Ask fewer questions than you want to
Guests answer these standing up, usually with a drink in the other hand. Three or four good questions beat twelve mediocre ones. Aim for something a person can finish in about two minutes.
Start from the conversation you want
Picture two guests who’d be glad they met. What would you need to know about them to spot that? That’s your question.
| Weak | Better | Why |
|---|---|---|
| What’s your job? | What could you help someone with? | A job title describes someone. An offer says why meeting them is useful. |
| Tell us about yourself | A conversation I would love to have… | A specific prompt gets specific answers, and those rank better. |
| Do you like music? | Which of these would you go to this month? | Almost everyone likes music, so the answer tells Flare nothing. |
| Rate your networking skills | How do you like to talk shop: big picture or in the weeds? | Nobody answers the first one honestly, and it doesn’t predict a good conversation. |
Give choices that can overlap
Shared answers only help when two people can pick the same option. Four to six choices work well. With twenty, people rarely overlap. With two, everyone overlaps with half the room and it doesn’t tell you much.
Make choices roughly equal in appeal. If one is obviously the right answer, everyone picks it.
Use a pair when people want different things
The best work and community questions come in a pair: what you need, and what you can offer. Use the same choices for both, and set the first to Needs and offerings. A hiring manager then meets someone looking for work, even though they gave different answers. How that rule works.
Keep one question light
A question about weekends, food or what people did at college gives every pair something easy to start with. It also gives Flare a reason to connect people who don’t have an obvious work reason to meet.
What to leave out
- Looks, age, race, religion, health and anything similar. Flare doesn’t have appearance filters, and matching is told to ignore preferences of that kind. Don’t try to add them through questions.
- Names, employers and contact details. Answers are private and aren’t meant to identify anyone. Links, emails and phone numbers are removed from free text anyway.
- Things you want to know for yourself. You never see individual answers, so a survey question gets you nothing. Use your own form for those.
- Work questions HR would worry about. At company events, steer clear of performance, pay and health, even though answers are private.
Test it on one real person
Hand your phone to someone who isn’t you, with Preview attendee questions open. If they hesitate or ask what something means, change it. Then run a rehearsal.