A UX, research & design consultancy · Built in India

सूत्रधार
Sutradhar

The one who holds the thread.

Strategy, research, design, brand, motion and code, woven by one team into one thread — so the product your customer meets feels like it was made by a single mind.

Book a discovery call See the three tiers

The name

The best experiences are woven, not assembled.

In classical Indian theatre the sūtradhāra — literally the holder of the thread — opens the performance and never really leaves it. Narrator, conductor and stage-master at once: the one person who can see the whole play while it is happening.

Most digital work is done the other way round. A strategy vendor hands to a research vendor, who hands to a design studio, who hands to a film crew, and the seams show up in the product long before anyone admits they are seams.

We hold the thread instead. One pod, one lead, one accountable line running from the first interview to the launch film — and to whether the metric we agreed on at kickoff actually moved.

How we hold it

Five things we won't trade away.

Insight before opinion

Every recommendation traces back to research, data or a tested prototype. If we can't show you where it came from, we don't put it in the deck.

Craft over decoration

Visual polish serves clarity and usability. It never substitutes for it.

One team, one thread

Strategist, researcher, designer, filmmaker and client sit in the same room — not in a relay race with a baton getting dropped between legs.

Speed with integrity

We work at startup pace without skipping the rigor that makes a design decision defensible six months later.

Outcomes over outputs

A beautiful deck that doesn't move a business metric is an unfinished job.

What we do

Seven pillars. You are never sold one you don't need.

Strategy, roadmaps, research, design systems, workflows, service design, branding, creative, copy, usability testing, listening sessions and working-code prototypes — organised so you can see exactly what you're buying.

Strategy & Roadmap

Product and UX strategy, opportunity mapping, roadmapping, working sessions with your leadership team.

Research & Insight

User research, customer listening sessions, usability testing, generative and evaluative studies.

Product & Systems

UX and UI design, design systems, information architecture, end-to-end workflows.

Service Design

Journey mapping, service blueprints, cross-channel experience design across every touchpoint you own.

Brand & Creative

Branding, identity systems, campaign creative, UX copywriting and brand voice.

Motion & Film

Animation, motion design, brand films, product launch films.

Prototyping & Validation

Working-code interactive prototypes, usability testing, rapid concept validation.

How we work

Pods, not a bench dump.

We keep a bench of researchers, strategists, UX designers, visual designers, animators and filmmakers. You don't get the bench. You get a pod: a small cross-functional team sized to your problem, with one Pod Lead accountable for the outcome and a Producer keeping delivery honest.

  • You pay for the specialists your problem actually needs — not a generic full-team rate card padded with idle hours.
  • One Pod Lead owns the outcome end to end. No hand-off gap between research, design and delivery.
  • Pods flex. Add an animator, a filmmaker, a second researcher — or drop one — without renegotiating the whole contract.

The bench

Strategist

Frames the problem, owns the roadmap and the client relationship.

Researcher

Runs discovery, listening sessions and usability testing. Turns data into insight.

UX / Product Designer

Information architecture, interaction design, workflows, prototypes.

Visual Designer

Design systems, UI craft, brand application across surfaces.

Animator

Microinteractions, product motion, campaign animation.

Filmmaker

Brand films, launch films, case-study documentation.

Copywriter

UX copy, brand voice, campaign and product content.

Producer

Scheduling, scope discipline, client communication cadence.

Engagements

One thread. Then a weave. Then a tapestry.

Start at Thread to test the relationship on a single real problem. Move into Weave to build or rebuild the product properly. Grow into Tapestry when you want a partner rather than a project.

Engagement tiers at a glance
At a glance Thread Weave Tapestry
Best forA single, well-defined questionBuilding or redesigning a productAn embedded, ongoing partner
Timeline2–3 weeks6–10 weeks3–6+ months, ongoing
Pod size2 people4–6 people6–10 people
Pricing modelFixed feeFixed fee or 2-month retainerMonthly retainer or scoped project
Investment Ask for a quote Ask for a quote Ask for a quote

Tier 01 · entry

Thread

सूत्र · sūtra

One clear thread through a tangled problem.

