Smart Match is Mentorloop's algorithmic matching tool built on your bespoke matching criteria. It is a powerful, proven method to guarantee equitable, quality matches for everyone on your program at scale. Program Coordinators can now instantly run Smart Match themselves.

Program Coordinators can refine or modify matching rules to power Smart Match, and create Loops for the entire program, segmented groups or cohorts in a matter of minutes.
 

Smart Match is available on Mentorloop Enterprise. If you want to learn more about how you can upgrade to Enterprise and unlock Smart Match, reach out to us at support@mentorloop.com

What is Smart Match?

Mentorloop Smart Match uses a purpose built algorithm to simultaneously evaluate your entire cohort in one go, and ensure everyone receives the best chances of getting a quality match.

It considers a range of criteria from the information provided by mentors and mentees when they sign up for your program, such as skills and goals. It ensures equity, scalability and efficiency both in administration and cost. How?

Smart Match evaluates all participants simultaneously, eliminating the "first come, best served" dynamic. By optimizing across your entire cohort rather than matching sequentially, it ensures everyone receives quality pairings, not just early registrants. This whole-program approach removes unconscious bias, giving every participant an equal opportunity for a transformative experience.

The algorithm processes hundreds of profiles in seconds, considering all possible pairings simultaneously; something impossible to achieve manually. It handles complex multi-variable criteria that would overwhelm any Program Coordinator, allowing you to scale from 50 to 5,000 participants while actually improving match quality.

Smart Match transforms matching from a days-long process into minutes, freeing you to focus on strategic program activities. It delivers higher match quality while surfacing valuable pairings you'd never spot manually: those transformative "unlikely" connections that become your program's success stories. Matching shifts from being a bottleneck to your strategic advantage.

How to use Smart Match

The below video takes you through a simple demonstration. For detailed training, see Smart Match Bitesize Training.

Read on for our 3 simple steps to create effective, equitable Smart Matches in an instant. 
 

Step 1: Configure your matching rules from the Smart Match page, found in the "Manage program" menu 

Configuring your rules:
- Toggle: turn a rule on or off
- Dropdown Menu: defines how the rule works (for example, same location vs different location) 
- Scale: weight the rule from low priority (nice to have) to required (must be met to return a match)

Modifying rules:
- For detailed guidance on matching rules, see designing your sign up form and matching criteria. 
- For complex rules, reach out to your Customer Success Manager

Key Tip: Assigning too many 'required' rules can reduce the number of matches made. If this occurs, reconfigure some rules to 'low priority' and re-run Smart Matches. If you're unsure, reach out to your Customer Success Manager for advice.




 

Step 2: Select who you will include in Smart Match

a) Review or update your filters. 

For example, if you wanted to run matching for a specific department, you would add a 'department' filter, and select the required department. 

You can edit, add, or remove any of the below default filters: 
- Mentoring Role
- Availability (participants who are available will appear)
- No Active Loops (participants without a loop will appear)
- No Draft Loops (participants without an existing draft loop will appear)

b) Select your Mentees, then select your mentors. 

c) Assign the correct role for 'Eithers' in your program. 

We recommend an equal number of Mentors and Mentees. You can use Either's to appropriately balance the ratio, whilst taking into consideration their experience level to ensure the assigned role makes sense for them. 
 

Running additional matching rounds with Maximum Matches

If you have more mentees than mentors, or simply want some participants to be matched more than once, the Maximum Matches setting can help you run additional Smart Match rounds effectively.

What is Maximum Matches?
When enabled, Maximum Matches allows mentors and mentees to define a maximum number of mentoring relationships they are able to participate in. This is a participant-level setting that each person controls from their own profile.

How does it work with Smart Match?
When a participant reaches their maximum number of matches, they are automatically marked as unavailable and will no longer appear in Smart Match. This is helpful because:

- If you have more mentees than mentors, Maximum Matches helps you identify which mentors are willing to take on more than one mentee. You can run multiple rounds of Smart Match — in each round, mentors who haven't yet reached their maximum will still appear as available.
- It gives you visibility into participant capacity, so you can plan your matching rounds strategically.
- Between rounds, you can check who still has capacity by using the 'Maximum matches: has max set' filter in your participant list.

Tips for running multiple rounds:
- Before running additional rounds, remove the default 'No Active Loops' filter in Step 2 — otherwise, participants who already have a match from a previous round will be excluded.
- Consider prioritising specific groups or segments in your first round, then matching the remaining participants in subsequent rounds.
- Encourage mentors who are happy to take on multiple mentees to enable Maximum Matches and set an appropriate number on their profile.

Step 3: Review and approve your Smart Match results

With your participants selected, you're ready to Create!

Once you select 'Create', your Smart Matches will appear in Draft mode, allowing you to review before either approving or dismissing the Smart Matches. 

