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Heya, author here. Fun to see this. I wrote the book after becoming hugely frustrated as an introverted technical founder trying to "talk to customers" but fin

• jack335 5y ago
  I think you really hit a frustration of many people :D Thanks for the book and your work Rob!
• tmarice 5y ago
  Looking forward to reading the book, looks great. Just a small technical issue: I just tried to buy the book on http://momtestbook.com/ http://momtestbook.com/ via Gumroad, and Chrome refuses to autofill the credit card number in the Gumroad widget because the site is http-only. I circumvented that by copying the link from the "Buy on Gumroad" button, but it might be hurting your sales. Consider adding SSL certificate or just make the button click open the Gumroad site.
  • robfitz 5y ago
    You're totally right — it's one of those things that's always on the list but never feels like the day's top priority, and then one day you wake up and it's on HN and you feel like a dummy ;). Probably some sort of lesson for me to learn here. (If anyone else needs it, the direct/secure gumroad PDF link is https://gum.co/momtest https://gum.co/momtest, and the paperback/ebook are on Amazon.)
    • wwarek 5y ago
      I'd just like to add, and it was important for me, that gumroad also has epub and mobi, not only PDF. I've almost skipped buying the book because mobi was supposedly only available on Amazon. Fortunately I clicked on gumroad just to find out that epub and mobi are also there.
• macando 5y ago
  I wish more authors could adopt your zero-fluff-all-insights approach. Thank you for writing the book, I recommended it many times.
  • robfitz 5y ago
    Funny you should mention it, that's (part of) the topic of my latest, about designing nonfiction like a problem-solving product (won't plug it here since it's off-topic, but easy enough to find). Too many authors seem to forget that readers pay for every book twice: once with the cover price and then again with their time. (And for most business/tech books, the second price is orders of magnitude more costly than the first.) Anyway, happy it has proven useful and many thanks for the support.
    • macando 5y ago
      > And for most business/tech books, the second price is orders of magnitude more costly than the first. Couldn't agree more. The idea is great. Lean books should be a thing.
• asdev 5y ago
  Hey Rob, do you have some resources on B2C businesses? For example starting something like Facebook or TikTok? I noticed that most of the Mom Test seems geared more towards B2B though some of the insights can be extrapolated to B2C as well
  • robfitz 5y ago
    The short version is basically: 1. You can still do full "discovery" (i.e., understanding what they're already doing and why, decision-making, current workarounds, etc.), which gives you a better foundation of understanding from which to come up with product ideas 2. But it's MUCH harder to do conversation-only "validation" (i.e., getting confirmation that they're going to buy and use your specific thing before it exists) So in B2C (and also if building something deep into the future, like 3D Printing), you basically do your discovery as normal and then skip the commitments/validation, jump straight to a quick prototype, and follow the normal iterative product-first learning approach. A couple Q&A videos (<5min each) that might be relevant: - You can't learn everything, but can learn more than nothing: https://youtu.be/O16IefIu1zc https://youtu.be/O16IefIu1zc - Situations where you need a prototype to keep learning: https://youtu.be/EZGiaIxB0HA https://youtu.be/EZGiaIxB0HA - Traps and solutions to 'nice-to-have' validation: https://youtu.be/yxQoRp01HuQ https://youtu.be/yxQoRp01HuQ
• marcus_holmes 5y ago
  Your book changed my life. Seriously, good work, keep it up :) I tried getting my co-founder (a serious old-skool sales guy) to read it, but he refused because he didn't need to be told anything about sales. Then he made exactly all the mistakes you talk about in the book when talking to our prospects. It was my first clue that maybe having a good salesperson as co-founder wasn't going to be the great experience I was anticipating. 2 years later the project died because we didn't get any customers. I recommend the book to everyone now. If they don't immediately go "this is awesome!" then I'm suspicious ;)
  • c152driver 5y ago
    Do you think this book would be good for a sales engineer inside a larger organization?
    • robfitz 5y ago
      A few of the ideas, yes, but not the whole thing. But you could probably get those ideas just as easily from the linked summary. In particular, stuff like digging beneath requirements & feature requests to understand the root cause and their current behavior. And probably also the general idea of opening up a safe space for open learning at the beginning of each conversation (which is also a common idea in other sales approaches like SPIN Selling). Also, it would be more useful while scoping out a new product/market, and less useful for products that are already mature/defined. So my guess is that you'd get a couple useful ideas, but not a book's worth.
  • silexia 5y ago
    I have had co-founders to my businesses and I've done businesses solo. Solo always works better. Pretty much anyone who wants a technical co-founder is someone who won't pull their weight. Plus you lose half your equity right off the bat and you are dependent on someone and you aren't really sure what they're going to do for you. VCs and investors are the only ones who like co-founders because then they can fire one of you that will later on if you're not doing what they want.
• lcrz 5y ago
  Could you please not hijack clicking on text on your website? That's extremely unfriendly to visitors.
  • deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
• moosebear847 5y ago
  As an author of the book that's summarized, how do you feel about in-depth summaries of your book in terms of it affecting sales and providing publicity? I've always wondered how authors feel about it.
  • robfitz 5y ago
    I always love summaries that are publicly posted (like this one, no matter how detailed), and I only dislike the (relatively rare) ones that are repackaged as "new" books on Amazon and then resold at a profit (it feels bad in general, but especially since I already work pretty hard to make my books as short as possible). My feeling has always been that if a book can be sufficiently summarized in a blog post, then it should be a blog post ;). And if someone reads the summary and fully "gets it," they probably would have been frustrated by the full book, since they probably already had a lot of the foundational knowledge in place. So it's better if they don't buy it in the first place. And different people will read the summary, want the extra detail, and grab the full book, which is great too. Even with piracy of the full book (which is currently #1 on google for various fairly guessable searches), I still feel that it ends up coming back to me via word of mouth. Piracy probably hurts "bad" books that are propped up by PR, but it definitely helps books that people find useful, since they end up recommending it to other folks who may pay.
