Onboarding for Participants

What is CoffeePals?

CoffeePals connects users in your Microsoft Teams team for periodic coffee chats and other fun programs. Once your team admin adds the CoffeePals app to your team and creates a program, you will receive an introduction message from the CoffeePals app. If at any point you get lost, just send a message that says "help" to get a list of things you can do.


Your team admin can set the frequency (1 per week or once every 2 weeks ect), the time matches get sent out and how large the match groups are (1 - 8 people). You can see when matches get sent by sending a personal message to the CoffeePals app that says Settings, and accessing the link you receive. In the settings, you can also pause matches until a certain date (in case you are too busy or go on vacation), or pause matches indefinitely.

You can also belong to multiple programs. Maybe you have a program running for your immediate team to become closer with those you work closely with. You may also be apart of an organization-wide program where you get to meet people from all over. In both cases, you can manage settings for all of these teams under Settings.

How do I see who my match is?

By default, we send out matches on Tuesday at 10 AM. At this time, you will receive a personal message from the CoffeePals app that shows who your match(s) are. Your "Match Card" will look like this:


Once you receive your match card, you can start a 1-on-1 chat with your match to find a time to meet or you can jump right into scheduling it in Microsoft Teams. You can also open their bio to learn a little bit more about them. Depending on how your program admin set up matching, you will either see an automated meeting invite, choose one of multiple potential meeting options, or manual schedule your meeting.

We encourage you to set a brief introduction for yourself to help break the ice with your match. You can set or change your bio by sending a personal message to the CoffeePals app that says "bio".

How do I schedule a coffee chat, if my team is not using Automated Scheduling or 1-Click Scheduling?

To schedule a chat, you can use the team scheduler to find the best available time. Just click the Schedule your coffee chat📅 button at the bottom of the match card. This will open up the Teams scheduling UI which is integrated with your outlook calendar. Here, we've pre-filled a title and description and included all the participants for the coffee chat. It also includes suggested times for you to meet with your match. You can also click the scheduling assistant button at the top of the page to see a calendar view of everyone's availability.


You can also schedule a meeting the old fashion way by sending a list of times you are available directly in a personal message.

What are Coffee Maker questions?

Coffee Maker is a program type that sends thought-provoking questions and topics to your Team's channel. This is a great way to share your experiences and get to know your team asynchronously through chat. You will see questions like "If you could have any superpower, what would it be?" or "What's a book you've read recently that you recommend everyone reads?". These posts look like this:




If you have any questions that we did not cover or feedback, hit the purple chat button at the bottom right of the screen! You can also contact us at support@coffeepals.com.

Updated on: 02/05/2024