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13 - Get information from customers without talking about your idea. Instead, find out about them, what they want and what they already use.
THE MOM TEST
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
19 - If the customer truly has a problem, they will have already looked for a solution. So you can ask them about that. Customer: “I can’t find any kids books with good theology.” Me: “Where have you looked? Amazon? Christianbook.com? A bookstore?” Customer: “…” That means they don’t actually have a problem and probably won’t buy your product.
33 - “Startups are about focusing and executing on a single, scalable idea rather than jumping on every good one which crosses your desk.”
41 - Run thought experiments. “Imagine that the company has failed and ask why that happened. Then imagine it as a huge success and ask what had to be true to get there.”
52-53 - Market risk vs. product risk. Market risk: You have a great product, but no one sees the need for it. Product risk: You might see a market opportunity and find people who would pay to fix it, but you can’t actually build a product to address that need. “If you’ve got heavy product risk… you’re not going to be able to prove as much of your business through conversations alone.”
53 - “Video games are pure product risk.” Same goes for movies, probably. “Would you watch a great movie?” The answer is always yes.
Repeated: Compliments are bad news. People saying no without saying no.
76 - “The goal of cold conversations is to stop having them.”
79 - Ideas for making contacts: Organize meetups; speak and teach about your topic; blog
Another repeated idea: You aren’t trying to minimize your failure rate.
85 - Keep control of the conversation. Don’t let them push you into explaining your idea too early.
90 - “Startups don’t starve, they drown.” Too many ideas kills you.
94 - Customer Slicing
97 - “Good customer segments are a who-where pair. If you don’t know where to go to find your customers, keep slicing your segment into smaller pieces until you do.”