--- title: "Curiosity Ping Pong" description: "Participants type a short answer to a prompt into the meeting chat, release their answers all at once, and then pass verbal storytelling turns across the group based on which response sparks their curiosity." last_updated: "2026-09-07" canonical: "https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/virtual-icebreaker-activity-for-online-teams-curiosity-ping-pong/" --- # Curiosity Ping Pong Participants type a short answer to a prompt into the meeting chat, release their answers all at once, and then pass verbal storytelling turns across the group based on which response sparks their curiosity. **Time:** 15 minutes. Playmeo suggests 10 or more minutes. This 15-minute UWT plan fits up to 7 verbal handoffs plus a short debrief. **People:** 4 to 24. Whole-group chat waterfall followed by sequential peer-to-peer verbal handoffs. ## Choose this exercise **Purpose:** Share short personal anecdotes across a distributed team using a chat waterfall and participant-led nominations. **Use it when:** Use at the start of a virtual or hybrid meeting to get every participant contributing quickly without open-mic chaos. **Skip it when:** Skip when the group is larger than 24 people without breakout rooms, or when participants cannot access a shared text chat. ## Materials and tools - Video meeting platform with in-meeting chat (remote or hybrid) - Sticky notes and markers (in-person adaptation only) ## Before participants arrive 1. Select a single conversational prompt before the session. 2. Verify that all participants have access to the text chat window. ## Say this to open We are going to play Curiosity Ping Pong. I will share a question. Type a brief answer of one to five words into the meeting chat, but do not press Enter yet. Wait until I give the countdown so everyone posts at the exact same moment. ## How to run it ### 1. Draft chat response (2 minutes) Share the prompt (for example: What is a strange or funny thing you believed as a child?). Ask everyone to type their brief response into the meeting chat without hitting Enter. Give about 60 seconds of silent thinking and typing time. ### 2. Trigger chat waterfall (1 minutes) Count down 3, 2, 1, and tell everyone to press Enter together. Give participants 30 to 60 seconds of silence to scroll through and read the flood of responses. ### 3. Run curiosity handoffs (10 minutes) Ask for a first volunteer. That volunteer names one chat post they are curious about and invites its author to unmute and share the brief story behind it (under one minute). When that author finishes, they pick another chat comment they want to hear about and call on that author. Continue the chain. If a called person prefers not to share, they simply say pass and pick another response to keep the ping pong moving. ### 4. Debrief and transition (2 minutes) Stop the chain when time expires. Note how many unexpected details came out from short phrases. Ask one or two whole-room reflection questions, inviting quick spoken thoughts from one or two people or short chat reactions. ## Debrief questions - What is one thing you learned about a teammate today that surprised you? - How did seeing everyone post at once change what you decided to focus on? **Finished output:** A populated text chat stream of quick personal facts and 5 to 8 spoken micro-stories shared across the group. ## Remote Run entirely in the main video room using the built-in chat window. Ensure everyone keeps chat open. Keep the peer-to-peer nomination order visible by having the current speaker paste the name of the next person into chat if audio is choppy. ## Hybrid In-room participants join the meeting chat via their laptops or mobile devices. If in-person members do not have devices, have them write on sticky notes and post them to a shared wall while a designated scribe types them into the remote chat window so remote members can read and choose them. ## Access and participation choices - Participants may type pass in chat or keep their chat answer light and generic. - A nominated person can decline to tell their story by saying pass, and immediately nominates another post to keep the ball moving. - Participants who cannot speak aloud can type their 2-sentence story directly into the chat. ## If the session gets stuck **Someone presses Enter early, ruining the simultaneous reveal.** Remind the room gently to hold their fingers off Enter, let the early post sit, and proceed with the countdown for the rest of the group. **A participant speaks for several minutes, eating up the activity time.** Set a clear one-minute guideline during the opening instructions and intervene gently: Thank you, that gives us the picture. Who are you curious about next? ## Terms used here - Chat waterfall: A technique where everyone types a response into chat simultaneously and hits send together on a shared countdown. ## Sources and adaptation Observed in Playmeo, where it is attributed to Mark Collard as a virtual icebreaker activity. Retained the core Playmeo waterfall and peer-nomination mechanic. Added concrete time allocations (15 minutes total), a clear pass rule, explicit hybrid handling, and structured debrief questions. [Playmeo](https://www.playmeo.com/activities/ice-breakers-get-to-know-you-games/curiosity-ping-pong) [Playmeo](https://www.playmeo.com/activities/ice-breakers-get-to-know-you-games/curiosity-ping-pong/) Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/virtual-icebreaker-activity-for-online-teams-curiosity-ping-pong/