Figs & Dates

 

Curated blind dates in an age of virtual pre-conceptions

Figs & Dates was a social experiment designed to spark real connections with blind dates through trust and exciting ambiguity.

How it all began…

Figs & Dates was a blind dating concept born from a single friend lamenting about her disappointing prospects in the age of COVID. Already skeptical of dating apps, she had become frustrated and tired of meeting random people at the same old bar, same dry conversation and no vetting ability beyond an instagram stalk. I realized that I knew a number of singles who felt the same way…

…and so Figs & Dates was born. I assembled 8 singles across Boston and convinced them to go on 3 entirely blind dates with cool & interesting people.

We focused on using elements of surprise, trust, intention and uncertainty to virtually orchestrate the real life dates of singles across the Greater Boston area.

  • The Participants

    We managed the entire process via an airtable project, the master tab outlining: the participants, their neighborhood, phone #s and who their 1,2, 3rd dates were.

  • The Dates

    We each managed 6 of 12 date pairings by inputting the pairs and their info into the respective date 1, date 2, & date 3 tabs. We introduced each person to their date via a group chat. “Heya! L from Somerville, meet M from Jamaica Plain. Please schedule a time over the next 10 days for your date and keep all communication in here so it remains entirely blind :) “. This way, we remain a part of their pre-date interactions and our presence encourages them to 1. actually book the date and 2. remain brief and 3. respect the secrecy.

  • The Questions

    When participants arrived at their self-determined date location and found each other, they knew to text us and they would receive a list of 3 conversation sparking questions that required increasing vulnerability. They were a combination from NYT’s 36 questions study and other similar tests. We organized the questions in a tab.

  • The Messaging

    We needed every message to be the balance of casual but organized, thrilling but without romantic pressure, robust but brief, clear but with secrecy. Fun and trustworthy. We also didn’t want to be randomly messaging some people some information and inevitably forgetting others, or having two completely different tones between harnek & I, who each managed half of the dates. We needed the organization and execution to be streamlined, rigid and predetermined to have the most wiggle room of play and uncertainty during the dates themselves.

  • Message Structure

    We had 6 communications planned out for each individual. This was the first, after pitching the general idea and getting their interest to go ahead and elaborate…

    1. Introduction

    2. Expectations

    3. First greeting (group chat with each date, each person receives 3 of these)

    4. Confirmation

    5. 3 Questions

    6. Individual follow-up

The Results

The timespan was 3 weeks, from idea pitching to commitment to pairing to dates. The result was 2 pairs who went on second dates, one pair who had a little more than bar chemistry, and all 8 participants who enjoyed the experience for a variety of reasons. While none of the couples continued dating, 8/8 stated in their follow-up debriefs that they want to participate in the experience again with multiple follow-ups over the subsequent months.

Figs & Dates never moved beyond beta concept, but it proved to fill a need in our current romantic and friendship relationship landscapes.

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