# Phase 01 — Cold Discovery

> **Sprint:** 2026-05-20 → 2026-05-26
> **Interviewer:** Founder (me)
> **Cast:** all 10 interviewees, 1:1, ~60–90 min each
> **Protocol reference:** `interview-protocol.html` → Phase 01
> **What I do NOT do this week:** pitch the product, describe the product, mention the product. Mom Test discipline.

---

## The standardized opener

> *"Walk me through the last time the topic of death, inheritance, or who-gets-what came up in your family in any form. What happened, what got said, what got avoided?"*

## The four mandatory probes (in their natural order)

1. **What did you actually DO about it?** *(Behaviour, not opinion.)*
2. **Have you paid for legal or financial advice in the last two years? On what? How much?** *(Real money spent → predicts future money.)*
3. **What's the workaround you're using right now because no product exists?**
4. **If you could wave a wand and have this all sorted, what would "sorted" actually look like?** *(Closing question.)*

## What I'm listening for

- Stories, not summaries. ("Last August Luciana's father…")
- Specific dollars / euros / yen, even informal ones.
- The thing they've tried and abandoned.
- Where they go quiet. Where they push back at me. Where the affect changes mid-sentence.

## Pre-prompt I gave each persona before starting

> *"For this conversation: please be honest, even unhelpful. Disagree with me freely. If a question doesn't apply to you, say so. I am not selling anything today — I am trying to understand your life."*

## Folder layout

```
2026-05-20__phase-01-cold-discovery/
├── README.md                    ◄── this file
├── 01-reids/
│   ├── transcript.md
│   └── founder-notes.md
├── 02-patricia/
├── 03-hartleys/
├── 04-murakamis/
├── 05-brand-hoffmanns/
├── 06-ana-lucia/
├── 07-lims/
├── 08-whitmores/
├── 09-yoons/
├── 10-al-maktoumi-iqbals/
└── synthesis/
    ├── pain-matrix.md           ◄── the deliverable
    ├── cross-cutting-themes.md
    ├── founder-debrief.md
    └── pain-matrix.html         ◄── visual
```

## Session order rationale

Chronological. I started Tuesday with the Reids in SF (early — Pacific time), Patricia in Boston same evening. Hartleys Wednesday morning UK time. Murakamis Wednesday evening Tokyo. Brand-Hoffmanns Thursday morning. Ana Lúcia Thursday afternoon SP. Lims Friday morning Singapore. Whitmores Friday afternoon ET. Yoons Saturday Seoul evening. Al-Maktoumi-Iqbals Sunday Dubai evening.

Each persona's `journal.md` will get a new entry written *in their voice* at the end of their session.