90: The Mom Test with Rob Fitzpatrick

Ben and Derrick welcome Rob Fitzpatrick, author of The Mom Test: How to talk to customers and learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you. It’s not your typical non-fiction business book, but short and straight to the point. It should be a mandatory prerequisite for anyone embarking on the startup journey.

Derrick’s Level Retrospective describes how Rob’s book had a major impact on his most recent startup experience. People want to be supportive, so it’s difficult to get unbiased feedback during customer validation. Derrick already knew this to be correct, but underestimated the degree to which everyone lies. So, he felt betrayed by early validation efforts proved to be radically different from reality.

Today’s Topics Include:

Don’t ask anyone if your business is a good idea because everyone is biased

Burden of truth should be put on yourself, not your customers

Entrepreneur’s Superpower: Getting support before it’s deserved because passion pollutes feedback

Founder Fit: Does your business idea merge with your product and lifestyle goals?

Founder Centric: Cashflow-positive education and training agency for startups

Product-Market Fit: People share their problems via a proposed solution; when customers send feature requests, get to root of the problem

Statistical significance of sample size is a trap; reach point of diminishing returns to move forward with product, and focus on number of/hours spent on conversations

Entrepreneurs and customers think every problem matters, but they don’t

What to do next to pivot in the right direction and niche down

Links and resources:

The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick

Rob Fitzpatrick

The Workshop Survival by Rob Fitzpatrick

Founder Centric

Steve Blank

Paul Graham

Skype

Slack

Hacker News

Superhuman Product-Market Fit Survey

Songkick

Spin Selling by Neil Rackham

Drip

Art of Product on Twitter

Derrick Reimer Website

Derrick Reimer on Twitter

Ben Orenstein Website

Ben Orenstein on Twitter

Level

Level Retrospective

Level Manifesto

Tuple