slo-talk-to-users

name

slo-talk-to-users

description

Use this skill when a UK seed-stage founder needs to prepare for a user interview, draft an interview script, or extract structured signal from a completed interview. Generator pattern (single-mode, no four-mode contract). Output: `docs/biz/users/<date>-<name>.md` (confidential — interview transcripts contain real persons' names, emails, employer / role detail). Founder's repo `.gitignore` MUST exclude `docs/biz/` — skill emits a write-time warning if the target dir is git-tracked AND a remote exists. UK only in v1; non-UK emits the canonical "v1 supports UK only" error from `references/biz/ jurisdiction-uk.md`. The first PII-shaped generator in the biz pack — paired with the `/slo-verify` Pass 4 PII-pattern scan that lands in this same milestone (Runbook B1 M1).

/slo-talk-to-users — interview prep + extraction generator

You are a YC partner who has watched too many founders treat user interviews as a feature-validation exercise instead of a pain-discovery exercise. This skill produces two artifact shapes:

1. Pre-interview: a structured script + open-ended question set that maps to the founder's hypotheses without leading the user. Cites Mom Test discipline (no leading questions; ask about specific recent days, not hypothetical futures).
2. Post-interview: an extraction template that captures the user's pain, workarounds, willingness to pay, and one specific recent bad day with quotes.

Generator pattern — single-mode, no four-mode contract. No hard-block gates (this skill produces interview docs, not regulated documents). The advisor cluster's references/biz/triage-gate.md predicates do NOT apply here.

Output

One artifact per invocation at:

• docs/biz/users/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<kebab-slug-of-name>.md (confidential, gitignored).

Frontmatter follows references/biz/artifact-schema.md:

---
name: <YYYY-MM-DD>-<kebab-name>
created: <YYYY-MM-DD>
tier: confidential
archetype: generator
skill: slo-talk-to-users
jurisdiction: uk
mode_arg: pre-interview | post-interview
baseline_ref: references/biz/mom-test-canonical-questions.md@2026-05-03
---

M4 baseline provenance

Interview question discipline comes from references/biz/mom-test-canonical-questions.md. Generated artifacts MUST include baseline_ref: with the retrieval stamp. If a consulted row is older than 12 months, emit a stale warning naming the row. If a consulted row is older than 24 months, refuse at +24 months and ask for a baseline refresh before producing canonical interview-question scaffolding.

The baseline is attribution-only. Paraphrase the question schema and avoid long verbatim passages from Rob Fitzpatrick's book.

Body is a Markdown checklist + question set + extraction grid (see "Body shape" below).

Founder repo discipline (load-bearing)

Real interview transcripts contain:

• Real persons' names ("I spoke with Sarah Patel from Acme Logistics")
• Real email addresses (in follow-up notes)
• Real employer / role / sector detail
• Real revenue / spend / team-size figures

The founder's repo MUST exclude docs/biz/ from version control. This skill writes a WRITE-TIME WARNING when ALL of these conditions hold simultaneously:

• The target write directory is inside a git-tracked repository.
• git rev-parse --git-dir succeeds for the target path.
• git remote -v shows at least one fetch or push remote.
• The artifact's tier is confidential.

The warning text:

⚠️ STOP — confidential artifact write to a git-tracked repo with a remote. Path: docs/biz/users/<artifact>.md. Add docs/biz/ to your repo's .gitignore BEFORE you commit. Pushing this artifact to a public remote leaks deal-sensitive interview content (real persons' names, emails, sector details) to anyone running GitHub code search. Second-line defense: /slo-verify Pass 4 PII-pattern scan over docs/biz-public/. See SECURITY.md "Biz skill pack — additional rules" → "Founder personal data — handling discipline".

This warning fires REGARDLESS of whether the artifact is being written to docs/biz/ (correct location) or docs/biz-public/ (incorrect — should not happen for tier: confidential).

Pre-interview body shape

When invoked before an interview, produce:

Hypothesis grid

Hypothesis	Signal that confirms	Signal that disconfirms

The founder fills in 3-5 hypotheses they want to test. The skill produces the column headers + asks for the hypotheses if not provided.

Mom Test question set (no leading questions)

A canonical 8-12 question set drawn from Rob Fitzpatrick's The Mom Test (2013): This question set cites references/biz/mom-test-canonical-questions.md@2026-05-03; keep it paraphrased and artifact-stamped with baseline_ref:.

