# Create a mentoring program

Create a mentoring program and set up its enrollment, mentor and mentee matching, messages, forms, milestones and support contacts.

import { Steps } from '@prosefly/astro-components';
import Callout from '@components/Callout.astro';
import ProgramTypePicker from '@components/app-screens/screens/ProgramTypePicker.astro';
import ProgramRegistrationPage from '@components/app-screens/screens/ProgramRegistrationPage.astro';
import MentoringRoles from '@components/app-screens/screens/MentoringRoles.astro';
import MentoringOverlapRule from '@components/app-screens/screens/MentoringOverlapRule.astro';
import MentoringRematching from '@components/app-screens/screens/MentoringRematching.astro';
import MentoringForms from '@components/app-screens/screens/MentoringForms.astro';
import MentoringMilestones from '@components/app-screens/screens/MentoringMilestones.astro';

A mentoring program pairs one mentor with one mentee, and guides each pair through the milestones you define. This article covers the creation of the program and all its settings. To run the sessions once the program is ready, see [Mentoring sessions and matches](/admin/mentoring/mentoring-sessions-and-matches/).

<Callout type="note">
  Mentoring programs require the mentoring add-on, available on the Pro and Enterprise plans. See [What is a mentoring program?](/admin/mentoring/mentoring-overview/#availability).
</Callout>

## Before you start

- **Roles**: create a "Multiple Choice" category with the values "Mentor" and "Mentee", then one audience for your mentors and one for your mentees. A member can be in both audiences, for example to mentor on one skill and be mentored on another. See [Create categories](/admin/categories-and-audiences/create-categories/) and [Create an audience](/admin/categories-and-audiences/create-an-audience/).
- **Skills**: for skill-based mentoring, prepare two "Multiple Choice" categories with the same options, one for mentor skills and one for mentee skills (see [Skill-based matching](#skill-based-matching)).
- **Forms and notes** (optional): create them first in the "Content" menu, in "Forms" and "Notes". You attach them to the program later.
- **Slack or Microsoft Teams**: if your program uses them, the RandomCoffee app must be installed. See the [Slack integration](/documentation/integrations/slack/) or the [Microsoft Teams integration](/documentation/integrations/microsoft-teams/).

For advice on roles, skills and the rhythm of your program, see [Plan your program](/admin/mentoring/mentoring-overview/#plan-your-program).

## Step 1: Create the program

<Steps>

1. In the "Programs" menu, open "All programs" and click "Create New Program". Click "Continue" to open the Use Cases Library.

2. Click "Create from scratch".

3. In "What type of program do you want to create?", choose "Mentorship", then click "Continue".

   <ProgramTypePicker alt="The &quot;What type of program do you want to create?&quot; window, with the &quot;RandomCoffee&quot; and &quot;Mentorship&quot; options, &quot;Mentorship&quot; selected, and the &quot;Cancel&quot; and &quot;Continue&quot; buttons" />

4. The new program opens, named "My Mentorship Program". In the "General" section, write the "Program's name" and the "Program's goal". Both are required. You can also add a "Program banner".

5. Click "Create".

</Steps>

Your mentoring programs show a purple "Mentorship" tag in your list of programs. To see only them, filter the list by type.

The program opens on three tabs: "Sessions", "Settings" and "Results". The "Settings" tab groups the settings in seven sections: "General", "Registration", "Matchmaking", "Communication", "Booking", "Agenda" and "Participants". Click "Save" at the top of the page after your changes.

## Step 2: Set up the program

### General

Write the public name of your program in "Program's name", and describe its objective in "Program's goal". Participants see both on their mentoring page and on the registration page.

### Registration

Choose how people join the program in "Enrollment mode":

- **"Audience"**: you select the people from your existing audiences.
- **"Open enrollment"**: members join by themselves with a shareable link.

With "Open enrollment", the link is generated when you save the program. Click "Copy" to share it. Everyone who joins with the link is added to a static audience, which you open with "View members" (or in "People" > "Audiences").

The link opens a registration page with the name, the goal and the notes of your program. Without a registration form, people register with their first name, their last name and an email address they verify with a code. If you attach a registration form (see [Program forms](#program-forms)), they fill it in instead.

