We're about small over big, real conversations over talking heads, quality over quantity, and collaboration over competition. All the good things.
The Cha Cha Club was founded in 2019 in a store called Cha Cha Matcha in New York City. Kate Towsey wanted to scratch her own itch, so she gathered together a community of people who were also working at the frontlines of ResearchOps. But why the "Cha Cha Club?" "Cha Cha" stands for "cheerleaders" and "chums." How very British! Because it can be a lonely ride when you’re a team of one (or a dozen), and you're trying to figure things out on your own. Since 2019, the Club has grown from a handful of people to more than 125 Cha Chas from around the world who call the Club their professional home.
There is power in small (and well-networked). The vibe of the Cha Cha Club means that members share their stories and expertise with each other. Across companies and countries, we're collectively in the know as to the best vendors to use, the features that are coming down the road, and how to get the most out of relationships and investments. We call this "Cha Cha Power."
But our relationship with vendors is symbiotic. Cha Cha Power means that Club members can bubble up common feature requests and feedback so that tools can be built to better meet collective needs. Plus every quarter we host Cha Cha Tool Time, an opportunity for Club members and a featured vendor to connect and learn.
There is power in small
(and well-networked)
The Cha Cha Club isn't big, noisy, or busy. Instead, it thrives on the power of quiet, calm, and connection.
We prefer conversation and connection over talking heads and presentations—though they have their place, too.
We're learning how to scale the magic of small and meaningful connection across cultures, languages, and timezones.
No land grabbing and posturing. We rely on the power of trust, collaboration, and sharing.
Founder of the ResearchOps Community, which she stepped away from in 2019, instigator of the #WhatisResearchOps movement, and creator of the widely used acronym "PWDR" (People Who Do Research), Kate Towsey is known as the queen of ResearchOps. Kate spent five years at Atlassian, where she started and grew a ResearchOps team that became internationally recognized as the benchmark for scaling research skills and infrastructure to hundreds of people. When she's not running the Cha Cha Club, Kate advises companies worldwide and runs workshops to share her knowledge, and help others share theirs. She is the author of Research That Scales: The ResearchOps Handbook, which will be published by Rosenfeld Media in early 2024.
We partner with companies to evolve the practice of ResearchOps worldwide. It takes a village to make a community tick—and a profession grow.
Each year we partner with a vendor to deliver a project that will evolve the profession of ResearchOps. In 2023, User Interviews helped us develop our brand and build this website. But that's just the start! With your help, there's so much more that we can dig into. Do you want to partner on producing a State of ResearchOps report? Interested in sponsoring Cha Cha Con '24, our first annual ResearchOps conference? Maybe you're wondering if we'd do a podcast series with you? Whatever your idea, we'd love to talk.
The Cha Cha Club is invite-only.
Not because we're snobs, but because we like to keep the conversation focused and the trust high. If you're a full-time ResearchOps professional, and you don’t work for a vendor, we'd love to hear from you.