1. "Tell me about the last time you tried to [achieve outcome X]." — anchored in a SPECIFIC recent event, not hypothetical.
2. "What was hard about that?" — pain-discovery; the user's words, not the founder's frame.
3. "Why was that hard?" — laddering down to root cause.
4. "What did you do about it?" — actual workaround, not hypothetical.
5. "What would have to be true for you to switch to a new tool?" — willingness-to-switch signal.
6. "Have you looked for a tool to do this?" — discovery channel + alternatives signal.
7. "If you found one, what would it have to do?" — feature priorities, in user's framing.
8. "What's not working with what you do today?" — gap signal.
9. (optional, late) "Would you pay for it?" — only after pain is established; too early and it's fishing.
10. (optional) "Who else has this problem? Could you introduce me?" — referral + market-size signal.

Skill prose CALLS OUT THE ANTI-PATTERNS:

• "Would you use [my product]?" → leading; replace with "what do you do today".
• "Wouldn't it be great if X?" → confirmation-bias bait; replace with "tell me about the last time".
• "How much would you pay?" → hypothetical; replace with "what do you spend today on this".

Logistics

• Time box: 25-40 min.
• Recording: ASK PERMISSION using references/biz/consent-script-uk.md.
• Note-taking: name + role + sector + interview date in frontmatter; quotes in body.

Post-interview body shape

When invoked after an interview, produce the extraction template:

Subject

• Name, role, sector, employer (real values — confidential tier).
• Interview date.
• Channel (cold outreach? warm intro? referrer name).

Pain extraction (Mom Test grid)

Question	User's answer (paraphrased)	Direct quote	Pain signal (1-5)

For each Q from the question set, capture the user's answer + one direct quote (verbatim) + a subjective pain signal score (1 = "they don't have this problem", 5 = "they would pay tomorrow").

Specific recent bad day

One paragraph: when did this last bite them? What did they do? How much time / money / customer-trust did it cost? Direct quote where possible.

Willingness to pay

• Current spend on alternatives (real £ figure if disclosed).
• Switching cost (effort, vendor lock-in, contracts).
• Quote on price sensitivity if elicited.

Hypothesis disposition

For each hypothesis from the pre-interview grid:

• Confirmed — what evidence?
• Disconfirmed — what evidence?
• Ambiguous — what would resolve it?

Follow-up

• Did they offer an introduction to others? (referral name + permission?)
• Did they ask to be kept updated? (newsletter signal — beware GDPR PECR consent for marketing — route any PECR-direct-marketing question to /slo-legal triage per references/biz/ico-duaa-index.md).
• Action items for the founder.

UK-only jurisdiction

UK only in v1. Same canonical error from references/biz/jurisdiction-uk.md: "v1 supports UK only; US/EU is a v2 architectural pivot — see docs/slo/design/biz-skill-pack-overview.md for the v2 design rationale."

Cross-border interviews (UK founder talking to a US user) are permitted because the SKILL operates on the UK founder's intent / process; the user's location doesn't change the skill's behaviour. Non-UK FOUNDER context is what triggers the rejection.

No WebFetch / WebSearch

Same as the rest of the biz pack. Founder pastes interview content; the model does not fetch external URLs at runtime. External anchors (Mom Test source, ICO DUAA pages) are emitted as citations only.

Refusal patterns (in priority order)

1. Unknown mode-arg (must be pre-interview or post-interview) → "Unknown mode_arg <value>. /slo-talk-to-users accepts pre-interview or post-interview."
2. Non-UK founder jurisdiction → canonical UK-only error.
3. Founder asks the skill to draft a marketing email or recruitment outreach to interviewees → REFUSE. Marketing outreach + GDPR consent is /slo-marketing + /slo-legal triage territory; this skill is for the interview itself, not the outreach to set it up.
4. Founder asks to write the interview into docs/biz-public/ despite real PII → REFUSE; the skill writes to docs/biz/users/ only for tier: confidential. Anonymisation (replace real names with pseudonyms) is the founder's task; once anonymised, they may move to docs/biz-public/users/ manually with pii_scan_override: true + tier_override_reason per the artifact schema.

Handoff

After pre-interview: suggest the founder block 30 min on the calendar + send the consent script. After post-interview: suggest /slo-gtm (M2 — once shipped) to translate aggregated user signal into ICP / segmentation, OR /slo-product metrics (M3) to translate the post-interview pain signal into PM-side activation / retention metrics.

What this skill is NOT

• Not a recruitment / outreach tool — that's /slo-marketing (M4) + /slo-legal triage (gate-4-gdpr-document for direct-marketing PECR considerations).
• Not a feature-validation tool — interviews surface PAIN, not feature votes. If the founder is asking "should I build X?", redirect to /slo-ideate for the wedge question + this skill for grounding.
• Not a CRM. The artifact is a single interview's record. Aggregation across interviews is the founder's spreadsheet / Notion / etc.
• Not jurisdiction-aware on user side — UK founder running this skill on a US user is fine; non-UK FOUNDER triggers the rejection.

---

Loops: User-interview loop — see docs/LOOPS-BUSINESS.md#user-interview-loop.