From groundwork to growth: Rally’s next steps for ReOps

A review of Rally’s 2024 foundation and a look at 2025’s future

When Rally first launched back in March 2023, we had one mission in mind: to enable Research Operations Managers (that’s you) to conduct research safely and at scale. You, our Rally Champions, are the backbone of every successful Research study. You’re the ones who make sure product & design  teams have what they need to drive impactful, data-driven decisions. Your input, your feedback, and your relentless pursuit of better processes have inspired everything we’ve done, and for that, we can’t thank you enough.

As we welcomed 2024, we knew the year would be a big one. We rolled up our sleeves, set our sights high, and got to work, making sure that Rally was ready to meet evolving needs of research teams around the world.

Our mission? To make the behind-the-scenes work of Research Operations faster, easier, and more impactful. And that’s exactly what we focused on for the first part of 2024.

Partnerships with key UXR tooling

Last year, we launched several key partnerships that brought new, exciting capabilities to the table. The goal was to strengthen the Rally platform so that users can recruit participants, capture insights, and manage every step of the research process through integrations with tools they already know and love. That’s what we partnered with some of the biggest players in the UXR game: 

• Unmoderated tests with UserTesting: Seamlessly recruit and manage participants in Rally while capturing video based insights in UserTesting or UserZoom.

• Unmoderated tests with Ballpark: Capture usability and design insights through Ballpark’s unmoderated tests, while managing the end-to-end study process from recruitment to incentives in Rally.
• External panel recruitment with Respondent: Access a pool of 3M+ diverse participants directly within Rally to recruit beyond your user base.

We wanted to make sure that every new feature, every enhancement, helped you solve problems faster and showcase your work with more impact.

‍Streamlined research processes

‍We know that the easier it is to get research done, the more research gets done. That’s why we introduced updates like:

• Group interviews: Schedule focus groups, small panels, or discussions with ease, complete with participant limits and custom time slots.
• Streamlined scheduling & interview tools: From manual bookings to activity feeds, rescheduling, and a Microsoft Teams integration, we made managing interviews faster and more reliable.
• Dashboards: For the first time, visualize research activity, demonstrate ROI, and communicate your impact across the organization.

We’re proud of these updates, but we know that no great platform can work effectively without a solid foundation. That’s why we put a major focus on governance last year.

‍Governance that doesn’t just check boxes

‍Governance and compliance aren’t sexy. It’s not the stuff of blog posts that go viral or make the headlines. But it’s the quiet hero of every great platform (kind of like how the quiet hero of every great Research program is a ReOps Manager 😉). Without it, nothing else matters. We’ve spent the last few years building a platform that is as secure as it is fast. From day one, we committed to making sure that Rally not only delivers a powerful ReOps solution but does so with the highest standards of trust and security. So, what did we do to build on that last year?

• HIPAA compliance: We ensured that Rally meets the rigorous standards required for handling protected health information (PHI).
• Mask participant PHI and PII: Mark participant properties as PII or PHI to automatically mask sensitive data. Safely sync contacts via integrations like Snowflake and Salesforce without compromising security.
• Custom governance rules: Create contact limits that fit your organization’s unique needs, from cooldown periods to outreach rules. 
• Governance tab in participant profiles: See when and why participant contact statuses changed, keeping governance transparent and easy to manage.

All of this adds up to one simple goal: to give you the tools you need to protect your participants, your research, and your organization.

The participant experience

‍While ReOps are the heroes in our story, we know that users are at the heart of yours. In 2024, we doubled down on making their experience seamless, rewarding, and accessible.

• Simplified scheduling: We revamped the participant scheduling interface to make it easy for participants to book interviews.
• Incentives made easier: Clearer incentive redemption, new incentive types, and a smoother process to ensure participants are happy and ready to engage.
• Accessibility enhancements: Features like keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, and auditory feedback ensure your research is accessible and inclusive. 

Keeping data fresh with CRM integrations

We know that data is your most valuable asset. Keeping it fresh and up-to-date should be effortless. Last year, more and more customers connected their Salesforce or Snowflake workspaces to Rally to ensure that their participant data stays in sync.

“The Salesforce integration eliminated the need to approve lists with CSMs, which saves 3 days on each Research project.” - Max Vasyliev, ReOps Manager at PandaDoc 

Read the case study > 

And for those of you using tools we don’t yet integrate with, we introduced the Developer API. Our API makes it easy to keep your data up-to-date across all your platforms (including CS data warehouses, marketing, sales, and research).

Collaboration: More than just a buzzword

Talking to your own users grew in importance last year and more teams across organizations have wanted to get involved. We recognized this trend and to meet it launched new features that allow teams to collaborate more seamlessly.

• Guest access: Invite stakeholders to join interviews even if they don’t have a Rally account.
• Observer rooms: Invite team members to observe live interviews from a virtual backroom, without disrupting participants.
• Free collaborator seat: Enable stakeholders to view projects, modify studies, or collaborate on Research with a free account.

The big reveal: Rally for Teams

Finally, all of these features set the stage for something even bigger: Rally for Teams. Our biggest launch of the year was our exciting new refresh of Rally, designed to enable research at scale while maintaining robust control.

• Multi-team support: Multiple teams can conduct research within a single workspace. Each team gets its own participants, studies, templates, and budgets.
• Custom roles: Create custom roles for your team members and decide who can do what. Keep participant data on lockdown, control who can send out incentives, who can launch studies, and more.
• Panel management: Segment participants into groups, so only the right teams can access them.
• Forms: Use Forms to grow and manage in-house user panels. Capture participant data, collect consent, and screen users while automatically keeping profiles up to date and ready for research. 
• Templates: From consent forms to screener questions, save time with templates that keep everything consistent and on-brand. 
• Custom incentives: Easily manage and track incentives, from gift cards to special rewards.

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“Rally for Teams is the missing piece we needed for better team structure, so each person has access to exactly what they need – and nothing they don’t.” - Caitlin Faughnan, DevOps UX Research Operations Coordinator, Gitlab

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Looking ahead…

Moving into 2025, we promise to continue doubling down on you and your goals. Whether you're looking to enable self-serve recruitment at your org, trying to grow your research panel, or just continue to streamline your recruitment process in 2025, our roadmap has got you covered.

To all our Research Operations managers – the architects of research success – thank you for being our constant inspiration. We can’t wait to show you what’s next.

Ready to see what’s coming in 2025? Stay tuned. We promise it’ll be worth the wait.

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