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The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

sandro.volpee.de

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Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#131

Post by corobo »

robfitz wrote: post #116
goohle wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think it depends very much on your goals. For me, after going through YC with my first company and having a difficult four years chasing scale, I realized that I was oriented more toward lifestyle/reliability/freedom, and I've been fairly focused on that for the last 10 years (although it really only took a couple years to achieve once I was clear on my goals, and has been pretty relaxed since then). So with that c…

Not the original parent but thankful you've posted that! Nice one :)

Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#132

Post by [deleted] »

klipt wrote: post #121
khazhoux wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is "is a choice" something the kids are saying these days? Never heard that expression. At any rate, at first I was worried that this was a sexist-agist reference, but in fact it's not at all. "Mom" is just used to represent someone who doesn't want to hurt your feelings.

The idea that mom (but not dad?) will lie to you in order not to hurt your feelings surely reflects biases about gender (aka sexism, albeit a mild form). The non biased version would use "parent" not "mom".

[deleted]

Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#133

Post by cweill »

robfitz wrote: post #23

Heya, 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…

Thank you for this book. It's the best book I read all year about figuring out if the thing you're building is a complete waste if time or actually solves a real need.

I used its guidance at my big tech job when trying to build a new tool for researchers, and it helped me better understand how to understand what they need, iterate, and better tailor the sales pitch afterwards. Who would have thought that talking to customers is the single most valuable thing you can do!

Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#134

Post by moosebear847 »

robfitz wrote: post #115
moosebear847 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an author of the book that's summarized, how do you feel about in-depth summaries of your book in terms of it affecting sales and providing publicity? I've always wondered how authors feel about it.

I always love summaries that are publicly posted (like this one, no matter how detailed), and I only dislike the (relatively rare) ones that are repackaged as "new" books on Amazon and then resold at a profit (it feels bad in general, but especially since I already work pretty hard to make my books as short as possible). My feeling has always been that if a book can be sufficiently summarized in a blog post, then it…

I like this viewpoint, it strikes me as mature, realistic and customer-focused. I think I'll learn a lot from your book, thanks!

Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#135

Post by robfitz »

c152driver wrote: post #130
marcus_holmes wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your book changed my life. Seriously, good work, keep it up :) I tried getting my co-founder (a serious old-skool sales guy) to read it, but he refused because he didn't need to be told anything about sales. Then he made exactly all the mistakes you talk about in the book when talking to our prospects. It was my first clue that maybe having a good salesperson as co-founder wasn't going to be the great experience I wa…

Do you think this book would be good for a sales engineer inside a larger organization?

A few of the ideas, yes, but not the whole thing. But you could probably get those ideas just as easily from the linked summary.

In particular, stuff like digging beneath requirements & feature requests to understand the root cause and their current behavior. And probably also the general idea of opening up a safe space for open learning at the beginning of each conversation (which is also a common idea in other sales approaches like SPIN Selling).

Also, it would be more useful while scoping out a new product/market, and less useful for products that are already mature/defined.

So my guess is that you'd get a couple useful ideas, but not a book's worth.

Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#136

Post by robfitz »

sharps_xp wrote: post #127
robfitz wrote: post #23

Heya, 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…

Hey Rob, Please release that book on dating. Not that I'm interested in the topic, but I'm more interested in reading something entertaining.

Haha oh man, when did I even publicly mention that?

I doubt I'll ever release it as a book (since it needs a full rewrite and my enthusiasm for it was very tied to that moment in my life), but maybe a couple of the ideas will slip out eventually.

Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#137

Post by Folcon »

One useful thing about summaries for good high information density books like Rob's[0] is that they're a good way to help anchor information found in the book. Which will help you remember the key points in context.

They also present you with alternative takes which can sometimes help in seeing the information from an alternative viewpoint which can also be really valuable.

So from that perspective even though there's some ground covered by a summary, I don't think of them as a replacement for a well written book.

-[0]: It's a good book, if you've not done so read it! http://momtestbook.com/

Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#138

Post by nsv »

jiggawatts wrote: post #30
mlang23 wrote: post #4

Although not quite the same, this reminds me of a very simple trick many blind people are taught during training on how to navigate the city: Never ever ask "Is this line 4" if you want to know which tram just arrived. Ask "which line is this?" Simply because the first version will make many people answer "yeah yeah" without even looking. The second version forces them to actually answer your question with something…

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.

I've always found "what's your progress on X?" or "how much have you gotten done on X?" to be better questions than "are you done with X?".

Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#139

Post by LaundroMat »

robfitz wrote: post #115
moosebear847 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an author of the book that's summarized, how do you feel about in-depth summaries of your book in terms of it affecting sales and providing publicity? I've always wondered how authors feel about it.

I always love summaries that are publicly posted (like this one, no matter how detailed), and I only dislike the (relatively rare) ones that are repackaged as "new" books on Amazon and then resold at a profit (it feels bad in general, but especially since I already work pretty hard to make my books as short as possible). My feeling has always been that if a book can be sufficiently summarized in a blog post, then it…

William Gibson considered piracy a "tax on fame", so you should feel pretty good about those Google searches :)

Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#140

Post by silexia »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #66
robfitz wrote: post #23

Heya, 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…

Your book changed my life. Seriously, good work, keep it up :) I tried getting my co-founder (a serious old-skool sales guy) to read it, but he refused because he didn't need to be told anything about sales. Then he made exactly all the mistakes you talk about in the book when talking to our prospects. It was my first clue that maybe having a good salesperson as co-founder wasn't going to be the great experience I wa…

I have had co-founders to my businesses and I've done businesses solo. Solo always works better. Pretty much anyone who wants a technical co-founder is someone who won't pull their weight.

Plus you lose half your equity right off the bat and you are dependent on someone and you aren't really sure what they're going to do for you.

VCs and investors are the only ones who like co-founders because then they can fire one of you that will later on if you're not doing what they want.

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