    • moosebear847 5y ago
      I like this viewpoint, it strikes me as mature, realistic and customer-focused. I think I'll learn a lot from your book, thanks!
    • LaundroMat 5y ago
      William Gibson considered piracy a "tax on fame", so you should feel pretty good about those Google searches :)
  • gkkirilov 5y ago
    There is a great summary of the book at the end of it. I revisit it often
• goohle 5y ago
  I'm introvert myself (INTP). I share your frustration. Maybe you have some business hints for introverts? AFAIK, the only successful Unicorn created by INTP's is Google, but I cannot have a talk with Google founders, obviously.
  • robfitz 5y ago
    I think it depends very much on your goals. For me, after going through YC with my first company and having a difficult four years chasing scale, I realized that I was oriented more toward lifestyle/reliability/freedom, and I've been fairly focused on that for the last 10 years (although it really only took a couple years to achieve once I was clear on my goals, and has been pretty relaxed since then). So with that caveat out of the way, my top-of-mind career advice for entrepreneurial introverts is: 1 // Learning how to talk to (and listen to) people is probably the highest-leverage career skill you'll ever learn, even if you only go from "terrible" to "functional." There's a tremendous amount of discomfort while learning it, but that discomfort is temporary. I'll never "like" talking to strangers, and I'll always need to manage my energy levels, context, and recovery time. That being said, the ability to do so when useful to my career (like custdev or sales or fundraising) or life (like making friends in a new city or negotiating with an angry plumber) has been transformational. The pain is temporary and the benefit is profound. 2 // Journal each morning. Braindump your frustrations/goals/fears onto paper. Your brain likely works differently from most "successful" people, which means that the common advice won't fully resonate with you, and you'll need to chart more of your own path. This requires thinking, and for a lot of introverts, writing is the clearest way to think (but if you're different, use what works for you). Similarly, run every piece of advice you hear (well, the compelling bits anyway) through a personality filter, normalize it for personality/context, and then decide whether it's likely to be right you. Common example: "Go to that conference and meet some customers!" Maybe that works for other people, but it has a 0% chance of working for me. But there's a valuable core concept to that advice (go engage with new customers) that can perhaps be adjusted to a context I'm comfortable in. 3 // Cultivate relationships with strong potential cofounders long before you need them. You'll never be as quick on the draw in conversation as others, so you need the important relationships built ahead of time. For potential cofounders (the most important network available), the way to do that is by collaborating on small, time-constrained side projects. Allows both parties to evaluate what each other bring to table outside of an "urgent" situation, and without relying on quick talking. 4 // Don't let anyone press you into "right now" negotiations or decisions. Use live conversations to gather data, and then use your time alone to process it and come to a decision about next steps. Repeat if necessary. Nobody will give you this time by default, but nobody will deny it to you once you ask (and if they do, you probably shouldn't work with them anyway). There's probably more, that's just top of mind, but it's what feels important to my brain right now.
• shoto_io 5y ago
  Hey there! I am big fan. Thanks for the book. Just a tiny recommendation: Could you sync the Kindle book with the audible book? I love buying both and read the book while I am listening to it. That would be awesome!
• jwr 5y ago
  It's a great book. "The meeting went well" became a routinely used phrase in my circles :-) (read the book to understand what that really means!)
• tishha 5y ago
  Great idea! Thank you for the book
• kenjackson 5y ago
  Thank you for this. I did have one question about the Mom Test. How do you actually do solution validation? I get that you talk about the problem, but at what point do you actually get feedback if the solution that you want to build (or have built) is going to be a solution for the customer?
  • robfitz 5y ago
    If the problem is well-defined, you can get a fairly strong signal on intent-to-purchase by asking for commitments (i.e., time, reputation, money, or secrets about an enterprise buying process). You start with the smallest ones (weakest signal but easiest to ask for early) and then move up toward money (and eventually full price) as you make progress with the overall business. But if the problem is undefined/unknown (like much future tech), or if the product is a nice-to-have or "10x improvement" (like many B2C apps or UX improvements), then you basically have to validate via a prototype (or some other sort of creative v1). (You can still do your discovery/understanding via conversation in either case, of course.)
• yoaviram 5y ago
  Thank you Rob! I've been advising startups for many years now. I consider your book to be the only mandatory reading for a first time enrapture, ever since i picked it up about 5 years ago. I'm going to order another copy as I've given mind away, (again).
• gkkirilov 5y ago
  The summary is the pure love. Thank you!
• sharps_xp 5y ago
  Hey Rob, Please release that book on dating. Not that I'm interested in the topic, but I'm more interested in reading something entertaining.
  • robfitz 5y ago
    Haha oh man, when did I even publicly mention that? I doubt I'll ever release it as a book (since it needs a full rewrite and my enthusiasm for it was very tied to that moment in my life), but maybe a couple of the ideas will slip out eventually.
• cweill 5y ago
  Thank you for this book. It's the best book I read all year about figuring out if the thing you're building is a complete waste if time or actually solves a real need. I used its guidance at my big tech job when trying to build a new tool for researchers, and it helped me better understand how to understand what they need, iterate, and better tailor the sales pitch afterwards. Who would have thought that talking to customers is the single most valuable thing you can do!