Donut's Lottery feature allows you to select one lucky group to get introduced each round. Rather than introducing everyone in the channel, Donut will intro only one group at a time and there's always a fixed participant that is part of every Intro round.
You can use this feature to:
intro one group of peers from within your company for company-sponsored lunch or coffees, etc.
run monthly 1:1 or group coffees with your CEO or team leaders
run monthly roundtables on goals or vision with the CEO
assign tasks or projects (e.g. this month's event planning committee or office chore team)
Read on to learn more about how it works and find answers to FAQs below.
How It Works:
In the Donut Dashboard, click “Donut Channels” in the left sidebar menu. Then click "Start and Intros Channel". Donut will walk you through the creation of the channel.
Under the Program Basics tab you can choose your intro type — options include:
“Standard” (randomized intros)
“Cross-group” (e.g. to connect people across departments)
"Within-group" (e.g. to connect people in the same group such as a time-zone)
“Lottery”
To create a Lottery channel, simply choose the Lottery option and then select the size of the group you'd like to introduce each round:
The channel will run at the frequency set in the Scheduling and Meeting tab settings, but Donut will only make one intro per round. For example, if you had a channel with 100 people in it and set the channel to Lottery with a group size of 4, only 4 lucky winners would be introduced each round.
You can also choose include a fixed participant in the intro. This person will be included in the group match every round. This is particularly useful for programs like a CEO lottery (so the CEO is always included in the group).
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Donut select the group at random? Is it possible the same group could be selected twice in a row?
No, Donut uses an algorithm to determine what group to select and introduce. Factors include whether you’ve been grouped from this channel before, who you’ve met with, and how many Slack channels you share with possible matches.
If I set group size to 5 and include a fixed participant, does that person count as one of the 5, or are they a 6th?
The group size you choose is the total group size, including fixed participants. This means if you’re set to a group size of 5 and have 1 fixed participant, Donut will select 4 other people from the channel to create a group of 5 with the fixed participant.
We want to run a CEO roulette, but our CEO is really slow on Slack. Is it possible to include their Executive Assistant in the group?
Yes! You can include up to 2 fixed participants, which allows you to include both an executive and whoever can help schedule the meeting for them. You could also include 2 cofounders for a cofounder chat, etc.
How do we set up "skip-level 1 on 1's"?
To create a channel for skip-level 1 on 1's you can set the channel up as a Lottery using the instructions above. Then make the skip-level manager the fixed participant.
What plans include this feature?
This feature is included with all paid plans (Standard + Premium). Members in Lottery Intro channels count toward your monthly active Donut users for billing purposes.
Want to get started now? Log in to the dashboard and set up categories before your next Intro round to try it out.
Read more about Donut's other intro types here.