Chapter One - Using the mom test

• You shouldn't ask anyone whether your business is a good idea. Only the market can tell.
• Doing it wrong is worse than doing nothing at all. When you know you're clueless, you tend to be careful.
• Good conversation = concrete facts about our customer's lives and world views. (Their problems, cares, goals and constraints)
• Until we get specific, it always seems like a good idea.
• The big mistake is almost always to mention your idea too soon rather than too late.
• Talk about their life instead of your idea.
• Ask about specifics in the past intead of generics or opinions about the future. Anything involving the future is an over-optimitic lie.
• Talk less and listen more.
• Opinions are worthless. People will lie to you if they think it's what you want to hear.
• People know what their problems are, but they don't know how to solve those problems.
• You're shooting blind until you understand their goals.
• Some problems don't actually matter
• Learn through their actions instead of their opinions. This shows where the problems and inefficiencies are, not where the customers thinks they are.
• If they haven't looked for ways of solving it already, they're not going to buy yours.
• People want to help you, but will rarely do so unless you give them an excuse to do so.
• Customers own the problems, we the solution.

Chapter Two - Avoiding bad data

• You want facts and commitments, not compliments = distracting and wirthless.
• Complainers X Customers
• Understand the motivation / need behind the request. Ideas and features should be understood, not obeyed.
• Compliments are worthless and people's approval doesn't make your business better.

Chapter Three - Asking important questions

• You can tell it's an important question when the answer to it could completely change or disprove your business.
• You should be asking a question which has potential to completely destroy your currently business. You should be terrified of at least one of the questions you're asking in every conversation.
• You want the truth, not a gold star. The worst thing one can do is to ignore the bad news. Learn and adapt quicky from the lukewarms responses.
• Most people have problems which they don't actually care enough about to fix, but they'll happily tell you the details of if you ask them.
• Start broad and don't zoom in until you've found a strong signal, both with your whole business an with every conversation.
• Always consider both Product risk (Can I build it? Can I grow it? Will they keep using it?) and Market risk (Do they want it? Will they pay? Are there enough of them?)

Chapter Four - Keeping it casual

• Learning about a customer and their problems works better as a quick and casual chat than a long, formal meeting.
• If it feels like they're doing you a favour by talking to you, it's probably too formal.

Chapter Five - Commitment and advancement

• When it's time to show the product we're now in position to cut through the false positives by asking for commitments and advancements.
• The more they're giving up, the more seriuosly you can take their kind words.
• It's not a real lead until you've given them a concrete chance to reject you.
• If you treat people's time respectfully and are genuinely trying to sove their problem, those cold conversations start turning into warm intros.
• In early stages sales, the real goal is learning. Revenue is just a side-effect.

Chapter Six - Finding conversations

• The only thing people love talking about more than themselves is their problems.
• If it's not a formal meeting, you don't need to mention that you're starting a business and explain why you're there.
• If it's a topic you both care about, find an excuse to talk about.
• Immerse yourself in the community.
• The world is a relatively small place. Everyone knows someone.
• Vision - Framing - Weakness - Pedestal - Ask
• Go in search of industry and customer advisors.

Chapter Seven - Choosing your customers

• Getting specific about who your ideal customers are allows you to filter out all the noise which comes from everyone else.
• Customer-slicing. Good customer segments are a who-where pair.

Chapter Eight - Running the process

• The learnings should be shared among the team.
• Move past the obvious stuff and spend your conversations finding answers the internet can't give you.
• If you don't know what you're trying to learn, you shouldn't bother having the conversation.
• Add symbols to your notes as a context and shorthand.

📌 Cheatsheet

• Talk about their life instead of your idea.
• Ask about specifics in the past instead of generics or about the future.
• Talk less, listen more.
• Avoid bad data (compliments / fluff / opinions / ideas / requests / emotions).
• Don't pitch.
• Don't be too formal, keep it casual.
• Find a niche.
• Fish for facts / commitments / advancements .
• Understand the why behind a request.
• What do you want to learn from it?

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