Deliberate Play — user conversation training

Practice user conversations
before it costs you a real customer

Practice discovery calls, jobs-to-be-done interviews and churn conversations with AI participants who hedge, flatter and go quiet on you. Get good in private before it counts.

No card required. Your low scores stay between you and the scorecard.

Sample scorecard
Overall 63 / 100
Practice session · Guarded participant
  • Behavioral anchoring72
  • Probing & laddering depth64
  • Problem evidence: workarounds & stakes58
  • Compliments, fluff & ideas41
  • Talk-to-listen ratio66
  • Introduction & rapport78
  • Closing70

Next step: When you hear “that sounds useful” do not say thanks. Ask when they last hit that problem and what it cost them.

You know the theory but haven't seen a real customer yet.

You have read the books and you know what a leading question looks like. But knowing and doing are different things. Interviewing is a skill you only get good at by doing it badly a lot and in a place where it does not cost you a real participant. That place is here.

“Recruiting feels like begging.”

There is nobody to email and no calendar to chase. The participant is always available so you never have to ask a busy stranger for time you might not use well.

“What if I freeze on the call?”

Then you freeze and no real participant ever sees it. Stop and breathe and try the question again. The only witness is a scorecard you can delete.

“What if they tell me the idea’s no good?”

Better to hear it here than from a paying customer. The participant will not flatter you the way a polite friend does and that is the Mom Test run on you.

“I should master the method first.”

You do not. Run a messy session and read where it lost points. Then run a better one. You learn the method by doing it and not by reading more.

“Pushing for the real story feels rude.”

Here it costs nothing. Practice the follow-up that feels intrusive until you see that it is not. The participant will not take offence and you will carry that confidence into a real interview.

“I’m senior — I can’t be seen fumbling basics.”

You will not be seen. Your low scores stay between you and the scorecard and nobody on your team watches you relearn the basics.

What good discovery produces instead

Pilots train in simulators and musicians have practice rooms before anyone pays to watch. This is the same idea but for conversations.

Evidence you can defend

Countable demand with dates and specific stories that a sceptic cannot wave away. Debates settled by what users said and not by whoever is most senior.

A roadmap of real problems

You know what hurts before you decide what to build so the roadmap stops being a wishlist. What you ship gets used because the problem was real.

Honest reactions, not polite nodding

Responses from people who would pay and not a colleague nodding along to your Figma demo. Real contact with users and not support tickets used as a substitute.

Already good at it? Skills rust.

Interviewing fades like any skill. Miss a few months of real conversations and the bad habits come back. Athletes keep training after they get good because that is how they stay good. One session a month is enough to keep your edge between real studies.

See pricing →

The loop that makes you a better interviewer

We are new so we will not show you five-star reviews. Judge the loop instead. It is the same one that trains pilots and surgeons: realistic conditions, immediate feedback and then do it again.

1

Choose your scenario and participant

Pick a participant from the library. Each one is tagged B2B or B2C with an interview type like problem discovery, jobs-to-be-done or churn and a specific learning goal so you know what you are practicing. Pro gives you the full set and Enterprise lets your team add their own. Then set the difficulty: Forthcoming volunteers details, Reserved gives short answers and Guarded only opens up when you probe the right behaviour.

Choose a participant
Select who you want to practice with
NameTypeAudienceAccess
MC
Maya Chen
Series-A founder evaluating analytics tools; skeptical of vendor demos.
Problem explorationB2BPro
DL
Devon Lee
Freelance designer who recently switched project tools after a team deadline slipped.
Switch (JTBD)B2CFree
PN
Priya Nair
Head of growth at a SaaS startup; cancelled her team's subscription last quarter.
ChurnB2BPro
Difficulty
Forthcoming
Volunteers detail readily.
Reserved
Brief answers; requires one probe.
Guarded
Terse; opens up only on behavioral probes.
2

Run a live audio conversation

Not a quiz and not a chat window. A real-time audio call where a live transcript appears as you both speak. Your participant responds in character and elaborates when you earn it or goes quiet when you do not probe. These are the moments that books describe but cannot teach.

Practice session
Switch (JTBD) · Reserved participant
YouHi! Thanks for making time. Can you tell me about the last project tool you switched away from?
DevonSure — we'd been using a task manager but things kept falling through the cracks.
YouWhen you say things fell through the cracks — walk me through a specific moment that happened.
DevonIt was actually during a sprint review. A deliverable nobody realized had slipped.
3

Get a scored report

Seven criteria score every session including how well you anchor on behaviour, how deep you ladder and whether you found evidence of workarounds and stakes. Pitch your idea mid-interview and your score gets capped because the rubric notices. Each report gives your top strength, your top weakness and one concrete thing to do next. Enterprise teams can define their own criteria.

Sample scorecard
Overall 63 / 100
Practice session · Guarded participant
  • Behavioral anchoring72
  • Probing & laddering depth64
  • Problem evidence: workarounds & stakes58
  • Compliments, fluff & ideas41
  • Talk-to-listen ratio66
  • Introduction & rapport78
  • Closing70

Next step: When you hear “that sounds useful” do not say thanks. Ask when they last hit that problem and what it cost them.

Pricing

You pay per session pack and not per month. Only Enterprise is a flat unlimited arrangement.

Free
€0
Get started
  • 3 starter sessions
  • Only 3 participants
  • Valid for 1 month
  • No card required
Pro
€6,59/session

€79 · 12-session pack, valid 1 year

Pay as you go
  • Talk to multiple participants
  • Packs valid for 1 year
  • No subscription — top up anytime
Enterprise
Custom
For larger teams
  • Unlimited sessions
  • Add your own participants
  • Create your own scoring criteria and scheme
  • SSO & directory sync
  • Roles & supervisor tools

Frequently asked questions

Your next real conversation deserves a rehearsal

Three sessions for free and no card needed.
The worst that can happen is a low score that only you see. The best is that your next real conversation changes what you believe about your product.