There are 6 key steps to complete when setting up an Interview Study, detailed below.
Create new Studies much faster and more reliably by setting up custom Email Templates and Question Templates (used in screeners and surveys) that can be leveraged by your team. This saves you significant time and allows you to ensure the right questions are being asked, pre-define mapping between questions and custom Properties to automatically enrich Participant Profiles, and use professional, consistent, approved communication in all email outreach.
After completing all Study setup steps, you can either (1) publish it to an Active status to proceed with the next steps to add and invite Participants and begin research or (2) save and exit to keep it in a Draft state to return later. Learn more about Study Statuses.
Visit our Creating Studies in Rally guide to learn more about how to prepare key components in advance before creating Studies, and learn the next steps for conducting each Study type after creation.
Create an Interview Study
Navigate to the Studies page and select '+ New Study'.
Enter a Study Name.
Recruitment defaults to In-house (recruit Participants from your own database in Rally).
If you would like to recruit Participants from an external panel (incentives + recruitment fees per Participant required), learn how to Create an Interview Study + Recruit from External Panel.
Select the Study Type 'Interviews'.
Select 'Continue' to open the Study Builder.
Plan
Start by setting up the key details of your Study.
Study Name: Give your study a clear and descriptive name to easily identify it in your workspace.
Study external name: Add an external name for your Study. This can be used with Personalization Tokens to easily add the participant-facing name into emails, etc.
Research Goal (optional; internal): Define the specific goal or objective of your research study to guide your team.
Research Plan (optional; internal): Provide additional details about your research plan, such as methodology or target audience.
Study Type: Confirm the Study type is 'Interview' before proceeding.
Participant Limit: Set a maximum number of Participants for your Study or choose to allow unlimited Participants for continuous research.
Consent (optional): Add a consent form to ensure Participants understand and agree to participate in your Study. Choose the type of consent form and its placement within the signup process. Learn more about consent placement.
Select consent form: Select the consent form to include from the dropdown.
Upload Documents, such as NDAs, and create custom Consent Forms to select from in Studies.
When to capture consent: Decide when to request consent from participants to determine consent placement within the Study by selecting an option:
Before participants start the screener
After participants submit the screener
As participants start the scheduler
After participants schedule the interview
Manual - you'll email the consent form
To capture consent before or after the screener, you'll need to add a screener first before returning to the Plan step to enable these options.
When capturing consent before or after the screener, links sent for scheduling will request consent before scheduling if the Participant has not yet provided consent in this Study (ex: invited to schedule without first being invited to complete the screener+consent).
Learn how to manually email consent forms directly to Participants.
Incentive (optional): Specify the amount or reward you will provide to Participants for their participation.
Users can 'Add Funds' to the selected Incentive Budget here, or wait to add funds before sending incentives later. This may require manager approval.
Learn how to set up, send, and manage Incentives.
Branding: Personalize your Study with your company's logo and brand colors to create a cohesive experience.
Set up and manage Brands for your workspace.
Language (optional): Select from the options to translate your Study into another language. Currently, each Study can only have 1 language set; for example, choosing Spanish will not show an English option for users.
Note: Web pages, screener endings, and uneditable elements of emails will be translated by Rally to your chosen language, but customizable elements that your team creates or includes (such as screener and survey questions or question templates, email content or email templates, and consent forms) will not be automatically translated and can be prepared in advance by your team.
Screener
Ask the right questions to keep your Participants engaged and gather the best feedback.
Survey tool: Select your preferred survey tool. While Rally's native survey tool is recommended for seamless integration with Properties and automated follow-ups, you can also choose from our Survey integrations with Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, Typeform, or UserTesting. You can also 'Link to a custom survey' to use an alternative non-integrated survey tool; if you choose this option, follow the link to ensure proper setup to see survey completion updates in Rally Studies.
Qualification: Choose your preferred qualification method to streamline the workflow for qualified Participants from the 2 options below:
Complete screener without being disqualified: With this option, Participants who complete the screener without encountering any auto-disqualifying answers will automatically qualify for the study.