With a registration form, set up its enrichment with "Configure enrichment" (see [Turn answers into member data](/admin/content/form-responses/#turn-answers-into-member-data)). This is what adds each respondent to the program, and it saves their answers, such as the role and the skills, in your categories for your matching rules. To open the program to people who are not in RandomCoffee yet, publish the form as "Public", add an "Email verification" block and questions for the first and last name, and map them.

<ProgramRegistrationPage alt="The registration page of the Acme Mentoring program, with its banner, the tags &quot;Active&quot;, &quot;96 participants&quot;, &quot;2 per group&quot; and &quot;Monthly&quot;, the program goal, and the &quot;Register now&quot; button under &quot;Register for this program&quot;" />

<Callout type="note">
  If you switch a program that already has participants to "Open enrollment", RandomCoffee asks what to do with them: "Keep current participants" or "Start from scratch".
</Callout>

Then assign the roles. This step is important: it decides who is the mentor and who is the mentee in each pair.

- **"Mentors"**: select the audiences that contain the mentors of this program.
- **"Mentees"**: select the audiences that contain the mentees of this program.

<MentoringRoles alt="The Registration settings of a mentoring program: the &quot;Mentors&quot; field with the Mentors audience (40 members), the &quot;Mentees&quot; field with the Mentees audience (56 members), and the &quot;Exclude Admins from Intros&quot; switch, off" />

If admins are part of these audiences and you do not want them to be matched, turn on "Exclude Admins from Intros".

### Matchmaking

#### Type of participation

Choose how members take part in each session: "Automatic participation", "Ask for participation" or "Ask for participation - specific people only". See [Type of participation](/admin/programs/create-a-program/#type-of-participation).

For example, with "Ask for participation - specific people only", you can send the opt-in to mentees only: mentors do not receive it and always take part.

#### Matching mode

In "Matching mode", choose how mentors and mentees are paired:

- **"Random"**: mentors and mentees are paired randomly, without any rule.
- **"With matching rules"**: rules optimize the pairs based on attributes such as skills, seniority or department.

With matching rules, click "Add a rule" and choose its type. The order of the rules sets their priority: drag and drop them to reorder them. See [Matching rules](/admin/matching/matching-rules/).

#### Skill-based matching

For skill-based mentoring, use a "Category overlap" rule. It compares two "Multiple Choice" categories that share the same options, such as mentor skills and mentee skills.

<Steps>

1. Add a rule and choose the "Category overlap" type.
2. Select the source category, for example your mentor skills category.
3. Choose "Maximize overlap" to pair people who share the most skills ("Minimize overlap" does the opposite).
4. Select the target category, for example your mentee skills category.

</Steps>

<MentoringOverlapRule alt="The &quot;Matching mode&quot; setting with &quot;With matching rules&quot; selected, and a &quot;Category overlap&quot; rule from &quot;Mentor skills&quot; to &quot;Mentee skills&quot; with &quot;Maximize overlap&quot;, followed by the two default rules and the &quot;Add a rule&quot; button" />

<Callout type="warning">
  The target list only shows "Multiple Choice" categories that share at least one option with the source category. Two categories created separately, even with the same values, do not share their options. In a form, the "Duplicate with linked options" action creates a second question with the same options, for example mentor skills and mentee skills.
</Callout>

#### Mentor rematching

By default, each mentor is matched with one mentee per session. If you have more mentees than mentors, turn on "Mentor rematching" to let mentors be matched with several mentees in the same session, then choose:

- **"Fixed number of mentees"**: each mentor is matched with the same maximum number of mentees. Set it in "Maximum ... mentees per session" (2 or more).
- **"Let mentors choose (from a category)"**: each mentor sets how many mentees they want in a "Number" category. Select this category in the list.

<MentoringRematching alt="The &quot;Mentor rematching&quot; switch turned on, with &quot;Let mentors choose (from a category)&quot; selected and the &quot;Number of mentees per session&quot; category chosen" />

Mentees are always matched with one mentor per session. Without rematching, the mentees who exceed the number of mentors are not matched.

