Step 1: Setup your program
Creation & settings
In the Programs panel, click "Create new program".
You will be redirected to the Use Cases Library.
Select the "Create from scratch" button.
Setup the program Settings: choose a name, and a goal for your program.
The program's goal will be visible in:
your list of programs (Admin view)
the booking page (Member view)
the list of programs in the Member Portal, if activated (Member view)
Matchmaking
Go to the next tab called "Matchmaking". Here, you can define your group size, the preferred member distribution mode in the groups (in case of incomplete groups, for the "Randomly" and "Cross-groups" algorithms) as well as selecting the matching algorithm best suited to your use case.
You can also create matching rules based on categories.
When you associate a program to a Slack channel, all members of this channel are automatically added as members in the RandomCoffee platform. However, only their first name, last name and email address are synchronized with RandomCoffee.
If you created categories (department, location, etc.), you can update these members with the right values for these categories, and use them to create matching rules.
In the example above, we recommend to create categories - before creating the program - called "areas of interest" and "skills" in order to match the right Green Mentor to the right Green Mentees.
Messages & audience
Go to the third tab called "Communication".
Select the Slack communication channel.
If not installed yet, you will have to install the Slack Integration.
Select the Slack channel you want to use for this program.
When a program is configured for Slack and associated with a channel, its default audience is: all people that are part of the channel.
This means that:
Everyone in the channel will receive invitations from RandomCoffee.
People who join a channel where RandomCoffee is running will automatically be added to the RandomCoffee sessions and will receive invitations.
People who leave the channel will automatically stop receiving invitations from RandomCoffee.
If you want to exclude Admins from the program (i.e. you don't want Admins to be matched), activate the corresponding option.
Click "Create".
New tabs will appear: "Sessions", "Booking", and "Results".
Step 2: personalize your program
Type of participation
Go to the "Matchmaking" tab and indicate, in the "Type of participation" section, if you want to:
— Send opt-in messages + match messages to all ("Automatic participation")
— Only send match messages to all ("Ask for participation")
— Send opt-in messages + match messages to some people (based on category values) and only send match messages to the others ("Ask for participation - specific people only").*
*With this option, what we call “the others” (above) are automatically counted as participants in the "open session chart".
Example: in the case you have Mentors and Mentees for a mentoring program, you can send opt-ins only to Mentees (see the screenshot below). Mentors will not receive opt-ins, and will automatically be counted as participants.
Customize the messages
Go to the "Communication" tab, and scroll down to access the Card Messages section.
Customize your card(s) and get a preview in real-time.
Get tips to personalize your Slack cards here!
You can use the following variables in your cards:
{{first_name}}
{{company}}
{{coworker.full_name}} (in the match card only)
{{coworker.email }} (in the match card only)
Once done, click "Save".
Add a scheduling link
Go to the "Booking" section now.
Here you can set up a booking page so that your participants can plan their RandomCoffee (virtually or not!). Choose the default meeting duration (participants can still adjust it when booking the meeting), the meeting title, and the meeting description.
Once done, insert the following variable in your match message body to have a clickable link:
[Schedule your meetup now!]({{schedule_meeting_link}})
Members can add their availabilities (and/or synchronize their Outlook and Google Calendar) in their Member Portal for a smoother experience (if the Member Portal is enabled by the Admin).
Once done, click "Save".
Congrats, your program is now ready! The next step if to schedule your sessions.