You will need to set up conditional logic to disqualify participants based on specific question responses, or participants who complete screeners will auto-qualify unexpectedly.
Have a qualifying answer to specific questions: With this option, you can set specific questions in the screener that will automatically qualify Participants based on their answers.
You will need to set up conditional logic to qualify participants based on specific question responses, or participants who complete screeners will not auto-qualify as expected.
Immediate scheduling (optional): Allow qualified Participants to book interviews immediately after completing the screener, without waiting for you to follow up.
Build Screener: Create your screener by adding questions and implementing conditional logic to tailor the screening process. Select '+ Add Question' and either:
'Create New Question'
Learn how to create new questions, map questions/responses to Properties, and optionally save them as new Question Templates as you go.
'Add From Question Templates'
We recommend creating custom Question Templates in advance to allow your team to quickly and easily build quality screeners.
Screener endings: Customize messages for Participants based on their qualification status.
Standard: A general message that Participants see after they submit the screener.
Example: "Thank you for taking the time to fill out the screener survey. If you match our criteria, you will receive an email from us."
Qualified: A message that Participants see after they submit the screener with auto-qualifying answers.
Example: "Thank you for choosing to participate. We think you'd be an awesome fit for our study, and we will reach out to you when there are opportunities for you to participate in."
Disqualified: A message that Participants see after they submit the screener with auto-disqualifying answers.
Example: "Thank you for taking the time to fill out the survey."
💡 Screeners cannot be submitted twice by a Participant for the same Study. This avoids overwriting original responses or any Participants attempting to bypass a disqualification with an additional submission attempt.
Scheduling
Set your calendar event details and manage availability for your team with Rally's robust Scheduler. Carefully configure scheduling for your specific needs for a seamless Study.
Rally Scheduling is organized into 6 subsections:
Event Setup
Select your preferred Calendar App.
Add the Event Name and Event Description.
We suggest using Personalization Tokens to customize outreach, such as including "First Name" or "Interview Length (minutes)".
Set the interview Duration in minutes or hours.
Specify the Location.
Select 'Zoom', 'Google Meet', or 'Microsoft Teams' for online interviews with our integrations. Selecting one of these options is required to enable Observer Rooms.
Select 'Custom Location' for in-person interviews or to use an alternative video conference app.
For alternative video conference apps, include the link in the additional Calendar Location text field.
For in-person interviews, if the location for all in-person interviews for this Study will be the same, use the additional Calendar Location text field to add the physical address and room where interviews will take place, or leave this field blank to add later in location details for each event.
Select 'No Location' to exclude locations during scheduling and manually update the location later in your own calendar tool.
Assignment
Choose your Scheduling Type from the following 3 options:
Standard 1:1: The Participant meets with one interviewer.
Collective: The Participant meets with a group of interviewers when all of them are available.
The Rally Scheduler will only show Participants times when all interviewers are available, so this may result in less available timeslots if the interviewers have different schedules and/or are in different timezones, etc.
Round Robin: The Participant meets with one interviewer out of a rotating pool of interviewers.
As long as at least one of the hosts is available, Rally shows the slot as available. Then we randomly select one of the available hosts as the interviewer. This optimizes for the maximum number of available slots.
Add Interviewers.
By default, the person creating the Study will be set as the first interviewer.
Admins or managers can create a Study on someone else's behalf and assign another Rally user as the interviewer.
For Collective and Round Robin scheduling, include multiple Interviewers by selecting '+ Add Teammate' and selecting from the list or typing to search.
💡 You can add other Rally users as "Interviewers" to consider their availability during scheduling as well, including Rally users with the Observer role type. Developers cannot be added as Interviewers as they do not have calendar connection capabilities, but they can be added as Guests. To include other users as attendees without having their availability affect scheduling availability for Participants, add them as Guests.
Optionally, you can also add Guests. Guests will be included in all interview invites, regardless of their availability and can include users without calendars connected.
Select '+ Add Teammate' to select from the list or type to search Rally users.
