Sandia National Laboratories is home to the Quantum Scientific Computing Open User Testbed (QSCOUT), a low-level quantum computing testbed based on a linear chain of trapped 171Yb+ ions. As part of the DOE ASCR Quantum Testbed Program, QSCOUT aims to offer transparency and versatility in exploring quantum algorithms on a noisy-intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) system and is bolstered by access at a variety of levels within the software stack as deep as pulse-level control. Our all-to-all connected qubit register is hosted by a microfabricated surface-electrode trap, and gates are realized via individually addressed optical Raman transitions. QSCOUT offers continuous parameterization of the two-qubit Mølmer-Sørensen (MS) gate, which has been crucial to a number of recent user collaborations. I will present how working with user teams – and the testbed model in general – has accelerated progress in gate implementation and calibration, software, and classical control hardware. Sandia National Laboratories is managed and operated by NTESS, LLC, a subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc. for the US DOE NNSA under contract DE-NA0003525