Can Personas Talk to Each Other?

Yes — that's Discussion Chat. The default mode is Interview Chat, where you ask and one persona answers, with each persona's conversation staying independent. In Discussion Chat, the personas talk with each other, guided by an AI moderator.

The two structures

Interview Chat (one-on-one)

You  ↔  Persona AYou  ↔  Persona BYou  ↔  Persona C

Each interview runs on its own thread. Personas never hear each other.

Discussion Chat (group)

Moderator: Do you think ¥18 sparkling coffee is expensive?Persona A: Too expensive, I usually buy ¥12 Americano.Persona B: I don't think so, 0-sugar is very attractive.Persona C: Depends on quality — if it's good, ¥18 is fine.Moderator: Why are your price views so different?...

Personas respond to each other, build on each other's points, and sometimes change their minds. The moderator keeps the conversation moving.

Which one should you pick

Use Interview when you want depth on individual psychology — "why does this persona feel this way." You get richer follow-up chains on a single persona.

Use Discussion when you want to see opinions interact — where do they agree, where do they clash, who shifts whom. The report automatically extracts consensus, divergence, and the most heated controversies. Discussion is also cheaper (fewer persona-minutes) because the moderator shares turn-taking across the group.

When you can use Discussion

3-8 personas per discussion. The moderator needs enough people for views to collide, but not so many that any one voice gets lost. The sweet spot for most topics is 5-6 personas with deliberately different stances.

Three discussion formats

Focus group — Moderator guides free conversation. Best for testing acceptance or surfacing attitudes.
Debate — Two sides argue positions. Best for A vs B comparison (e.g., subscription vs one-time purchase).
Roundtable — Equal voices, no preset sides. Best for exploratory brainstorming.

What you can do mid-discussion

Insert a new question for the moderator to introduce
Watch the conversation in real time
End the discussion early if everyone has converged (or if it's clearly stuck)
Add a controversial persona partway through to shake things up — but you can't remove personas mid-discussion

Trade-off worth knowing

Discussion gives you better signal on group dynamics (consensus, controversy, persuasion). But follow-up depth on any single persona is shallower than Interview, because the moderator splits attention. If you need both, the common pattern is: Interview first to surface individual motivations, then a smaller Discussion to see how those motivations interact.

Common questions

Can I mix modes? No — a project is either Interview or Discussion. You can run both as separate projects back to back.

What if a persona dominates? The moderator is configured to actively invite quieter personas and pull back chatty ones. If it still feels off, you can edit the participant list before starting next time (mismatched personalities cause most imbalance problems).

Setting up Discussion Chat in detail
How many personas per interview