For more detail on reviewing Draft Matches see how to review and dismiss draft matches in bulk

Smart Match Rationale

Mentorloop now provides an AI-generated rationale that explains why each Smart Match has been made. This can be incredibly useful for:

- Helping you quickly understand the logic behind matches — the rationale summarises how your matching rules and participant profile data contributed to the pairing.
- Providing context to participants who may be curious about their pairing.
- Building confidence in matches that might seem unexpected at first glance.

How to use it:
- From a draft or active Smart Match Loop, click the 'See why this Smart Match works' button to generate the rationale.
- The rationale is opt-in — it is only generated when you click the button.
- Once generated, the rationale persists in your view of that Loop. You can return to it at any time by expanding the 'Why this Smart Match works' section.
- Rationale can be generated for any Smart Match Loop, whether it is still in draft or already active.

Note: Smart Match Rationale is currently available to Program Coordinators only. A participant-facing version is coming soon.

Smart Match masterclass

What are Recommended Matches?

Recommended Matches is a self match functionality powered by an algorithm that suggests good matches to participants. It is available both Mentorloop Pro (using Mentorloop's simple algorithm) and Enterprise (using the bespoke algorithm). 

In summary: Maximum Matches limits how many relationships someone can have. Limit Open Match Requests limits how many requests they can send while waiting for responses. Both features work together to help you manage match quantities across your program.

To learn more about how to manage Self Match programs, check out our Self Match best practice guide here.

FAQs

• I'm not getting any / many matches, why? 

  - Your rules might be too rigid. 
  Assigning too many 'required' rules can reduce the number of matches made. If this occurs, reconfigure some rules to 'low priority' and re-run Smart Matches. If you're unsure, reach out to your Customer Success Manager for advice.
  
  - Filters may be excluding people. For example, if you are giving people a second match, you would need to remove the default filter 'No Active Loops'.
  
  - Participants may have reached their Maximum Matches limit. If a participant has enabled Maximum Matches and reached their limit, they will be automatically marked as unavailable and won't appear in Smart Match. Check the 'Maximum matches: has max set' filter in your participant list to identify these participants.
  
  - Profiles may be out of date. Send a bulk message encouraging your participants to update their profiles. 

  - Run multiple rounds: If you have different rules for various groups of people, you will need to run multiple match rounds. See Running additional matching rounds with Maximum Matches for guidance. 
   

• What happens once I have approved my draft Loops?

  Participants will receive an email from the system introducing them to each other, encouraging them to book their first session. See here for a description of all System Emails.

  They will also receive the New Match Email Notification, which is fully customizable from your program settings.  
   

• Should Smart Match replace my chosen matching method?

  Not necessarily! The best matching method will vary based on your program's goals and requirements. Here's a quick recap:
  
  Manual Match: You, the program coordinator, manually pair mentors and mentees by filtering participants and creating relationships.

  • Best for: Programs where the coordinator's expertise is critical for pairing or when participants need direct assistance.

  Self Match: Participants find and connect with each other based on their profiles.

  • Best for: Empowering participants and encouraging autonomy.

  Smart Match: Mentorloop's equitable algorithm automatically matches participants based on skills, goals, and experience to remove bias.

  • Best for: Matching large groups or when you want to remove unconscious bias.

  Blended: A combination of Smart / Manual matching and participant-driven, where the platform provides recommendations to support participants who are self-matching.

  • Best for: Programs that want to offer flexibility, allowing participants to take ownership while still providing support from the coordinator / Mentorloop's algorithm. 
     

• Participants I want to match aren't coming up in the Smart Match list

  
  Your filters are likely incorrect. For example, if you are giving people a second match, you would need to remove the default filter 'No Active Loops'. Additionally, check whether the participant has reached their Maximum Matches limit, which would automatically mark them as unavailable. 
   

• How do I know who wants to be matched?

  This depends on your mentoring strategy (for example, always-on mentoring can differ to cohorts), but the general rule is anyone who is 'available', in 'No Active Loops', and has not met their 'maximum match capacity'. 
  
  If you need help achieving a different matching strategy, reach out to your Customer Success Manager (Enterprise) or support@mentorloop.com (Pro).

   

• What's the difference between Maximum Matches and Limit Open Match Requests?

  These are two separate features that both relate to match quantities but work differently. Maximum Matches limits the number of active mentoring relationships a participant can have (set by the participant). Limit Open Match Requests limits the number of pending requests a participant can send in Self Match programs (set by the Program Coordinator). See Managing match quantities above for a full comparison.

   

Smart Match is a great way to save time and remove bias, without compromising equitable quality matches. Watch our Bitesize Training for an in-depth product demonstration. Reach out to your Customer Success Manager for support, or support@mentorloop.com to include Smart Match in your subscription.