Timeline
2–3 weeks
Pod
2 + part-time Producer
Model
Fixed fee
Investment
Quoted per sprint

For founders and product teams who need fast, credible clarity on one well-defined problem before committing to anything larger. You pick a single focus. We don't bundle unrelated work into it.

Choose one focus
  • UX and heuristic audit of an existing product
  • Five-day design sprint on one feature or flow
  • Usability testing sprint, 5–8 participants
  • Customer listening sprint, 8–10 interviews plus synthesis
  • Rapid working-code prototype to test a new concept
  • Brand or identity refresh — logo, palette, basic guidelines
Three weeks, laid out
Week 1
Discovery and fieldwork — audit, interviews, or sprint framing with your team.
Week 2
Synthesis and design — findings distilled, prototype or recommendations built.
Week 3
Validation and readout — a testing pass where the scope includes one, then a live workshop with prioritized next steps.
What you get
  • Findings report or audit deck, severity-ranked
  • Prioritized opportunity list
  • Working prototype, where scope includes one
  • Live readout workshop with your team
How we'll know it worked
  • Heuristic and usability score, before versus after
  • Count and severity of issues found and resolved
  • Stakeholder alignment, polled in the workshop
  • Decision velocity — time saved reaching a go / no-go

Fixed fee, quoted per sprint. Scoped upfront in a short SOW and locked before work begins. Thread sprints can be stacked back to back for multi-part problems.

Get a Thread quote

Tier 02 · build

Weave

वयन · vayana

Research, design and story woven into one product.

Timeline
6–10 weeks
Pod
4–6 people
Model
Fixed fee or retainer
Investment
Quoted per scope

For teams designing or substantially redesigning a core product, feature set or experience — starting at discovery and ending with a tested, developer-ready design.

Scope
  • Discovery research, strategy and information architecture
  • UX and UI design across the defined product surface
  • Foundational design system — components, tokens, patterns
  • UX copy and content design
  • Interactive working-code prototype for buy-in and handoff
  • One full round of usability testing and iteration
Ten weeks, laid out
Weeks 1–2
Discover — research, stakeholder interviews, competitive and heuristic review.
Weeks 3–6
Define and design — IA, flows, UI, design system foundations, copy.
Weeks 7–8
Prototype and test — prototype built, usability round run, iteration made.
Weeks 9–10
Handoff — dev-ready files, design system documentation, wrap workshop.
What you get
  • Research report with personas or jobs-to-be-done
  • Service blueprint or core user flows
  • UI kit and design system v1
  • Interactive, working-code prototype
  • Usability test report with iteration log
  • Dev-ready handoff files and a copy deck
How we'll know it worked
  • SUS score, pre versus post engagement
  • Task completion time and task success rate
  • Projected conversion lift from funnel analysis
  • Design-system components adopted into production
  • Time from design sign-off to build start
  • Collaboration NPS at wrap

Fixed fee, priced to scope and surface area, defined in the SOW after a scoping call. Or a two-month retainer where the scope is still moving.

Get a Weave quote

Tier 03 · embedded

Tapestry

वितान · vitāna

Strategy, systems, brand and story, woven continuously.

Timeline
3–6+ months, ongoing
Pod
6–10 people
Model
Retainer or scoped project
Investment
Quoted per squad

For scaling companies that want an embedded design and research partner across the whole experience — product, service and brand — rather than a single project.

Scope
  • Quarterly strategy and roadmap, refreshed each cycle
  • Continuous discovery and an always-on listening program
  • Full design system with governance and adoption support
  • Service design across multiple touchpoints and channels
  • Brand identity and campaign creative
  • Launch films and motion content for major releases
  • Embedded usability testing before every major release
Cadence
Monthly
Design and research sprints inside a rolling quarterly roadmap, plus a customer listening insight report to your leadership.
Quarterly
Business-impact review — the roadmap reset against the OKRs we agreed on.
What you get
  • A living quarterly roadmap
  • Governed, documented design system
  • Service blueprints across the full journey
  • Brand and campaign asset library
  • Launch and case-study films
  • Always-on research repository, monthly insight reports
  • Quarterly business-impact review
How we'll know it worked
  • Quarterly OKRs tied to activation, retention, conversion, CSAT/NPS
  • Design-system maturity — coverage, adoption, governance health
  • Research velocity — validated insights shipped per month
  • Share of features usability-tested before launch
  • Brand awareness and recall lift, tracked by survey
  • Capability uplift in your own team, where we co-work with your hires

Monthly retainer, scaled to squad size and cadence. Or a scoped project fee for a defined six-month transformation, priced after a paid discovery phase.

