Bakul moderates the way she reads a room: watching for what's underneath the words. As a researcher at Unpac Research, she runs qualitative studies across technology, policy, entertainment, and FMCG; designing recruitment, moderating fieldwork, and distilling what respondents mean, not just what they say. It's a skill that draws directly from where she started.

Thirteen years leading multiple categories at Shoppers Stop, meant analysing data as well as standing on a shop floor and decoding, in real time, why a consumer reached for one shelf over another. That's not a transferable skill so much as the same skill: reading behaviour, holding a room's attention, knowing when to push a question and when to let silence do the work. Retail taught her to listen for the "why." Research is where that instinct now lives. Sheetal collaborates with senior partners domestically and internationally, following a model of partnering with seasoned professionals to ensure clients receive the highest quality of thinking on their projects.