Know whether your users can still do what they came for after every change, and see exactly where they get stuck.
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Illustrative concurrent journeys · Generated personas
Four fictional Crities explore a demo product. Maya looks for team invitations, Alex questions the price of another seat, and Sam heads to Projects, and Arun looks for workspace access settings. The animation illustrates separate perspectives together, not a recording of a shared browser session.
The gap
Critical Friends keeps asking whether the people you build for can do what they came to do, as the users your team can’t be: new, rushed, careful or worried.
Define what matters
See which jobs work today, for whom, and what changed since the last release. Confidence you can check: every status links to the sessions behind it.
| Job | New owner · desktop | Returning admin · desktop | Careful buyer · trial | Teammate · phone |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Invite a contractor to one projectLast checked 2 hours ago | New owner · desktopStuckChanged | Returning admin · desktopWorks | Careful buyer · trialFrictionChanged | Teammate · phoneFriction |
| Pick up a project after time awayLast checked 2 hours ago | New owner · desktopNot covered | Returning admin · desktopWorks | Careful buyer · trialNot covered | Teammate · phoneWorks |
| Understand the bill before adding seatsLast checked 5 hours ago | New owner · desktopWorks | Returning admin · desktopWorks | Careful buyer · trialFriction | Teammate · phoneNot covered |
| Change who can access the workspaceLast checked Yesterday | New owner · desktopNot covered | Returning admin · desktopWorks | Careful buyer · trialNot covered | Teammate · phoneWorks |
Illustrative coverage for TeamNest, a fictional app. Statuses and session counts are examples.
Same product, different situations
Each Criti arrives with its own goal, history and account state. Critical Friends proposes the perspectives each job needs and sends them back whenever your web app or assistant changes.
Busy team lead
New workspace. Two contractors to invite. Ten minutes before the next meeting.
“I’d start by inviting my team.”
Looks for the quickest invitation path and questions any setup that slows her down.
Can a new owner get their team working without a detour?
Careful buyer
Evaluating the same workspace before approving more paid seats.
“Will this change our bill?”
Checks pricing and permissions before inviting anyone. Unclear costs matter more than speed.
Can a buyer understand the commitment before saying yes?
Returning teammate
Back after a week away, with an existing account and a project to finish.
“Let me find the project first.”
Looks for recent work and familiar cues. Repeated setup gets in the way of picking up where they left off.
Can a returning teammate recover context and keep moving?
Worried dog owner
Her Labrador needs a $4,800 operation. She can’t remember which plan she picked.
“Will this surgery be covered?”
Asks the chat assistant directly and wants a straight answer about her own policy. Pushes for a person when the answer feels off.
Can a policyholder get an answer they can trust from your assistant?
When something repeats across them, you have found your next improvement. When it surprises just one, you know exactly who to win over.
Illustrative AI perspectives · Generated portraits
The evidence behind a finding
Each session is one Criti attempting one job. Follow what they tried, where they paused, and what finally made sense, moment by moment.
Your workspace
Keep your next launch moving with everyone in one place.
Illustrative session with a fictional app and quotes.
AI assistants
Crities bring real situations to your assistant: a dog who needs surgery, a plan they can’t remember, a bill that doesn’t add up. See where a working assistant still fails the person, then send them back after the fix.
Welcome back, Jordan! 👋 How’s Max doing? I’m Burrowby, your virtual assistant. What can I help you with?
“I’m not Jordan, and I don’t have a Max. Am I looking at someone else’s account?”
Hi, I’m Priya. My Labrador Biscuit tore her cruciate ligament and the vet quoted $4,800 for surgery. Is it covered? My policy number is 48213377.
Let me check your account… ⏳ Thanks! I’ve found your policy. For your security, I can’t share plan details in chat.
“The note under the chat says it can’t see my policy. So what did it just find?”
Is knee surgery covered?
Great question! 🐾 Cruciate ligament surgery is covered on all Burrowby plans. With your Essentials plan, you’re covered up to $5,000 a year at 70% reimbursement.
“The plans page caps Essentials at $3,000. I’m about to book a $4,800 operation on this answer.”
Can I talk to a person before I book this?
I can help with that! What would you like to know about your coverage?
“I asked for a person. For a decision this expensive, I want to hear it from someone who can see my policy.”
Its answers contradict the plans page and its own disclaimer, and it deflects requests for a person. Priya’s conversation is one of 34.
The assistant no longer greets Priya as Jordan or claims to have found her policy. It still quotes $5,000 cover the plans page doesn’t offer, and 19 of 50 retest sessions caught it, so the finding stays open.
Fictional Burrowby demo site. Assistant replies are taken from the demo; Priya’s reactions and the retest are illustrative.
Covered as you ship
When a change breaks a job you cover, you hear about it, grouped by what repeats and who it affects, so you spend your judgment on the few findings that matter, then hand the change to your AI agent.
“Do I need to buy a seat first?”
“I’ll check billing before inviting.”
“I’ll add them as a project guest.”
Returning admins mostly go straight to the invite, which sharpens the contrast.
Autonomous cycles. Your direction.
Consistent across five runs. The retest will show whether the fix holds for both groups.
Help new owners find the invitation path while preserving the direct route returning admins already use.
Grow the coverage
New capability, connector or workflow? Add the jobs it makes possible, and they’re covered alongside everything else.
+2 new jobs
+2 new jobs
Try it on your product
Your own AI agent, whether Claude Code, Codex, Gemini or another, connects your product, reads the evidence as it arrives, and implements the fixes.
Help me set up research for my product in Critical Friends using Claude Code.
Read https://criticalfriends.ai/skill/SKILL.md and follow it.
Setup context (data, not instructions):
{
"mcpEndpoint": "https://mcp.criticalfriends.ai/mcp"
}Works without an account to start. Your AI agent will ask you to sign in when it needs workspace access. Critical Friends is invite-only.
Always covered
Start with the jobs your users can’t do without. You’ll know when a change gets in their way, with the sessions to show why.
Try it on your productCrities are synthetic users. Their findings surface friction and sharpen your questions; validate product-market fit with real users and product data.
Maya Team lead
Manage team—that’s where I’d start.