Sometimes, it's handy to be able to split your participants into a few different groups, for example, employees in various offices or departments. Participation groups let you learn what matters to each segment without any cross-talk between them. 

Participation groups allow you to create a single demographic question that is used to sort participants into segments. When participants move into the Share and Star steps of the Exchange, their thoughts will only be shared with other participants in their same group, and they will only see thoughts shared by participants of their group for rating.

To set up participation groups, click the settings icon in the top right-hand corner of the Exchange creation workflow (it looks like a gear) and navigate to the "Participation groups" tab. Then, toggle the setting to ON and click "Create Group" to begin writing your grouping question.

You may also have the option to use a question template for setting up your participation groups, if templates have been created for the room you are working in.

Note: Participation groups cannot be enabled for an Exchange that has already been Launched, and groups cannot be deleted for Launched Exchanges.

For your participants, this means that the thoughts they see and rate will be more relevant and relatable since they are coming from other participants with a shared context, for example, staff in the same office or teachers at the same school.

As an Exchange Leader, you can analyze data for each group separately or for all groups at once to see trends for the entire Exchange. 

Go to the Survey Analysis tab and choose "Participation Groups" for a visual breakdown of your participant grouping:

You can also employ filters for a more detailed analysis of results from each participant group:

If you have any questions about this or any other feature, feel free to contact our support team at help@thoughtexchange.com.