes more sense, and match the right researchers to the work.