Select '+ Add Email Address' to enter the email address of a teammate not on Rally to include as a Guest in the interview.
Availability
Available Dates: Select either a Rolling Date Range or a Fixed Date Range.
Rolling Date Range: Specify the number of days.
Fixed Date Range: Choose a start and end date.
Any Participants trying to access the Scheduler to book time after the set date range has passed will see a "We're Fully Booked" page. You can always return to update or extend the dates by editing the Study.
Availability: Choose between a common schedule for all interviewers, or individual interviewer availability.
Set the same hours for all interviewers: Set the days and hours you want interviews to be held. In the following steps, you can also select specific dates that override the common schedule and set the meeting conflict handling.
Use each interviewer's preferred hours: Use each interviewer's general availability, including Date Overrides for OOO, which can be customized by each Rally user in the Availability section of Settings. If there are multiple interviewers, you can view their shared availability by clicking the 'Check Availability' button in the top right corner. If their shared availability is limited, Super Admins can override it. Learn more about Conflicts and Overrides.
If you selected 'Set the same hours for all interviewers', you have additional configuration options.
Date Overrides: Add dates when availability changes from normal working hours.
This may include added availability on specific dates, reduced availability on specific dates, or blackout dates with no availability. Adding date overrides with specific times will update that date's available timeslots to use those set here. Adding date overrides with no specific times will update that date to remove all available timeslots.
Meeting Conflict Handling: Decide how Rally's Scheduler treats your interview team's other calendar events when booking new interviews.
Default - Don't book over Busy events
This option will show tentative and "free" bookings as available.
Note: "Busy" bookings that have tentative ("maybe") or unconfirmed attendance will show as available with this setting.
Example: Company meetings you've been invited to but have not yet marked yourself as attending can be booked over by Participants.
Strict - Don't book over any events (Free or Busy)
This option will show any booking (even tentative) as unavailable.
Off - All events can be booked over
This option will not allow Participants to schedule over Rally interviews from the same Study, but may allow Participants to schedule over Rally interviews from a different Study. This can provide increased availability when you're on a time crunch, but proceed with caution!
💡 See our Scheduler FAQ for more detailed information on understanding why you may be seeing more or less availability than expected.
Limits
Buffer time before and after interviews: Optionally allow for preparation and wrap-up. When enabled, the buffer time will be included both before and after every scheduled interview, which may reduce the number of available interview timeslots.
Minimum booking notice: Specify your preference for how far in advance an interview needs to be scheduled, such as 12 hours, to avoid last-minute booking surprises and allow time to prepare. Time slots within the minimum booking notice window won't be displayed to Participants.
Daily Interview Limit: Restrict the number of interviews that can be booked on a given day for the study. Leaving it blank means unlimited interviews per day.
Time Slot Intervals: Set the frequency of available time slots on the booking page. For instance, with 30-minute intervals, time slots are available at 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, etc. Smaller increments will provide more available options for Participants.
Advanced
Customize the Participant's view after booking an interview or once the study's interview limit is reached.
Confirmation Page: Edit the message shown once a Participant successfully books a time.
Fully Booked Page: Edit the message shown when the Study is closed, paused, or you have no more availability within the date range.
Observer Room
Optionally, enable a virtual Observer Room to invite stakeholders or teammates to view a live stream of your user research interviews without distracting Participants. Enabling Observer Rooms requires having either Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams set as the interview Location in the 'Event Setup' section.
Enable Observer Room
Toggle on the Observer Room to continue with setup.
Observer Room Guests
Select '+ Add Teammate' and type or select their name from the dropdown.
Select '+ Add Email Address' to input any email address of teammates or stakeholders that do not have a Rally account in your workspace.
Note for Observers
Add a custom message for the Study that only Observers will see during the livestream.
This is a great place to add context on the specific research you'll be conducting during this interview, or to let Observers know where they can best share their thoughts and feedback on the session.
Once interviews are scheduled, if you are the interviewer, you will see both your scheduled interview event and your Observer Room event on your calendar.
