SIMIS.AI — Customer Validation Interview Playbook

SUTD ARISE (Validate) — HW1 (Due May 13, 2026)

Part 1: Target Audience

B2B (10+ interviews)

Primary Decision-Makers (must interview):

Interview Mix Recommendation: - 3–4 Centre Operators (individual centres) - 2–3 Chain Management (corporate level) - 1–2 Consultants/Advisors - 1–2 System Integrators/ICT vendors

B2C (deferred — HW2, June 3)

Not required for May 13 homework. Can be done later for HW2.

Planned segments for later: - Parents (15–20) — FB groups: SG Mummies, KiasuParents - Educators/Teachers (8–10) — LinkedIn, teacher forums - Guardians (5–8) — Grandparents/helpers via parent network

Part 2: Interview Question Bank

Script A — Problem Discovery (lead with this, NEVER pitch first)

Opening & Rapport (5 min)

“Hi, I’m Jevin, a pharmacist and researcher. My team is investigating how childcare centres currently handle safety monitoring — things like incidents, falls, rough handling, and how centres track and report these. We’re not selling anything — we’re just trying to understand the real problems centres face.”

1. “Can you tell me about your role and how you’re involved in childcare centre operations?”
2. “How many children does your centre handle? What are the age groups?”
3. “What does a typical day look like from a safety and supervision perspective?”

Problem Probe (15 min)

Incidents & Safety: 4. “What types of safety incidents happen most frequently at your centre? (e.g., falls, rough handling, altercations between children, unauthorised access)” 5. “How do you currently detect safety incidents? Walk me through the last time an incident happened — how was it discovered?” 6. “How often do incidents go unnoticed until a parent or child reports them?” 7. “What’s your current process for documenting and reporting incidents? How long does it take?”

Monitoring & CCTV: 8. “What CCTV system do you currently use? (brand, number of cameras, recording method)” 9. “Who monitors the CCTV feeds? How often? Is it live or review-after-the-fact?” 10. “What’s the biggest frustration with your current CCTV setup?”

Staffing & Compliance: 11. “How many staff do you have supervising children at any time? What’s the ideal ratio?” 12. “How much time does your team spend on incident documentation per week?” 13. “How do you handle parent complaints about safety? How often do these come in?” 14. “What does ECDA compliance look like for CCTV? What do centres struggle with most?”

Pain Quantification: 15. “If you could fix ONE thing about how your centre handles safety monitoring, what would it be?” 16. “What’s the cost of a missed incident — in terms of parent complaints, staff time, regulatory issues?” 17. “Have there been any near-misses or serious incidents that kept you up at night?”

Magic Wand (3 min)

“If you had a magic wand and could design the perfect safety monitoring system for your centre — what would it do?”

18. “What would the ideal solution look like for you?”
19. “How would your daily routine change if incidents were detected automatically?”

Script B — Solution Validation (only after Script A confirms the problem)

Solution Reveal (5 min)

“Based on what centres like yours have told us, we’re developing an AI system that works with your existing CCTV cameras to automatically detect safety incidents — falls, rough handling, altercations — in real-time. It generates incident reports and lets you search video footage using natural language, like ‘show me all incidents in the toddler room last week.’ Everything runs on-site at your centre — no data goes to the cloud.”

Feature Reaction (5 min): 20. “How useful would automatic incident detection be for your centre? On a scale of 1–10?” 21. “What about automatic incident report generation — how much time would that save?” 22. “The system runs on-premise at your centre, not in the cloud. How important is on-site data privacy to you? Would parents care?” 23. “What features would you need to see before considering something like this?”

Buying Intent (5 min): 24. “If this were available today at a price that works for your centre’s budget, would you consider adopting it?” 25. “What would you be willing to pay per month for a system like this?” 26. “Who else in your organisation would need to approve this decision?” 27. “Would you be willing to pilot this at your centre if we offered it for free?”

Competitive Landscape: 28. “Are you currently using or evaluating any other AI or smart monitoring tools?” 29. “Have you considered solutions like Verkada, Rhombus, or WatchMeGrow? Why or why not?” 30. “What would make you switch from your current setup to a new system?”

Script C — Parents & Educators (B2C)

Parents: 31. “How do you currently stay informed about your child’s safety at childcare?” 32. “Has there ever been an incident at your child’s centre that concerned you? How did you find out?” 33. “Would you feel more comfortable if your child’s centre had AI-powered incident detection? Why or why not?” 34. “Would you be willing to pay more in fees for a centre that uses AI safety monitoring?” 35. “What are your biggest concerns about CCTV in childcare centres?” (privacy vs. safety tradeoff) 36. “If you could check on your child during the day via a secure video feed, would you use it? How often?”

Educators/Teachers: 37. “How do you currently handle incident reporting? How long does it take per incident?” 38. “Have you ever witnessed an incident that wasn’t caught by staff? What happened?” 39. “Would AI-powered incident detection make your job easier or harder? Why?” 40. “What concerns would you have about being monitored by AI while you work?” 41. “If the system could auto-generate incident reports, how much time would that save you per week?”

Script D — Backup (if problem is NOT confirmed)

42. “What would you say is the BIGGEST operational challenge your centre faces right now? (not necessarily safety-related)”
43. “If you had extra budget for technology, what would you spend it on first?”
44. “What problems do parents complain about most frequently?”
45. “Are there any regulatory changes coming that worry you?”

Part 3: Data to Capture Per Interview

Essential Fields (every interview)

Assumption Tracking Matrix

After each interview, update:

Part 4: Practical Tips

Getting Interviews

• LinkedIn — Search “childcare centre director Singapore”, “preschool operator Singapore”, “ECDA Singapore”
• Parent groups — “SG Mummies” (FB, 50K+ members), KiasuParents forum
• Teacher network — Personal connections, early childhood education FB groups
• Cold email template: > “Hi [Name], I’m Jevin, co-founder of SIMIS.AI, a SUTD spin-off. We’re building AI safety monitoring for childcare centres and would love to understand the real challenges centres face. Would you be open to a 20-minute chat? No pitch — just learning. Happy to share our findings with you.”

Interview Logistics

• Keep to 20–25 minutes max
• Record (with permission) or take detailed notes
• Never pitch until Script B — stay in problem space
• Aim for variety — don’t interview 10 identical centre operators
• Snowball sample: always end with “Who else should I talk to?”

Minimum Viable Interview Count

Focus: 10 B2B only for May 13 homework. B2C interviews can be done later for HW2 (June 3) if needed.

Prioritised outreach order: Centre operators → Chain management → Consultants → System integrators