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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

#41

Post by Cthulhu_ »

macando wrote: post #7

Best 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…

> And it's barely 100 pages long.

I'd like to quote this and add kudos for that. There's a lot of books that could be a blog post, needlessly padded out. 100 pages sounds a lot more manageable.

Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#42

Post by WalterBright »

Torwald wrote: post #38
WalterBright wrote: post #34

Earlier 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.

He just wanted to be nice.

I wasn't angry with him, or even annoyed. I simply learned long ago that people who don't have skin in the game rarely give good game advice. People pitch me all the time what programs I should write.

I've written many products over the years, some were successes, others were failures. A common thread has emerged: all the failures were pitched by others. All the successes were ones I wrote to please myself, and everyone told me I was a unique snowflake and nobody else would want it and I would fail.

Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#44

Post by robfitz »

tmarice wrote: post #40
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…

Looking forward to reading the book, looks great. Just a small technical issue: I just tried to buy the book on http://momtestbook.com/ via Gumroad, and Chrome refuses to autofill the credit card number in the Gumroad widget because the site is http-only. I circumvented that by copying the link from the "Buy on Gumroad" button, but it might be hurting your sales. Consider adding SSL certificate or just make the butto…

You're totally right — it's one of those things that's always on the list but never feels like the day's top priority, and then one day you wake up and it's on HN and you feel like a dummy ;). Probably some sort of lesson for me to learn here.

(If anyone else needs it, the direct/secure gumroad PDF link is https://gum.co/momtest, and the paperback/ebook are on Amazon.)

Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#46

Post by macando »

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…

I wish more authors could adopt your zero-fluff-all-insights approach.

Thank you for writing the book, I recommended it many times.

Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#47

Post by macando »

WalterBright wrote: post #42
Torwald wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He just wanted to be nice.

I wasn't angry with him, or even annoyed. I simply learned long ago that people who don't have skin in the game rarely give good game advice. People pitch me all the time what programs I should write. I've written many products over the years, some were successes, others were failures. A common thread has emerged: all the failures were pitched by others. All the successes were ones I wrote to please myself, and every…

> I simply learned long ago that people who don't have skin in the game rarely give good game advice.

This is highly quotable.

Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#48

Post by macando »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #41
macando wrote: post #7

Best 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…

> And it's barely 100 pages long. I'd like to quote this and add kudos for that. There's a lot of books that could be a blog post, needlessly padded out. 100 pages sounds a lot more manageable.

Most non-fiction books could be long essays at best.

Books are usually padded with needless repetition and anecdotes.

Re: The Mom Test – How to talk to customers

#49

Post by phkahler »

macando wrote: post #7

Best 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…

>> My favorite quote from it:

“Someone should definitely make an X!”

“Have you looked for an X?”

“No, why?”

Reminds me of the classic line and omition from the dating world:

"He's a great guy, he'd make a great husband." ... for somebody else.

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