Welcoming our research analyst

This week our third new team member joined: a research analyst supporting CMB Insight discovery work. The role is part-time and the analyst is based in Edinburgh — another remote hire, in line with how we’ve been building the team.

Why this role

Discovery is the part of CMB Insight engagements that creates the most value for clients and absorbs the most time for consultants. The pattern of work has a predictable shape: senior consultants frame the questions, junior or specialist research capacity does the legwork (interviews, data analysis, competitive scanning, secondary research), and senior consultants synthesise findings into strategy.

Without dedicated research capacity, senior consultants end up doing all three steps. That’s expensive, slow, and a bad use of senior time. Adding a research analyst means our consultants spend more time on framing and synthesis — the parts where their experience matters most.

What part-time means here

The role is contracted at three days a week with some flexibility for engagement peaks. The analyst joins us alongside their own PhD research, which is in a related area and which we’ve taken care to make sure doesn’t conflict with client work.

Part-time hires have a bad reputation in consultancy — there’s a perception that they create coordination overhead and patchy availability. We’ve found the opposite, when the role is scoped well. Part-time professionals are often more experienced, more focused, and more deliberate about their time than full-time equivalents at the same career stage.

What changes for clients

Probably nothing visible. Discovery deliverables will continue to be authored by senior consultants. The research analyst sits behind that work — designing research instruments, conducting interviews, producing the underlying analysis that consultants build on. You’ll occasionally see the analyst on a client call when they’re conducting research interviews, but the engagement lead remains the consultant you’ve been working with.

What may change is timelines. Discovery work that previously took four weeks because senior consultants were doing everything may now take three. We’ll re-cost engagements accordingly — clients shouldn’t be paying for inefficiency.

Three hires in eight weeks

Three hires in two months is faster than we planned for, and faster than we’ll continue at. The pace is a function of where we started — two founders running everything from day one — and isn’t a reflection of an aggressive expansion plan. We’d expect the next hire, whenever it comes, to be three or four months away rather than three or four weeks.

For context, the team is now: two founders, one senior consultant, one Operations Lead, one research analyst (part-time), and one consultant in Australia. Six people, three of them part-time or partial, four of them client-facing in some form.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is research analyst work outsourced or in-house?

In-house, employed by CM Beyer. We use external partners only for specialist work outside our core capability.

Does the academic affiliation create any conflicts?

We’ve reviewed it and it doesn’t. The analyst’s research area is unrelated to current or anticipated client work, and we have a written policy on disclosure if a potential conflict arises.

How do you handle confidentiality with a research analyst?

Same way as for any team member — signed confidentiality agreements, access controls on client materials, and clear protocols on what can be shared internally and externally.

Are you considering hiring more researchers?

Not in the short term. One part-time analyst is the right shape for the team size right now.