It's tragic that we have to resort to these techniques because our culture has become so averse to offering honest feedback. It wasn't always this way.
The Mom Test – How to talk to customers
81–90 of 140 posts
Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers
#82Heya, author here. Fun to see this. I wrote the book after becoming hugely frustrated as an introverted technical founder trying to "talk to customers" but finding zero books about sales/interviews/etc that spoke to my context. That first company (yc s07) failed just as I started to figure it all out, but the casual approach proved useful (and comfortable) in my future businesses, so I wanted to document it for other…
I'm introvert myself (INTP). I share your frustration. Maybe you have some business hints for introverts? AFAIK, the only successful Unicorn created by INTP's is Google, but I cannot have a talk with Google founders, obviously.
Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a rule I heard for dealing with coworkers from some other backgrounds as well. In some cultures, the established norm is for junior staff to answer all boolean questions in the affirmative. As in: "Have you completed the task?" "Yes!" -- no matter what If instead you ask for a project completion sign-off document, you're forcing them to provide the answer you were actually looking for.
Always ask string return questions, got it.
"Yes!"
Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers
#84Best book on early stage startups period. And it's barely 100 pages long. My favorite quote from it: “Someone should definitely make an X!” “Have you looked for an X?” “No, why?” “There are like 10 different kinds of X.” “Well I didn't really need it anyway.” Long story short, that person is a complainer, not a customer. They’re stuck in the la-la-land of imagining they’re the sort of person who finds clever ways to…
I had a conversation in the 90s with an acquaintance: A: What the world really needs is a native Java compiler. That would be really great! You should write one. W: I wrote one for Symantec. You can buy it today. A: I don't want it.
I don't want paid compiler too. Native compiler for Java for Android exists (APK precompiler) and it's great.
It's possible to make good java compiler into native code and then sell it to a big corp, but I'm not a big corp, so it's good idea, but I'm not a target audience for it.
Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had a conversation in the 90s with an acquaintance: A: What the world really needs is a native Java compiler. That would be really great! You should write one. W: I wrote one for Symantec. You can buy it today. A: I don't want it.
I even did that to myself. I thought about a great product. I was convinced, so I wanted to build it (it would also fulfill my need). Of course then I did research if it already exists. It did. I didn't want it.
Yep. I've done that too.
Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers
#86Best book on early stage startups period. And it's barely 100 pages long. My favorite quote from it: “Someone should definitely make an X!” “Have you looked for an X?” “No, why?” “There are like 10 different kinds of X.” “Well I didn't really need it anyway.” Long story short, that person is a complainer, not a customer. They’re stuck in the la-la-land of imagining they’re the sort of person who finds clever ways to…
I had a very similar experience starting a (new) political party, of all things. We had an "innovative" name, so we got loads of "You should change your name to X" and "You're not getting elected because you're named Z not Y". Lots of my team was really worried about it. But I always told them to ask these people if that's the reason why they are not voting for us. There were only two answers: (1) "Nah, I'm still vot…
Yeah, I learned this one watching Soylent, the meal-replacement drink: everyone was talking about it, saying how awful the name was. It clearly wasn't a bad name, though, because it made everyone talk about it, and nobody actually mistook the real product for the fictional namesake.
Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had a conversation in the 90s with an acquaintance: A: What the world really needs is a native Java compiler. That would be really great! You should write one. W: I wrote one for Symantec. You can buy it today. A: I don't want it.
I don't want paid compiler too. Native compiler for Java for Android exists (APK precompiler) and it's great. It's possible to make good java compiler into native code and then sell it to a big corp, but I'm not a big corp, so it's good idea, but I'm not a target audience for it.
Android was not around in the 90s
Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most non-fiction books could be long essays at best. Books are usually padded with needless repetition and anecdotes.
Really agree with this. If you have time I'd appreciate to hear some of your favourite high-value concise non-fiction books of any discipline...?
a lot of scientific books are like that, for example the art of computer programming.
Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
The risk hbeckpdx fears is: 1. Someone hasn't read the book and only glanced at the title. 2. That someone assumes the book says "test things on your mom, because there's nobody less tech-savvy than an older woman, yo momma so dumb she thinks a hamburger menu is something you get at McDonalds" 3. That someone, hoping to be an ally in the fight against gender and age discrimination in tech, takes offence at what they…
> yo momma so dumb she thinks a hamburger menu is something you get at McDonalds I think this says more about the intelligence of the person who decided that Ξ is obviously a picture of a hamburger.
I'm pretty sure that was the point, yes.
Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers
#90Some moms are software developers themselves. Without intending to, I do think that this title tends to reinforce the widespread assumption that programmers are men by default, while moms are, at most, "customers."
A better title would just be "How to talk to customers."
Meta comment: It's intellectually unfortunate that there's so much kneejerk hostility on HN to basic gender analysis. One's understanding of the world is enriched by thinking about how gender roles work, so the hostility to gender analysis is basically throwing away useful knowledge.