ISB AI Founders
Day 2 · 15:15

The real interview sprint

60 minutes. 5+ real humans. Not Claude this time.
ISB AI FoundersSPRINT
Win condition

5+ real interviews per team, before standup. Every teammate interviews at least once.

This is "do things that don't scale" (Paul Graham): five real conversations, recruited by hand, beat any survey ever sent.
ON THE CLOCK
60:00
CROSS-TEAM
Interview another team's target user. Trade fairly, you owe them one back.
STAFF + ADULTS
Any staff or adult in the building. Yes, all of them count.
PARENTS/RELATIVES
WeChat voice call. They pick up faster than you'd think.
OTHER SCHOOLS
Friends at other schools, by video call.
4 questions only Behaviour, not opinions Write the exact words down Never interview your own teammates about your own product
60:00
One clock, whole room, no restarts
Logistics, once

Where you can go, and how you take notes

Where you may go
Stay reachable. If you leave this room, leave in pairs, and tell a staff member where.
WeChat calls
Step just outside the door for a voice call so you don't drown out the room, that's the only rule.
Notes format
One sheet per interview. Quote verbatim, their words, not your summary. Mark every PAST-specific event with a ★.
The quality bar

An interview only counts with one ★ moment

Doesn't count
"This is great, I'd totally use it!"
A compliment. Zero points. No past event, no ★.
Counts
"Last Tuesday I missed the deadline because I forgot to check the group chat."
One real, dated, ★-able event. That's an interview.
The board · THE WALL

One sticky per completed interview. Watch the count climb.

TEAM 1
TEAM 2
TEAM 3
Every team's tally is public, on the way back to your seats. No leaderboard software needed, the wall is the leaderboard.
When it goes wrong

Three things that will happen to you

"It's great!"
Dig for the last time. "Great, okay, when's the last time you actually dealt with this?"
The call goes nowhere
Thank them, end it, move to the next channel. Not every call is a win, that's fine.
You froze
Your partner takes the next one. You score. Nobody sits out for long.
Halfway check · ~15:45

Fewer than 3 done? Go cross-team, right now.

It's the fastest channel in the room, the other teams are ten feet away. Don't wait for a WeChat call to connect, go get a human now.
Before you leave the sprint
LEAVE WITH · raw notes from 5 or more real interviews, exact words, starred past events.
DECIDED · nothing yet. Tomorrow's kickoff comes first, do not grade your own homework early.
BRING NEXT · the notes, on paper, plus your URL and your strongest quote, into standup at 16:15. Two more interviews tonight feed tomorrow's 9:00 kickoff share-out. With three interviews, that share-out is theater.