PAIR Matching Engine
Mentor matching software, scored on five dimensions
MentorStack's PAIR engine is mentor matching software. It ranks eligible mentors for each mentee on skills, goals, seniority and availability, plus cross-functional diversity on Growth and above. Each suggestion comes with a written reason.
How the mentor matching software ranks a pair
Each participant builds a profile with skills, goals, seniority and weekly availability. PAIR removes mentors who cannot take the mentee, scores the rest, and shows the best matches first. Every suggestion shows how it scored on each dimension and a short written reason in plain language.
An AI re-ranking pass then adds a written rationale. It uses AI credits: 8 a month on Free Pilot, 25 on Starter and 40 on Growth. The first ranking appears without waiting for it.
What PAIR measures
Skills
How much of the mentee's growth areas the mentor's expertise covers. A mentor who covers more of what the mentee wants to build ranks higher.
Goals
The mentee's goals compared with what the mentor can help with. Matching compares meaning where profile data allows it, and shared wording where it does not.
Seniority
Scored against the seniority rule your organization picks: peers at the same level, or a mentor more senior than the mentee.
Availability
Overlap between the weekly time windows each person sets. A pair with no overlap is not suggested.
Cross-functional fit
Optional. Pairs from different departments score higher on this dimension. Admins switch it on or off. Available on Growth and above.
Who is never suggested
- Mentors at their capacity are left out. Capacity is a per-mentor cap, or the organization default.
- Mentors with no availability overlap with the mentee are left out.
- Mentors the mentee already has, or who recently declined the mentee, are left out.
- A mentee who has reached the organization's maximum number of mentors gets no suggestions.
- A mentor who declined a request cannot be requested again by the same mentee for 90 days.
What this mentor matching software does not do
No demographic matching
Matching does not use gender, ethnicity or other demographic data. The only diversity signal is whether two people work in different departments.
No automatic re-matching
The product flags matches that go quiet, and an admin can send a nudge. It does not replace a participant or create a new match on its own.
No unreviewed matches
In admin-guided programs an admin approves each match. In self-select programs a mentee requests a mentor from the ranked list, and the mentor responds.
How admins review matches
In an admin-guided program, MentorStack builds a review queue with one best-scoring suggestion for each mentee who has no match yet. The mentees who have waited longest come first. An admin approves or rejects each suggestion, or approves a batch.
Admins see the score and the reason before a match is created, so the process is open to inspection and not a black box. Programs that run in self-select mode let mentees browse and request mentors instead.
Common questions
- What does the PAIR matching engine score?
- PAIR scores every eligible mentor and mentee pair on four dimensions: skills, goals, seniority and availability. Growth and above add an optional fifth dimension, cross-functional fit, which admins can switch on or off. Each suggestion shows its score on each dimension plus a short written reason in plain language.
- Does an admin approve each match?
- In admin-guided programs an admin approves or rejects each suggested match, or approves a batch, after seeing the score and the reason. In self-select programs a mentee requests a mentor from a ranked list and the mentor responds. Matches are never created without a person reviewing or requesting them.
- Which mentors are never suggested to a mentee?
- PAIR leaves out mentors who are at capacity, mentors with no availability overlap with the mentee, and mentors the mentee already has or who recently declined them. A mentor who declined a request cannot be requested again by the same mentee for 90 days. Mentees who reached the mentor maximum get no suggestions.
- Does MentorStack match on gender or ethnicity?
- MentorStack does not use gender, ethnicity or other personal characteristics to match people. The only diversity signal is whether two people work in different departments, and it is optional on Growth and above. The product also never re-matches anyone on its own. It flags quiet matches and an admin decides what to do.
Ready to try PAIR matching?
Start a Free Pilot with up to 10 participants. No credit card required.
Free for up to 10 participants. No credit card, no sales call. SSO (SAML) on Growth and above.