Participant matching module

Use Participant matching to connect like-minded users and create new networking opportunities.

• Collect lists of potential interests, fields, or skills.
• Create personalized lists that automatically show top matches.
• Match app users based on similarity or personality type.
• Help app users find experts in areas of interest/need.

Download Participant matching from Marketplace in order to use it in the workspace.

Participant matching is a paid (advanced) module. Contact your administrator, SpotMe support or your account manager to find out more about the pricing.

Overview

Participant matching is configured using three elements in Backstage:

• A matching list, that determines the participants that are eligible to be suggested as matches for the app user. To note, this is different to (and can be combined with) standard targeting, which only determines which app users will be able to see the Participant matching item in their app menu.
• A label, to add the participant matching item (or button) to the app menu.
• A form, that is linked to the matching list, and contains the questions that the app users will answer. This input will be used in order to generate matches.

Configuring Participant matching

Creating the Participant matching list and label

To set up Participant matching in the workspace, you need to first create a matching list and its label.

1. Open Participant matching in Backstage.
2. Click on Create.
3. Fill in the following fields:
   - Name: This is the name of the matching list. This name is used only in Backstage for linking purposes.
   - List title: This is the label attached to the matching list. It determines how the Participant matching item will be displayed in the app menu. More information on labels is available in the Configuring menu items section of the Building the app menu article.
   - Eligible users: These fields are used to determine which participants or groups will be considered as potential matches for the targeted app user. Multiple rules can be used and combined. You can for example select participants from specific organizations and cities or countries to be eligible for matching.
   Match threshold (%): This setting controls the minimum percentage threshold for app users to match. The percentage is based on the number of questions that participants have provided the same answer to. For example, if you set this to 25%, participants will match if they answer the same to one question out of four. We recommend that this be set at 25%, but it can be adjusted it based on the number of users and the type of responses received.
4. Select Save.

Important: When setting up your rules, do not use metadata (or user fields) that are set to "private". Private metadata is not supported for participant matching.

For example, below is an example of a matching list that uses two rules, and considers eligible users to be only app users that work at SpotMe and are located in Lausanne:

How does the matchmaking calculation work?

• Each single question has a value between 0 and 100%, regardless of whether it is single choice or multiple choice.
• For a single choice question, the result is either 0 (no match) or 100% (full match).
• For a single multiple choice question, the result is calculated between 0% and 100%, based on the number of same choices made. For example, if there are 5 choices, and user A selected choices 1-2-3, and user B selected 2-3-4, the result is a 60% match for that question, as the users disagree on choices 1 and 4, and agree on choices 2, 3 and 5.
• The overall matching percentage is the calculated average of all the scores (each question gets an equal weight).
• If there are a total of 2 single choice questions + 1 multiple choice question, the multiple choice question corresponds to 33% of the total matching weight (1 out of three of the questions), even if it has 5 choices for the users to choose from.

Creating the Participant matching form

After saving the matching list and label list information, Backstage users will be redirected to the Form editor in order to create a form that participants will be asked to fill out. Responses to this form will be used to determine similarity between users and generate the matches.

Up to 20 questions can be added to a participant matching form.

The default form editor screen opens as follows:

To create the form:

1. Select Rename, at the bottom left of the screen, and rename the form in Backstage in order to find it/identify it later (remember this name for future use).
2. Remove all the default form elements in the central part of the screen, by hovering the cursor over the element and selecting Remove (the trash icon to the right).
3. Select the header (Example content - replace!) and change rename the header in the panel to the right. Here we will call it Lausanne Interest matching.
4. In the panel to the left, in Form elements, drag and drop the Choice element into the form.

Note: Participant matching compares only responses to Choice component (single and multiple choice), other components are currently not supported.

1. In the Question field to the right, enter the question that will be asked to the app user. Here we have added I would like to meet others that are interested in
2. Configure the possible responses: check the Is required box, select Multiple Answers or Single Answer, add the number of possible responses (here 8), and then enter the actual choices the app user can select when answering the question.
3. Select Save.

The maximum number of participant matching questions per form is 20.

The form is now created:

Linking the form to the matching list

After creating the matching list, the label, and the form, the form now needs to be linked to the matching list.

1. Go back to the Participant matching module.
2. In the List Title dropdown-list, select the previously created matching list.
3. In the Form drop-down list, select the previously created form (using the name chosen in step 1 of the Creating the Participant matching form section above).
   You can also create a new form directly from here by selecting CREATE.
4. Select Save.

Adding Participant matching to the app menu

Once the matching list and the form are created, you can add the Participant matching item (or button) to the app menu:

1. Select App menu in the Backstage menu.
2. In the Add a custom item drop-down list, choose Generic item launcher.
3. Select the label in the list corresponding to the matching list. You can also modify the text to be displayed in the app menu, and any translations. More information on labels is available in the Configuring menu items section of the Building the app menu article.
4. In the Icon field, choose or upload an icon to be displayed in the app menu item.
5. In the Item to open field, select Participant matching config.
6. Select the name of the form to open (using the name chosen in step 1 of the Creating the Participant matching form section above).
7. Select Save.

Participant matching will now appear as a new item in the app menu module in Backstage, and will also appear in the app.

Note: The matchmaking form must always be linked to/accessed via the matchmaking config, as explained here. If you attach it to a page the link between the form and the matchmaking functionality will be broken.

Using Participant matching in the app

Now that Participant matching has been installed, configured, and added to the app menu, app users can fill out the form and start receiving matches.

1. In the app, go to the participant matching app menu item (here it is Lausanne Interest matching).
2. The participant matching form will be displayed. Answer the questions, and select Send.
   If the form has already been completed, the user will either see the list of matches, or a message asking them to come back when the matches are ready (this can take up to 20 minutes).
3. Users will get a notification when their matches are available.

Note: Although match notifications can be received, matches will only be visible in the app when the status of both participants are set to "Active" in the Users > User view page, in Backstage.

The list of matches appears with the percentage (%) of the match, calculated based on the number of shared answers in the form between the two participants. App users can select the users they have matched with to see their profile and potentially connect with them.

Technical notes

Participant matching works by comparing the responses of app users to a shared form.
The more their responses are similar the higher the match is.

In order for the system to create personalized matching lists, it needs a minimal set of users (two) to fill out the shared form, to allow it to display at least one match per user.

It can take the system up to 20 minutes after the shared form is completed to generate the user matches.

Up to 20 questions can be added to a participant matching form.