How Saïd Business School elevates learning for future leaders

At Saïd Business School, part of the University of Oxford, innovation isn’t just a buzzword - it’s the foundation of how they teach, engage, and prepare future business leaders.

Whether it’s an executive leadership program, a hybrid global event, or an interactive MBA class, technology plays a key role in making learning accessible and impactful. From senior faculty to event coordinators, Saïd Business School has integrated Mentimeter into its work to amplify quiet voices, enable open discussion, and support hybrid learning.

Here’s how they’ve done it.

Introducing Mentimeter at Saïd Business School

When Jyotveer Gill, Associate Director of Education Technology, and Leo Prince, Senior Digital Learning Technologist, first introduced Mentimeter at Saïd Business School, it wasn’t through a top-down decision - it was demand from faculty that drove the decision.

“Our faculty told us the centrally offered tool wasn’t meeting their needs, and they wanted more flexibility, engagement, and faster responses,” says Leo. With some already using Mentimeter, it quickly became a top contender for a school-wide solution.

“We drew up a matrix to evaluate the functionalities we need in an engagement tool. Mentimeter did all of it and more - it was easy to get started with, offered flexible licensing, and scaled naturally across faculty. It helped bring more structure and dialogue into teaching, so it became the provider of choice.”

- Jyotveer Gill, Associate Director of Education Technology

Scaling Mentimeter wasn’t just about getting it approved - it was about demonstrating real value to educators. Leo’s team ran internal workshops, offered hands-on training, and encouraged faculty to join webinars hosted by Mentimeter’s customer success team. The result? Adoption jumped from 50 to over 500 users in just 12 months.

“Mentimeter is so easy to pick up and use that it’s taken off across the school. People hear about it, try it, and run with it. Features like “Start with AI” make it even easier to overcome obstacles and start creating right away.”

- Leo Prince, Senior Digital Learning Technologist

Using Mentimeter in executive education

Michael Smets, Professor of Management, teaches senior leaders like CEOs, entrepreneurs, and law firm partners - an audience where traditional lectures don’t always work. Instead, he flips the classroom, using Mentimeter to let participants reflect on their own experiences first, making learning more relevant and engaging.

For example, in his leadership sessions, he starts by asking the participants to rank their strengths using Mentimeter’s scales question, displayed as a spider diagram. When the results come up on screen, the conversation shifts from theory to self-reflection.

Visualizing cohort power profiles: comparing collective use of political capitals and the diversity of individual positions within the group.

“Rather than me telling them what’s important, they see their own data and discover gaps or strengths,” Michael adds. “That’s where learning really starts.”

Beyond self-awareness, Mentimeter creates a psychologically safe environment for tough discussions. In one session, Michael used a word cloud to ask participants how they felt before making high-stakes decisions. As words like “nervous,” “doubt,” and “fear” grew large on the screen, it became clear that these emotions were common. Seeing how everyone felt assured the participants that they weren’t alone and sparked deeper, more open discussions about the challenges of leadership.

Word cloud of emotions people feel before making high-stakes, uncertain decisions, highlighting shared vulnerability and common experiences.