> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.exec.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Multi-Persona Scenarios
> Build roleplays with up to four characters so learners practice group conversations, panels, and multi-stakeholder calls
Some conversations don't happen one-on-one. A discovery call can pull in a champion and a skeptical VP, a customer escalation can include a support lead and an engineer, and a panel interview brings several voices at once. Scenario Studio supports up to **four personas** — a main character plus up to three extras — so a learner can practice these dynamics in a single session.
You need at least two personas for a scenario to count as multi-persona. Single-character scenarios still work exactly as before — see [Creating Scenarios](/roleplays/ai-agent).
***
## When to Use Multi-Persona
Reach for multi-persona when the conversation itself has more than two sides:
* **Multi-stakeholder sales calls** — champion plus economic buyer, or an SMB deal with founder and ops lead
* **Panel or committee interviews** — hiring loops, board updates, promotion reviews
* **Escalations and cross-functional calls** — customer plus internal engineer, or manager plus HR partner
* **Group coaching or team-huddle simulations** — a manager running a stand-up with two reports
If only one AI voice ever needs to talk, keep it single-persona. The extras exist to add pressure, competing priorities, or a second point of view — not to fill seats.
***
## Add a Persona
Open a scenario in Scenario Studio, go to the **Character Details** tab, and use the persona switcher at the top.
Click **+ Add Persona**. A new tab appears next to the main character. You can add up to three extras (four personas total).
Each extra persona needs the same fields as the main character except an opening line (only the main character opens the conversation) and a photo upload (extras use headshots from the gallery).
Required for every extra persona before you can publish or test:
* **Name**
* **Job title** and **company**
* **Voice**
* **Backstory**
* **Situational understanding**
* **Personality** — free-form description or structured traits
Click the **×** on any extra persona tab. You'll be asked to confirm before the persona is deleted.
You can also ask the agent to add or edit personas in plain language — for example, "add a skeptical CFO named Priya who cares about payback period," or "make the second persona quieter and more deferential to the CEO."
***
## Describe How the Personas Interact
Group dynamics live on each **persona's** own fields, not on the scenario as a whole. When you add your first extra, the Studio highlights the two places to describe interactions:
* **Situational Understanding** — what this persona knows about the other characters and where they stand relative to them (allies, rivals, reports, unaware bystanders)
* **Conversation Guidelines** — how this persona behaves in the group: when they jump in, who they defer to, who they interrupt, and how they address the others
For example, on a "skeptical VP" persona you might write:
```text theme={null}
Situational understanding:
You've worked with the champion (Marcus) for two years and generally trust
his judgment, but you disagree with him about buying new tooling this quarter.
```
```text theme={null}
Conversation guidelines — Interacting with Other Characters:
Let Marcus open. Interrupt only when the rep makes a claim about ROI or
timelines. Address Marcus by first name; address the rep formally until
they've earned it.
```
Writing dynamics per persona keeps behavior consistent no matter which persona the conversation ends up focused on.
Older scenarios that used a single scenario-level **Persona Interaction Rules** field still work — you'll see it on the **Scenario Details** tab only if the scenario already has content there. For new scenarios, use the per-persona fields above.
***
## Test with Try Now
Click **Try Now** to drop into a live test session. Multi-persona sessions use Exec's group-conversation voice engine, so all personas share the same call and can speak in turn.
Try Now is blocked until every extra persona has all required fields filled. If something's missing, the header tells you which persona and which fields — fix them, then test again.
Test group dynamics explicitly. Ask a question that only one persona should answer, then push on a topic the other persona cares about, and confirm the right voice picks it up.
***
## Publish
**Publish** and **Apply Changes** run the same completeness check as Try Now. If any extra persona is missing a required field, publish is blocked and you'll see the exact persona and fields to fix.
Once published, learners run the scenario the same way they run any other roleplay. Session recordings, transcripts, evaluation criteria, and the AI Coach all work with multi-persona sessions — every persona's turns are attributed to that persona by name.
***
## Tips
* **Give each persona a reason to speak.** If two personas would say the same thing in the same moments, cut one — the learner won't notice the difference and the conversation feels crowded.
* **Vary voices and personalities.** Distinct voices, ages, and interaction styles make it obvious who's talking without every persona announcing themselves.
* **Keep the main character in the driver's seat.** The main character opens the conversation and usually anchors the objective. Use extras to add pressure, alternative viewpoints, or a second decision-maker.
* **Iterate through the agent.** Prompts like "have the CFO push back harder on payback period, but only after Marcus mentions timeline" are faster than editing each field by hand.
***
## Getting Help
**Need help?** Contact us at [hello@exec.com](mailto:hello@exec.com) for guidance on multi-persona scenarios or any questions about Scenario Studio.