Learn more about Observer Rooms and Observer Room Settings.
Become a scheduling expert by learning about Schedule Conflicts and Overrides.
Rally also allows the flexibility to Manually Book Interviews to bypass host availability, interview limits, and other scheduling restrictions, and log past interviews or interviews outside of Rally to ensure a Participant's history stays up to date.
Emails
Preparing your emails upfront saves you time and keeps your messaging consistent. You can always return to edit them later or edit them when sending. We highly recommend setting up custom Email Templates for your team in advance to save significant time and ensure professional, consistent, approved communication is used in all email outreach. Email Templates can be selected when reviewing and editing messages during the Email setup step.
Core Messages:
Interview Screener: Send an invitation to potential Participants to participate in your Study by taking the screener. Not included for Studies without screeners.
Interview Scheduler: Invite Participants to book an interview using the Study scheduler. This email bypasses the screener (if one is included) and allows the Participant to schedule time.
Interview Request Reschedule: Ask Participants to reschedule an interview by returning to the scheduler.
Incentive: Thank Participants for taking part in the Study and send them an incentive via Tremendous. Confirm the incentive amount before saving. Not included for Studies without incentives enabled.
Automated Messages:
Interview Confirmation: Automatically confirm the interview details to the Participant after successful scheduling. Includes links to cancel or reschedule.
Interview Reminder: Schedule reminders to Participants to ensure they don't miss their upcoming interviews. Includes links to cancel or reschedule. Defaults to sending 15 minutes before scheduled interview time; edit email to customize.
Interview Cancellation: Inform Participants if their interview was canceled.
Edit and Preview Outreach Emails
Select the pencil icon next to each email to customize and carefully preview each one.
💡 Visit Email Templates for complete steps and additional important information.
Select Template: Select from pre-made Email Templates for consistency.
Layout: Select Plain Text or choose Branded for more professional outreach.
Subject: Edit the email subject as needed. Optionally, include Personalization Tokens to auto-populate such as Participant's First Names.
Body: Edit the email body as needed (less relevant for Email Templates). Optionally, further customize formatting and add Personalization Tokens to auto-include relevant information, such as Study Name or Incentive Amount.
Include Unsubscribe Link: Include a link at the bottom of your emails allowing recipients to stay unsubscribed. It will help you stay compliant with local spam laws and improve deliverability. Unsubscribe links are required for branded emails.
Send Test: Optionally, send yourself a test email.
+ Save As New Template: Save any new email you create as an Email Template for later reuse.
Done: Select Done to close the editor.
💡 Learn how to decrease spam rate and improve email deliverability before emailing customers.
Share
Choose how you'll recruit Participants and share your Study.
Select Recruitment Channels:
Send Emails: Emails are always enabled.
Share a Public Link: Toggle on 'Share a Public Link’ if you’d like to invite Participants via a share link.
Recruitment Preferences:
Welcome Page: Create a custom Welcome Page for Participants by selecting 'Edit Page'. Check the corresponding boxes to decide whether the welcome page will be shown to Participants invited via Email or Share Link, or neither.
Contact Information: Confirm which information will be required from Participants when they sign up.
First Name & Last Name: This setting is enabled by default and requires a person to enter their first name & last name to join this Study. Optionally, disable this setting for Participants invited via Email.
Email Address: This setting is enabled by default as an email address is required to join a Study. Decide whether to allow 'Personal or work emails' or 'Work emails only'. This defaults to 'Personal or work emails'.
Review
Confirm everything is correct or add any missing info to ensure your Study is complete.
Review the components of your Study: Rally will check for any known errors or missing details in your Study setup for you to make necessary edits. Preview your entire Study from the Participant's perspective to ensure a seamless experience.
Select 'Create Study' in the top right to launch the Study and get started!
If you're not ready to Publish it, select 'Save & Exit' to save it in a Draft state to return later.
Next, add Participants to your Study before sending email invitations or sharing links.
Visit our guide to learn more about how to prepare key components in advance before creating Studies, and learn the next steps for conducting each Study type after creation.