Same cycle plays out in analytics, and "early engagement" is necessary but not sufficient — you also need researchers who can tie their work directly to a decision that changed. If you can't name the decision, you're still in the service trap regardless of when you got invited to the meeting.

The cycle starts earlier than the hire — it's baked into how the req gets written. If the job description says "support product teams" you've already defined research as a service function before day one.