Effective customer conversations

If you are building a company, working through a business idea, or building product features, it is likely that you are talking to potential customers. A few weeks ago, I was seeking startup advice from Jonathan Anderson, who runs Candu.ai, and one of the things he asked me to do was to read ‘The Mom Test’ to become adept at talking to customers. Now, talking to customers may not be rocket science, but it can be considerable time and value sink. Asking insightful questions from potential customers can be the bedrock of a category-defining company and asking such questions as “would you ever buy a product with XYZ feature” can plunder millions of dollars and several months.

Having access to all the time in the world during my thirty-day vacation, I went through ‘The Mom Test’ and found it to be short, compelling, and actionable. It has numerous DOs and DONT’s on how to talk to potential customers and general nuggets of wisdom.

Not writing the laundry list here because you will get the trend

Bad data gives false negatives and false positives. You need to deflect compliments, fluff, and ideas to get the conversation back on track. Facts and commitments are useful

Option 1: You go to customers (cold outreach). Option 2: Customers come to you (landing pages, etc.)

Meeting framing format: (VFWPA — Vision Framing Weakness Pedestal Ask)

Startups don’t starve; they drown (too many ideas)

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