Empowering product decisions safely: A live conversation with Research leaders from Ramp, Block, & Thumbtack

Speed vs. safety: How to scale research without putting data at risk

As research teams grow and tools multiply, governance becomes everyone's problem. At Gather & Growth 2025 in New York, three Research Ops leaders, Michelle Bejian Lotia (Ramp), Niu Chen (Block), and Katie Hansen (Thumbtack), shared how they balance moving fast with protecting participants and staying compliant.

Key takeaways:

• How decentralized research models can scale without losing compliance
• Practical governance frameworks that don't slow teams down
• Using automation and AI within Research Ops to reduce risk, not add it
• What ethics-first, trauma-informed research operations actually looks like in practice
• And more!

A live panel on one of the most important tensions in Research Ops today.