A user-research lead is not a generic design brief

A company asking to ’improve UX’ might want a visual redesign, exploratory interviews or a usability study for a complex B2B workflow. For a research specialist, the commercial question is what uncertainty the buyer needs to reduce. Are they diagnosing task failure, validating a concept or learning how people work in context?

Position your agency around methods, audiences and the decisions you help teams make. Be explicit about work you do not deliver. That distinction can prevent a research consultancy from spending days pitching a project that actually needs a UI production team.

• Research scope: discovery, interviews, observation, usability testing, concept validation and synthesis.
• Design scope: interface production, design systems, prototyping and implementation.
• Combined scope: research-led recommendations delivered with an in-house or external product-design team.

Qualify the decision before the method

A worthwhile brief identifies a decision that research will inform. ’We need ten interviews’ is not yet a research question; ten sessions with the wrong participants do not fix it. Ask who will use the findings, which assumption is at stake and what will change when the evidence arrives.

Delivery feasibility matters too. A launch deadline may demand rapid testing, while a niche B2B audience may require substantial recruiting lead time. Do not quote a fixed delivery date before checking recruitment constraints.

• Decision owner: which product or service decision needs evidence?
• Audience: actual or likely users, segments, accessibility needs and specialised B2B roles.
• Method: who plans, moderates, analyses and presents the study?
• Logistics: recruiting, incentives, languages, locations, product access and timelines.
• Commercials: budget authority and a change process if recruitment is harder than expected.

Participant recruitment and consent belong in the proposal

User research can involve recordings and personal data. Responsibilities for notice, consent, access, retention and deletion need to be agreed before sessions begin. The UK Government Service Manual guidance on informed consent provides a useful framework for explaining how research data will be used. Local law and client-specific privacy requirements still apply.

The same service manual’s participant recruitment guidance stresses that participants should reflect actual or likely users, including people with accessibility needs. That is an important qualification check when a client suggests interviewing only internal colleagues.

• Who recruits and screens participants?
• Who manages consent, recordings, incentives, minimisation and deletion?
• How will the sample avoid convenience bias and represent the target audience?

Sell a decision-ready outcome, not workshop hours

A clear research engagement separates discovery, study design, recruitment, fieldwork, analysis and decision support. Describe the outputs in the buyer’s language: evidence tied to research questions, limitations, prioritised findings and a recommendation for what to test next. A slide deck alone is not the value proposition.

Differentiate a bounded usability study from a recurring research programme. Price participant incentives, specialist recruitment, translation and synthesis separately when they materially affect the scope. Session count is an input, not a substitute for research design.

• Good scope example: investigate onboarding obstacles for two user groups and provide evidence-backed priorities.
• Weak scope example: ’tell us what users want’ with no audience, decision or deadline.
• Handover: findings repository, methodological limitations, follow-up questions and contractual data ownership.

Where Mosai fits into agency new business

Mosai is a two-sided marketplace: buyers describe the partner they need and agencies explain the work they are equipped to deliver. A precise research profile can help buyers distinguish you from broad UX/UI design suppliers. Matching depends on project fit; visibility does not guarantee a number of leads, meetings or won projects.

Mosai offers a free listing tier and a Partner option with priority matching when relevant. A separate SEO & AEO agent is available under its current launch offer. Review the pricing information and current terms before making a commitment.

• Describe real methods, research audiences and limitations; never invent client stories or ratings.
• Specify service markets and languages without implying an unverified physical office.
• Track your own pipeline: relevant enquiries, discovery calls, proposals, wins and reasons for no-fit.

Five questions before accepting a brief

What decision will this research enable? Can the buyer recruit the right participants, or will you need to? Is there a product owner able to act on the findings? How will consent and participant data be handled? What constitutes an accepted final deliverable?

A well-qualified ’not for us’ can be commercially healthier than a lengthy proposal for the wrong project. Clear boundaries between research, design and delivery make the right opportunities easier to recognise.