The User Interviews integration lets you create and manage studies in Rally while recruiting participants from User Interviews’ vetted panel of 6+ million professionals and consumers.

External recruitment enables fast, high-quality recruitment without managing your own panel.

Interview, Group Interview, and Unmoderated Test studies are supported when using User Interviews for recruitment.

Creating a study

When creating a study that recruits from User Interviews, some settings are required, disabled, or adjusted based on User Interviews platform limitations.

To recruit from User Interviews:

1. Create a new study (from scratch or from a template).

2. Select User Interviews as the recruitment source.

3. Choose a supported study type.

4. Complete the Plan section. The following fields are required:

   • External study description (shown to applicants)

   • Participation limit

   • Incentive amount

Selecting an audience for recruitment

Audience targeting defines who User Interviews will recruit for your study. The right panel shows Audience Reach and selected criteria. Reach estimates update automatically as you add criteria.

General

Select an Audience type:

• General population (B2C): No advanced criteria required. Recruitment can begin immediately.

• Industry professionals (B2B): At least one Advanced Professional criterion is required.

Enter Total participation time (minutes).

Location

• Default location is the United States.

• Add or change countries as needed.

• To filter by U.S. state, change the location filter to State and select from U.S. states or Washington, D.C.

Define your audience

Use advanced criteria to refine your audience reach, including:

• Advanced Professional (Company size, Industry, Occupation, etc.)

• Accessibility

• Demographic (Age, Gender, Languages Spoken, etc.)

• Technology (Browsers, Operating systems, etc.)

Criteria are searchable. After selecting criteria, click Apply criteria to add them to your search. Added filters appear in the right panel and can be removed using the X.

Remaining study setup

Screeners

Only Rally screeners are supported for external recruitment. Rally screeners allow you to add multiple screener questions, map properties, and apply skip or conditional logic.

Learn how to create a screener, and see External recruitment best practices & FAQs for tips on writing an effective external panel screener.

Scheduling (interview & group interview studies)

Interview duration is set by the Total participation time entered under the Audience tab. Rolling date ranges are not supported when recruiting through User Interviews.

User Interviews does not grant Rally access to participant information such as email and calendar. When viewing a session overview or invite after a session is booked, you'll still see the host and guest information, but will not see participant information there.

Learn more about the Rally Scheduler.

Test (unmoderated test studies)

Select your testing tool and paste the test URL. Learn more in Create an Unmoderated Test Study.

Publishing the study

Review and start recruitment

Review your study configuration to ensure everything looks correct, then click Publish Study. Publishing only publishes the study within Rally. It doesn't set the study live in User Interviews.

To begin recruitment within User Interviews, click Review & Start from the study overview in Rally.

Budget and reserved funds

1. Review the estimated recruitment costs in the pop-up before proceeding.

2. If the selected budget does not have sufficient funds, click Add Funds.

3. If everything looks correct, select Start Recruitment.

A matching study will now be created in User Interviews, and the external panel will begin filling your study with applicants for you to review.

Starting recruitment immediately reserves the total estimated costs from your budget. When you close the study later, any unused reserved funds are restored to your budget. Learn how to set up and fund budgets.

Managing applicants

Reviewing applicants

1. Applicants will find and apply for your study through their User Interviews account. You can also copy the application link from the study overview page in Rally to send to participants with User Interviews profiles directly.

2. Applicants appear in the Participants tab. Click a name to view their external profile, including screener responses and matched audience criteria.

3. Click the three dots (...) next to an applicant's name to either invite or reject them.

4. Invited participants will be invited to the study from their end in User Interviews. Scheduling works the same for external panel participants as it does for internal panel participants, using Rally’s scheduler.

5. The study will stop accepting applicants once it reaches the participation limit.

Incentives

1. After each session, select the three dots next to the participant’s name to select Complete & Send payment.

2. Incentives can be sent manually or are automatically sent 24 hours after session completion.

3. User Interviews handles incentive delivery directly through Tremendous.

Marking no-shows

If a participant doesn't attend, select the three dots (...) next to the interview and select Mark as no show. Do this as soon as possible: sessions are automatically marked complete and paid 24 hours after they end, and a no-show marked after that can't reverse the charge.

Managing study status

Published studies are automatically set as Active. Once you begin recruitment, active studies recruit from User Interviews until the participant limit is reached or until you change the study status.

To change status, click the three dots (...) in the upper-right corner of the study overview and select Change status.

• Paused: Pause recruitment without closing your study. Reserved budget funds remain reserved while the study is paused.

• Active: Unpause a study to resume recruiting by setting it back to active.

• Closed (irreversible): Stops recruitment, disables scheduling, and finalizes payment. Closing before the participant limit is met will release any unused reserved budget funds.

Finalize payment

Once you close your study, Rally will update your study overview with the final billing details, and a receipt will be emailed to the user who closed the study.

Final billing details include:

• Reserved: Total reserved when recruitment started

• Recruitment Fees: Number of participants × recruitment fee

• Incentives: Number of participants × incentive amount

• Total Spent: Total final costs deducted from the budget

• Unused: Unused reserved amount returned to the budget

• Budget: The associated budget

External panel pricing

Rally uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model for external recruitment. Once funds have been loaded into your Rally workspace, you can recruit from User Interviews panels at the following rates:

FAQs

What is the average time to recruit for a User Interviews study?

Once launched, studies tend to progress quickly through matching with qualified candidates and scheduling sessions. The following are standard averages:

• Median minutes to first qualified applicant: 77 minutes

• Median hours to first confirmed session: 24 hours

• Typical within 1 day: At least as many qualified applicants as requested, and at least one session confirmed and scheduled

• Typical within 2 days: All requested participants matched, approved, and scheduled

How does User Interviews gate studies based on submitted recruitment criteria?

User Interviews controls study visibility in two ways: only participants who match the study's criteria are targeted for invites, and only matching participants can view the study on their browse page.

However, anyone with a direct link can apply regardless of criteria match. If an applicant who applied via direct link doesn't meet the required criteria, they should be automatically marked as unqualified upon submission.

Why can't I see participant information on the interview invite?

User Interviews does not grant Rally access to participant information such as email or calendar data, so this information won't appear on session details or calendar invites. This is expected, and the participant is still scheduled correctly.

Can I chat with participants?

Chat is not currently supported for User Interviews studies.