#### Matching priority

With matching rules, choose in "Matching priority":

- **"Optimize people participation"**: RandomCoffee generates the best possible pairs for everyone, even if some rules are not perfectly met.
- **"Optimize matching quality"**: RandomCoffee only generates pairs that perfectly fit your rules. Some people may stay unmatched.

#### Matching process

Choose how sessions are generated in "Matching process":

- **"Admin-led"**: pairs are generated for you to review and adjust before you send them.
- **"Automatic"**: pairs are generated and sent automatically on the scheduled dates. You cannot review them first.

See [Mentoring sessions and matches](/admin/mentoring/mentoring-sessions-and-matches/).

### Communication

#### Channel and messages

Choose in "Communication Channel" how participants receive the program's messages: "Email", "Slack" or "Microsoft Teams". Then customize the opt-in message (if you ask for participation) and the match message, preview them and send a test email. See [Personalize opt-in and match messages](/admin/programs/personalize-messages/).

In a mentoring program, the email editor offers extra merge tags:

- "Role (Mentor / Mentee)", inside the member loop, to show the role of each member of the pair;
- "Milestones page link", the link to the pair's mentoring page. Add it to a button so that pairs find their page easily;
- with a "Category overlap" rule, the values the pair has in common, and for each member, what they offer and what they seek.

<Callout type="tip">
  Write the next steps in your match message: open the mentoring page, book the first meeting from the first milestone, take notes and mark each meeting as done. See the example messages in [Write a clear match message](/admin/mentoring/mentoring-overview/#write-a-clear-match-message).
</Callout>

#### Program forms

Attach forms to gather information or feedback from participants, at three stages:

| Form | When participants see it |
| --- | --- |
| "Registration" | When they register for the program, with "Open enrollment". Set up the enrichment of the form so that each respondent joins the program. |
| "Opt-in" | After they accept the opt-in: a "Tell us about yourself" button opens the form. Useful to collect data that changes from one session to the next and use it in your matching rules. |
| "Post-match" | After they are matched, on their mentoring page: "Fill Session Feedback" in each milestone, and after they mark a meeting as done. |

<MentoringForms alt="The &quot;Program forms&quot; setting, with a form attached at each stage: &quot;Registration&quot;, &quot;Opt-in&quot; and &quot;Post-match&quot;" />

The answers can be mapped to existing or new categories, to use them in your matching rules: see [Create a form](/admin/content/create-a-form/) and [Form responses](/admin/content/form-responses/). You can also send the link of a form in a [broadcast](/admin/broadcasts/create-a-broadcast/), at the end of each session.

#### Program notes

Attach [notes](/admin/content/notes/) as resources for your program, for example a mentoring guide or an FAQ. Participants see them on the registration page (with open enrollment) and in the "Resources" section of their mentoring page.

### Booking

Set the "Meeting duration", "Meeting title" and "Meeting description" used when pairs book a meeting from their mentoring page. See [Set the meeting info](/admin/programs/meeting-scheduling/#set-the-meeting-info).

### Agenda

Define the milestones that guide each pair through their journey together, in "Milestones". Add as many as you want: they give mentors and mentees a guideline of the meetings to have.

<Steps>

1. Click "Add a milestone".
2. Write its "Name" and its "Goal / Description".
3. Reorder the milestones with the arrows, or delete one with the bin icon.
4. Save, then click "Preview" to see the mentoring page as participants will see it.

</Steps>

<MentoringMilestones alt="The &quot;Milestones&quot; setting of the Agenda, with the &quot;Preview&quot; button, the first milestone open showing its &quot;Name&quot; and its &quot;Goal / Description&quot;, three other milestones and the &quot;Add a milestone&quot; button" />

The milestones appear on each pair's mentoring page, in the "Session Plan".

### Participants

- **"Support Contacts"**: the people participants can reach with their questions about the program. They must be administrators of your RandomCoffee workspace. Participants contact them with the "Contact your administrator." link at the bottom of their mentoring page.
- **"Profile field visibility"**: the categories shown on the profiles of matched participants, for example city, department or years of experience. First name, last name and email are always shown.

## Step 3: Launch your program

Your program is ready. Nothing is sent to participants until you create its first session. See [Mentoring sessions and matches](/admin/mentoring/mentoring-sessions-and-matches/).