Talk about Tapestry

Measuring impact

Judged on outcomes, not on files delivered.

Every engagement, at every tier, is measured across three layers. Baselines are captured at kickoff, before any design work starts.

Layer 01

Experience

Whether the thing itself is usable.

  • SUS score
  • Task success rate
  • Time on task
  • Error rate
  • Issue severity
Layer 02

Adoption

Whether people actually use it, and come back.

  • Happiness
  • Engagement
  • Adoption
  • Retention
  • Task success
Layer 03

Business

Whether it moves the metrics you are funded on.

  • Conversion
  • Activation
  • Retention
  • CSAT / NPS
  • Revenue-linked KPIs
At kickoff

Baseline captured before any design work begins.

Mid-point

Checkpoint against the metrics we agreed on.

30 / 60 / 90 days

Post-launch impact report showing movement against baseline.

Business-outcome metrics are agreed jointly at kickoff, because they depend on your analytics stack and your business model. We don't claim credit for movement we can't trace to a specific design or research decision.

Pricing

Priced to the shape of the work.

Fixed fee

Used for Thread and most Weave engagements. Scope is defined upfront in a short statement of work; the price is locked before work begins.

Monthly retainer

Used for Tapestry, and for Weave relationships that outgrow a single project. Predictable monthly investment, scope refreshed each quarter.

Day rate

Used to drop a single specialist into your existing team, or to extend a pod — a filmmaker for one shoot day, an animator for a campaign.

Profiles you can hire by the day

Any of these can drop into your existing team, or extend a pod — by the day, or fractionally at roughly two days a week. Rates are shared on the discovery call, once we know the shape of the work.

Engagement Director / Principal Strategist
Strategist
Lead UX / Product Designer
UX / Product Designer
Visual / Brand Designer
User Researcher
Copywriter / Content Designer
Motion Designer / Animator
Producer / Project Manager
Filmmaker — director and crewProject only

Ask for the rate card

Tell us the problem and we'll come back with a written quote — the tier we'd recommend, the pod behind it, and the price, before anything is signed.

Book a discovery call

Every relationship opens with a free 30–45 minute discovery call. For Weave and Tapestry we may run a short paid scoping sprint to define the SOW precisely — and the scoping fee is credited back against the engagement if you proceed.

Getting started

Four steps to a pod on your problem.

Most clients enter through Thread. A good Thread engagement usually surfaces the next, larger question — and that becomes a Weave.

Discovery call

Free, 30–45 minutes. We understand the problem and tell you which tier fits — including when the honest answer is "none of them yet."

Proposal and SOW

Scope, timeline, pod composition and price, confirmed in writing before anything starts.

Kickoff workshop

Baseline metrics agreed. Research and design plan walked through with your team.

Pod assembled

Work begins within five business days of signing.

Not sure is a real answer — step one exists to tell you which tier fits, including when the answer is none of them yet.

What isn't here yet

A studio that publishes nothing false.

Insight before opinion applies to our own marketing first. Three things you'd expect on a page like this are missing, on purpose.

Case studies

We publish work when we've done it, with the client's permission and the real numbers. Not before.

Client logos and testimonials

A logo wall you can't verify is the cheapest thing on any agency site. We'd rather have the empty space than the borrowed credibility.

A showreel

The films arrive with the launches. Until then there's nothing to autoplay at you.

We hold the thread.

Bring us the tangled part. We'll tell you in 45 minutes whether it's a Thread, a Weave, or something you should keep in-house.

hello@sutradhar.design Review the tiers