All workCase study · Hinge
As a founding product designer at Hinge, I co-invented and designed We Met, a post-date feedback feature that helped Hinge learn from successful dates and make better recommendations.
In one minute
Hinge knew who users liked, matched with, and messaged, but those behaviors only told part of the story. We needed a way to understand which connections actually worked once people met in person.
A great date could teach Hinge far more about someone’s preferences than a like or message. But capturing that information required asking about an intimate experience without making dating feel clinical, invasive, or transactional.
Likes, matches, and messages were useful signals, but they were still proxies for compatibility. The strongest signal happened after users left the app: whether they actually met someone and wanted to see them again.
That insight became the foundation for We Met. If we could learn from successful dates, Hinge could better understand what worked for each user and make smarter recommendations over time.
I ran multiple rounds of user testing to find language people felt comfortable answering honestly. The biggest barriers were privacy, whether their date would ever see the response, and understanding why Hinge was asking at all.
Each round refined the language, illustration, and interaction design until the experience felt warm and low-pressure. Users understood that their feedback stayed private, was never shared with their match, and helped Hinge make better recommendations over time.
Hinge began using post-date feedback to understand what worked for each user, improve future recommendations, and measure success beyond matches and messages.
Looking back
The best product insights come from understanding what users are actually trying to achieve. We Met helped Hinge learn from successful dates, improving both how we measured success and how we understood each person’s preferences.