3. Configuring Questions & Matchmaking - Evergreen (NEW)

Questions & Matchmaking:

The first step in your Registration Setup is to configure your Profiles and the Matchmaking process. From your Registration () page, click on the Profiles and Matchmaking link:

You will be taken to the Profile & Matching page where you can review each of the different questions and fields that your users will provide information on when they register for your program:

Some of the questions you see here are mandatory and must be answered by users. The group of users that these questions are asked to is indicated along the right-hand side of the question. For example, the Basic Information and Role questions must be answered by all users, whereas the Capacity question needs to only be answered by your Mentors:

Clicking on each of these questions will expand them to provide more information on what will be asked, along with some settings you can configure further.

• Note: some settings will vary depending on the type of question being asked.

Depending on the template you chose earlier while creating your program, you will see a different set of questions listed here. By default, Together will automatically provide you with a number of different options that you can edit (or remove) if you would like.

Adding Fields & Rules

Sometimes you might want to ask your users a specific question or collect a relevant piece of data to use to inform the matching process. To facilitate this, you will need to add a field and rule. To begin, click on the blue Add Fields and Rules button near the top of this page:

There are a number of key steps to creating and configuring your new field, we will run through each step below:

1. Field Type:

First, you need to decide what kind of profile field you will want to add, here we have two options:

• Matchmaking: this type ensures that the field will contribute to the match strength and rules between mentors and mentees. In other words, you would use this type if it is important in pairing specific mentees and mentors together.

• • Matchmaking fields have a few options for you to choose from, ranging from skills and goals questions to questions on a user's department, seniority level, etc.
  • Alternatively, you can opt to create a custom field if you're looking for something more specific.
• Non-matchmaking: this type serves only as information to enrich a user's profile, but does not contribute to the matching strength or rules. In other words, this information can be displayed for users to see when looking for a match, but it will not impact which user is recommended.
  • Similar to matchmaking fields, you will be presented with a number of different non-matchmaking options that you can consider using as additional information for users to review on a person's profile.
  • Alternatively, you may also create custom non-matchmaking fields as well.

For my program, I am going add a Matchmaking field asking about Hard Skills:

2. Source:

Now that we have chosen our field type, the next step is to decide where the data will come from for user profiles. In other words, you will need to decide how data will be provided for this field. There are 3 main sources to choose from:

• Users fill in their data with the questionnaire
• Admin uploads the data or from an HRIS integration (if applicable)
• Link to a field from another program

In my case, I would like my users to fill in their data when they register for the program and complete the questionnaire:

3. Visibility:

The next step in creating a field is to determine who will be able to see this information on other users' profiles. Here you have two options:

• Visible to everyone
• Visible to admins only: this is typically used for more sensitive information that you would like to collect, but not made available to other users to see on a person's profile. Examples could include: pay grade, address, etc.

For my Hard Skills question, I am going to make this information visible to everyone:

4. Response Options:

Step four in this process is to provide a set of response options for users to choose from. Depending on the Field Type you selected in Step 1, you will see a few different options here. 

For my Hard Skills Matchmaking field, I have selected to organize my response options by Category, with individual response options included in each category. I have broken down my Hard Skills into categories mimicking the various business units I care about for my program:

• To add response options, enter them in the textbox separated by a semicolon:

• To add additional categories, type in your category and click the Add button:

If you would like to arrange your responses in a different method, you can choose between 3 options from the dropdown:

• Categorized
• Standard List
• Dropdown

Each method of organizing has its pros and cons. Depending on the type of question you're asking and the number of options you intend on providing, you may find that a Dropdown or Standard List is clearer for your users. Generally, we recommend that for long lists of response options, it can help to display them as a searchable dropdown. When there is some hierarchy (e.g. cities by country) it may help users think through their answers better when they are broken out into categories.

The last setting to configure for this step is the number of responses a user can select. If you would like your users to be able to select multiple options, you can set that value here. Otherwise, if you only want them to be able to choose one option, you can set this value to 1.

In my case, I would like to give my users a few different options to select and will set this value to 3 responses:

Additionally, you can give your users the ability to add their own responses to the question by toggling the button located under "Users can add custom options" section: 

Once you have finished creating your response options, click Next to move on to your Matching Rules:

5. Matching Rule:

This step requires you to set matching rules for your new field. Here you can edit the text of the question, add an optional description, etc.

First, you will want to determine if you need to make any changes to your question, in my case, the question "What are your hard skills" should work well for both mentees and mentors:

If you want to add any clarification or instructions to your question, you can also add an optional description by clicking the blue text. This will create a description textbox for you to populate:

Next, you will want to determine whether a response is required for this question or not. In my case, understanding my user's Hard Skills is very important to me, so I will keep the Response Required toggle enabled:

Lastly, you will need to determine the matching rule for this field. Here you have a few different options. If you click on the drop-down, you can see each of the available options:

• Matches: look for overlap in responses between users
• Does not match: avoid overlap in responses between users
• Matches in certain cases: look for overlap in certain combinations of responses
• Matches a different question: ask a second question capturing what users prefer in a match

Each matching rule will work slightly differently depending on how you would like users to match. We will run through a few examples for you to better understand the various types:

• Matches: I may want my users to have the same hard skills. In this case, I would select the Matches rule. For example, I might want users to have the same type of coding language skills.
• Does not Match: In this case, I may want my users to have different hard skills. For example, sticking with coding languages, I might want users to have skills in two different languages to pair together. 
• Matches in certain cases: For this rule, I might want users with a specific hard skill to only be able to match with users that reported they have a set of specific hard skills. For example, I want mentees with "Marketing Placeholder 1" to match with mentors with only "Sales Placeholder" skills:

• Matches a different question: in this case, I might want mentors to be asked one question, and mentees to be asked a slightly different question. Typically this would be used to understand what users prefer in a match. For example, I might ask my mentees "What hard skills do you want help with?", and I would ask my mentors "What hard skills can you mentor someone one?"

For my program, I am going to keep it simple and select a regular Matches rule (i.e. both the mentee and mentor's hard skills should match):

6. Matching Strength:

The final step in this process is to decide on how much you want to prioritize matching users based on this field. You can always edit a field's match strength later on even after registration launches, however, it is best to decide before pairing begins. 

When deciding on your matching strength, you have two main options:

• A must: if this rule is not met, users will be prevented from being able to match
• Priority levels: depending on the priority of this field, you can choose how to weigh this matching field relative to other matchmaking fields. Options include:
  • High priority
  • Medium priority
  • Low priority
  • Custom priority: with a custom priority, you can enter a specific value (ex: 5). Values above 5 will be treated as a step above "High priority", and values less than 1 will act as a step below "Low priority. 

For my Hard Skills field, I am going to set it as a must in order for users to be matched together.

Once you have decided on your matching strength, be sure to click the blue Finish button in the bottom right-hand corner to finalize your new field!

Once you have completed the setup for your field, you will see it appear alongside your other fields back on the Profile & Matching page:

To continue building your Evergreen program, head over to Step 4 - Advanced Matching

Have more questions? Submit a request here and let us know how we can help!