The mom test book notes

On how NOT to ask questions while doing market research

If you're in a position where nobody is using your MVP even if you did market research and potential customers told you they're going to use it, then you asked the following questions:

• "would you buy X?"
• "how much would you pay for Y?"
• "would you use feature Z?"

You probably asked lots of hypothetical questions that require no commitment from the responder to give you an answer.

"Yes, I'd buy that" means nothing. That answer only exists in their mind, not in reality.

To avoid this, follow these principles:

• Talk about their life instead of your idea
• Ask about specifics in the past instead of generics or opinions about the future
• Talk less and listen more

On feature requests

Customers will always try to suggest features that they think could solve their problem and should be added to the product. When this happens, it’s your job to understand the motivations which led to it.

The suggested feature does not always solve their problem. Ask these questions:

• Why do you want that?
• What would that let you do?
• How are you coping without it?
• Do you think we should push back the launch to add that feature or is it something we could add later?
• How would that fit into your day?

You aren’t allowed to tell them what their problem is and in return, they aren’t allowed to tell you what to build.

On B2B sales

While doing B2B we have to ask ourselves "Where does the money come from?". This is intended to lead to a conversation about how the budget is allocated, whose budget would be used to purchase the product, and who else in the company would need to be involved to approve (or disapprove) the deal.

Since businesses usually require several individuals or departments to approve a purchase, you can judge the success of a meeting based on the company's willingness to engage additional stakeholders. A good sign is if the meeting ends with the company representative saying, "When can you come back to talk to the rest of the team?". This means they are interested enough in the product to put their reputation on the line and include their colleagues in future conversations."

Consider this when having a discussion with your client

• Empty Compliments – In this case, a compliment isn’t something good, because many of them are just empty phrases without deeper meaning. If you notice such a compliment, that has to be a warning signal to you. Lead the conversation away from you and back to the customer. You can achieve this by saying things like “What you said earlier about XY was interesting. How exactly was that?”.

The reason why compliments are dangerous is, that they can be easily mistaken for validation of your idea – what they aren’t.

• Pitches or hints of your product idea – If the conversation changes away from the customer’s life towards your product, then it’s going to be about how smart and innovative you and your idea are. Your customer then steps into the shoes of someone who wants to encourage you – and you both leave the territory of objective data.
• Jump to the sale (too early) – The conversation has to be about understanding the topic – not about selling.