The Mom Test - Capsule on Customer Research and Validating Ideas
I have been meaning to hone my skills in Consumer Research for a long time and a number of people whom I admire including Shreyas Doshi recommended this book. The basic premise of the book is that - Your Mom would always approve of your next business idea.
When we are trying to understand the user and his problem then we end up discussing our idea with the user who in turn feels a compulsion to shower us with compliments as our ego is attached to the conversation and they don’t want to offend us. We, therefore, end up falsely validating our ideas.
The Mom Test is a great book and is a pretty short read at just 126 pages so would highly recommend everyone to read it through. To get you started - these are the insights that I received from the book -
Biggest risks in any business:
Customer risk - Do they want it enough and are there enough of them. Will they pay. We need to be sure that we are building something which the user has a strong need for and would shift to our solution to solve that particular problem.
The way to ascertain this is by understanding if the user cares about the problem enough by checking if they are already looking for a solution/using an inefficient solution. We don’t want to be working on a problem which the user does not care care about enough. Once ascertained, we need to be sure that our solution is 10X better than the existing solution otherwise they again won’t care.
Example: We ask someone why she does not go to gym - She gives a reason that she is short of time and we create a home gym solution for the user but she still does not buy. Why? Physical Fitness was never important enough for her. So before going into specifics of the solution - Always Always find out if the user is already using some kind of solution to solve the problem.
Product risk - Can i build it? Can i grow it?
Example: Say you are building a lead generation engine for an insurance company and do your customer research. All insurance companies tell you that they would definitely be interested If You are able to give a Cost per Conversion of Rs. XXX. You act on the feedback assuming that you have stumbled upon an awesome business idea. However. the risk here is not on Customer End - Its on the Product end. Would you be able to get them leads at their required cost.
Top level To Dos while you are talking to the customers:
Talk to people about their lives and get insights on their daily lives. Understand their goals. Don’t mention your idea to the customers
Talk about past specifics and not about their opinions on past or future. Learn through their actions rather than opinions
Talk less listen more.
Check if users have looked for the solution to the problem in past. If not, then they will not use your solution either.
Every time you talk to someone, ask one question which has the potential to destroy your business
Don’t zoom into a problem unless you are convinced that the problem matters to the customer and they care about it enough to fix. Is he already searching for a solution for the same
User Segmentation
We need to define the customer segment clearly before talking to them. It cannot be too broad initially as it is impossible to make a broad segment happy. You need to define a Niche Segment - Understand their problem and then solve for them.
Constraining the user set helps us have a super clear positioning and communication. It also helps us constrain the number of features to have in our solution since now we are not trying to appease everyone just doing enough number of features so that the niche segment cares.
A good framework for identifying a niche segment is Who and Where. Who is your target customer and where do you find them offline/online. Example: Working Moms who frequent Day Care centres and we are trying to solve the baby nutrition needs for them (Rather than targeting all Moms initally - Of cojurse, you would broaden to all Moms eventually)
If you are not getting to hear consistent problems and feature requests then your target segment is still too broad (Who - Where).
How to prepare and execute your customer research strategy
Preplan three big questions that you want answered in any conversation
What is the commitment of users when they say that they like it - Time, Email, Cash, Reputation risk. If they are giving you one of these currencies then its definitely s positive sign
Keep an eye out for customers who get emotional about your solution - You might be solving a BIG problem for them
Ideal Customer State - Have a problem/Know that they have a problem/Have a budget for the solution/Have already cobbled/used an inefficient solution to solve the problem
How to talk - Vision/Framing/Weakness/Pedestal/Ask - Give your vision - Frame your current situation - Expose your weakness in understanding consumer or market/Put them on a pedestal of expertise/Ask for Help
Keep talking to more customers until you stop getting any new replies
Hope this summary would entice you to give the book a try.
Happy Reading!