Decide which twins to build
Build twins for the questions your team asks repeatedly, such as whether enterprise buyers would accept a price change, why particular accounts left, or whether a flow makes sense to a new user. Each recurring question identifies one voice worth representing. A twin scoped this way gets used, because it answers a question the team already has. Build several narrow twins rather than one broad one. Three twins asked the same question show where segments disagree. A single twin for “our customers” combines those differences into one answer.Scoping a twin
How to choose between an account, segment, persona, or behavior, and how to attach the right data to each.
Write instructions that produce useful answers
Instructions have the largest effect on how a twin responds. Three instructions do most of the work:- Speak in first person. Ask the twin to use “I” and “we” rather than “customers in this segment tend to”. First-person answers read as a customer response rather than as a summary of one.
- Push back. Include an instruction such as “push back when concepts don’t land—don’t hedge to be helpful.” A twin that agrees with every proposal produces no useful signal.
- Cite, and state gaps. Ask for the specific quote behind each claim, and instruct the twin to say so when nothing in the attached data covers a question. A twin that reports missing data lets you distinguish an absence of evidence from a weak answer.
How teams use twins
- Testing a concept before building it. Paste a spec or a screenshot into Chat and ask what the twin responds to. Remove the weak directions, then test the remainder with customers, so live sessions cover the options still under consideration.
- Rehearsing objections. Ask an account or segment twin what it would object to before a renewal, a price change, or a QBR, then ask what would change its position. The second answer is the one to prepare for.
- Checking assumptions during a review. One person queries the twin in Chat during a roadmap review or design critique. When the discussion turns to what customers want, the claim can be checked during the meeting rather than afterwards.
- Testing language. Ask the twin what it would call a feature, or which of two descriptions matches a real problem. Customers’ own terms are usually clearer than internal ones.
- Preparing for customer interviews. Questions the twin answers with citations you trust don’t need a live session. The remaining questions form the discussion guide.
Share a twin with the team
Share the agent and teammates can enter its persona in Chat. Sharing controls who can invoke a twin, not who can change it. Only the creator can edit its instructions or attached sources, so a twin the team relies on doesn’t change unless the creator changes it. See Sharing agents.A twin only sees data the person’s own account can already access, so two teammates can get different answers to the same question. Compare access before assuming the twin is inconsistent.
A twin summarizes what customers said, so treat its answers as directional and verify them before quoting or making a decision. Use a twin to identify which questions are worth asking a real customer. It doesn’t replace customer conversations.
Results
Questions about how a customer segment would react can be answered during a discussion rather than deferred to follow-up research, and the answer cites the call or ticket it came from. Because the twin is shared, the team works from the same source rather than from each person’s recollection of the customers they spoke to most recently.Where to go next
Digital Twins
Setup, scoping, keeping a twin current, and where to trust one.
Twin prompts
Ready-made instructions you can adapt.
Agents overview
Triggers, skills, tools, connectors, and sharing.
Voice of customer
Getting the feedback into Dovetail that twins are built from.