Real people and what they say
What are simulated people, and why don't they count?
Why it works this way
Practise with simulated people. They are AI, and nothing they say counts toward your test.
A founder who practises on a paragraph is practising on a document, not a person. So these answers are short, the way people talk. And because the line between practice and evidence matters more than anything else here, it is kept sharp: a person is simulated or real, with nothing in between.
What we gave up: tidy, complete answers that read well in a demo.
What it is
Simulated people are AI you can practise on before you spend a real conversation. They answer the way someone talks in an interview: a few words, sometimes half a sentence, each in their own way. They are AI, marked Simulated, and nothing they say counts toward your test.
Simulated people appear on six kinds of test: customer interview, landing-page smoke test, fake door test and ad smoke test (customers), and expert interview and pre-sale / letter of intent (experts). Other kinds of test do not offer them.
How to use it
- Open a test of one of those six kinds. The first time, the people are put together for you, and Iris, your AI guide, tells you once who she picked, with their faces and a Meet them button under her message. Pressing it opens the list. The entry named Customers (or Experts) in the conversation panel beside the test opens the same list at any time. A back arrow returns you to the list, and from the list to Iris.
- You do not choose or change the people: the product picks them for your test. They are the ones to work with.
- Pick a person to talk to alone. They say hello first, and the conversation is remembered however you come back to it.
- To hear from the rest, press Ask the others this too. Each answers separately. If your group is larger than one question can reach, the screen names who it did not reach: "Not this time: …".
- To see whether anyone shifts, press Let them talk it over. Anyone who changes their mind is marked: "Changed her mind." If nobody does, it says so.
- There is nothing to add, remove or rename: the list shows the people the product picked and nothing else. To hear from someone who is not on it, talk to a real person (see "How do I add a conversation?").
- Under an answer, press Add as a question to use it in your own guide, or Check with real people to put it on a list that waits for a real person (see "How do I practise my questions?").
The line at the top of the list counts your real conversations only: "Simulated · 3 of 10 real conversations". Nobody simulated is in that number.
What it will never do
- Count toward your test. Nothing a simulated person says does.
- Pass as a real person. They are marked "Simulated", and they are never counted among your real conversations.
- Treat what they say as evidence. A point they make waits until a real person says it too.
If something looks off
- "The panel didn't come together this time." Nothing went wrong on your side. Press Try again.
- No simulated people on this test. That kind of test does not offer them.
- "This test is closed." A finished test keeps its panel, read only.
- "Everyone here was removed. What they said stays." Only on an older board, where people could still be removed. What they said stays in the conversations they were in.
- Iris did not say who she picked. She says it once per test, when the people are ready. If you have already talked to them on that test, or the test is closed, she does not repeat it, and the list is always one press away.