User Research That Changes Decisions
Generative and evaluative research with real users — synthesized into evidence your team can argue with, not slides full of quotes.
Why Most User Research Projects
Quietly Fail
Most teams don't fail at user research because the work is impossible. They fail because nobody asked the boring questions early — who's it for, what does success look like, what happens when it breaks. We start there.
Hippo decisions
Highest-paid person's opinion wins because no one has data to push back.
Survey-only thinking
Surveys mistaken for research. Useful, but tell you nothing about the why.
Insights in a drawer
Research happens, slides get made, no one ever opens them again.
What You Actually Get
No vague deliverables. Here's exactly what lands in your hands.
Roadmap & Plan
A written plan with milestones, owners, and risks — not slides.
Architecture / Design
Documented architecture, schemas, and design decisions you can defend.
Production Code
Reviewed, tested, deployed code in your repo — not "delivered" via zip.
Runbooks & Handover
How to run it, debug it, restore it. Your team owns it from day one.
Why User Research With Us
Specifics, not adjectives. Here's what makes this engagement different from the agency you tried last time.
Research questions, not topics
We start with what decision the research will inform. No fishing expeditions.
Real recruitment
Screened participants matching your actual user profile — not "5 friends".
Synthesis, not transcripts
Tagged, themed, linked back to evidence — searchable insight repository.
Mixed methods
Interviews + diary studies + analytics + usability tests — triangulated.
Stakeholders in the room
PMs, designers, and engineers watch live or via highlight reels. No telephone game.
Insight repository
Findings live in Dovetail or similar — linked, searchable, reused across teams.
You See Everything. In Real Time.
Every Pillai Infotech project comes with a dedicated client dashboard. Kanban boards, live logs, test results, meeting notes — it's all visible the moment it happens. No status-report theatre, no "we'll get back to you", no surprises at the demo. You work with us like you work with your own team.
Kanban Board, Live
Every epic, every story, every task — visible on your dashboard. Drag, comment, reprioritize. It's the same board our team works from.
Documented Everything
Every decision, spec, API contract, and architecture diagram lives in the dashboard. Searchable, versioned, linked to the tasks they shaped.
Live Logs & Test Results
Build logs, deployment logs, test suite results — streamed to your dashboard the moment they run. You never have to ask "did the build pass?"
Meetings → Tasks, Automatically
Every meeting is recorded, transcribed, and every action point is auto-converted into a tracked task assigned to the right person. Nothing gets lost between calls.
Sprint Burndown & Velocity
See exactly how much work is done, how much remains, and our velocity over time. If a sprint is slipping, you see it the same moment we do.
Comment, Approve, Decide — In-Place
Comment on any task, approve designs, sign off on specs, and raise blockers directly in the dashboard. Everything tied to the work, not buried in email threads.
What We Build For You
A short list of the most common shapes this service takes. Yours is probably similar — and if it isn't, we'll tell you.
💬 Discovery Interviews
1:1 user interviews to surface needs, jobs-to-be-done, and pain points.
🧪 Usability Testing
Moderated and unmoderated tests of prototypes and live products.
📔 Diary Studies
Longitudinal studies for behavior over time, not snapshots.
📊 Surveys
Quantitative validation of qualitative findings, designed properly.
🃏 Card Sorts & Tree Tests
IA validation for navigation and content structure.
🗺️ Journey & Service Maps
End-to-end customer journey synthesis across touchpoints.
Tools We Reach For
We pick stacks based on what your team can run, not what's trending on Hacker News. These are the tools we trust most.
Recruit
Sessions
Synthesis
Survey
How We Run The Work
Six steps. Documented at each step. You see what's happening at every stage — no black boxes.
Discover
Goals, users, constraints. We ask the questions you wish your last vendor had.
Design
Architecture, schemas, and UX decisions made on paper before code.
Build
Sprints with daily progress on the dashboard. No silent weeks.
Test
Unit, integration, and user testing — caught here, not in production.
Launch
Staged rollouts with rollback paths. Nothing big-bang.
Evolve
Stabilization, metrics, and a handover plan your team can run.
How We Engage
Three engagement models, picked by what fits the work — not what fits our sales quota.
Fixed Scope
Defined deliverables, defined budget, milestone payments.
- Best for tightly-defined projects
- Written scope and SoW
- Milestone-based payments
- 30-day post-launch warranty
Dedicated Team
A senior team embedded in your sprints. Scales up and down as you need.
- Best for evolving products
- Dedicated engineers + PM
- Monthly billing, sprint cadence
- Scale team size on 30-day notice
Staff Augmentation
Senior engineers integrated directly into your existing team and workflow.
- Best for in-house teams that need depth
- Engineers in your standups
- Reports to your tech leads
- Hourly or monthly rates
Questions You Should Ask
The questions every smart buyer asks before signing. Here's what we tell them.
Who owns the code we build?
You do. Full IP transfer on payment. Code lives in your repo from day one — not handed over in a zip at the end.
How long does a typical project take?
It depends on scope, but most user research engagements run 6–16 weeks for a first production release. We give you a written timeline before you commit, and update it weekly.
Who actually does the work?
Senior engineers with at least 5 years of relevant experience. The person on your kickoff call is the person committing code. No bait-and-switch with juniors after signing.
How do we communicate during the project?
A shared dashboard with live tasks, logs, and decisions, plus Slack/Teams for day-to-day, plus a weekly sync. You always know what's happening — without having to ask.
How is pricing structured?
Fixed-scope projects are quoted upfront. Dedicated teams and staff augmentation are billed monthly. No hidden fees. We tell you what something costs before we start.
What if we want to change scope mid-project?
Change is normal — we'd be suspicious of any vendor claiming otherwise. Scope changes go through a quick written change order so the impact on cost and timeline is visible to both sides.
Do you sign NDAs?
Yes. We sign mutual NDAs before any sensitive technical or business discussion. Standard practice for us.
What happens after launch?
30 days of stabilization support is included with every project. After that, you can move to a maintenance retainer, a dedicated team, or take it fully in-house with our handover docs.