## Three types of bad data - Compliments - Fluff (generics, hypotheticals, and the future) - Ideas (and opinions) ## How bad data happens - Asking the wrong [[Questions]] - Conversation going off track - You got excited and started pitching (ngl that’s me) - Conversation is stuck in hypothetical land # How to deal with bad data ## Deflecting Compliments Most compliments are people lying, being polite, protecting feelings, etc. With exception of industry experts who have built very similar businesses, opinions are worthless. You want facts and commitments, not compliments. If a VC’s job is to understand markets and companies and they’re wrong more than half the time, how can a random customer know what’s a good/bad idea? If you take a compliment at face value, you end up getting [[false positives]] and you’ll find yourself 6 months down the road wondering why you have no customers. **Compliments are the fool’s gold of customer learning: shiny, distracting, and worthless.** ### Symptoms You’ll say things like: - Thanks (in meeting) - I’m glad you like it (in meeting) - That meeting went really well - We’re getting a lot of positive feedback - Everybody I’ve talked to loves the idea These are all warning signs. ## Solution When you receive a compliment, deflect it and ask something that gets you to the real facts. Try to figure out why the person liked the idea, how much money would it save them? How does it fit into their life? What else have they tried? If you don’t have an answer to these, you got a compliment instead of real data. # Anchoring Fluff ## Symptoms Fluff comes in 3 shapes - Generic claims - ”I usually” - “I always” - “I never” - Future-tense promises - “I would” - “I will” - Hypothetical maybes - “I might” - “I could” - “I would definitely buy that” ## Solution Ask them a mom-test question to anchor them back to real facts. - What happened the last time this happened? What else did you try? Etc. - Don’t believe any future claims until you see it happen and the money is in the bank. Remember, people are wildly optimistic about what they would do in the future. Always try to bring them back to real experiences and real events. ## Avoid listening to answers from these questions - “Would you ever…” - “Do you ever….” - “Do you think you….” - “What do you usually…” - “Could you see yourself…” - “Might you…” **”While using generics, people describe themselves as who they want to be, not who they actually are. You need to get specific to bring out the edge cases.”** # Digging beneath ideas It’s important to distinguish between feature lists people give you, and an actual important thing your startup should focus their development time on. Lying behind a user’s feature request is something they actually want, and more often or not it’s not the same as the thing that they’re asking for. Asking mom test questions can get you to their real motivations and can lead you to what you actually should be building instead of wasting time on things that don’t really matter. **When you hear a request, your job is to dig to understand the motivations which lead to it - the root cause.** Feature requests are actually a lot like emotions, there’s always some underlying root reason for them that are detached from the downstream state. ## Questions to dig into feature requests: - Why do you want that? - What would that let you do? - How are you coping without it? - Do you think we should push back the launch to add that feature or is it something we could add later? - How would that fit into your day? ## Questions to dig into emotional signals: - “Tell me more about that” - “That seems to really bug you - i bet there’s a story here” - “What makes it so awful” - “Why haven’t you been able to fix this already?” - “You seem pretty excited about that - it’s a big deal?” - “Why so happy?” - “Go on” Digging into a signal is giving them permission to do a brain dump. **Ideas and feature requests should be understood, but not obeyed.** # Avoiding approval seeking Don’t try to fish for compliments on your idea or your products from your customer. If you feel this way, you’re basically hiding from contradictory information, and you’ve already made up your mind on what you think will work. ## Symptoms of compliment fishing - “I’m thinking of starting a business… do you think this will work?” - “I had an awesome idea for an app, do you like it?” ## Accidentally asking for approval Also known as ”The Pathos Problem” Happens when you tell someone an idea you care about - people can sense it on you and even if you ask for honest criticism they’ll still pull their punches. ### Pathos problem symptoms - “So here’s the top secret project I quit my job for.. what do you think?” - “I can take it - be honest and tell me what you really think!” ### Pathos problem solutions - Keep the conversation focused on the other person - Ask specific questions and for concrete cases and examples of things - DO NOT let anyone detect that your ego is on the line for any specific answer, or for them to feel like you want them to lean in one direction or another - Remember that compliments are worthless and people’s approval doesn’t make your business better - Keep your ego out of the convo until you’re willing to ask for real commitments **If you’ve mentioned your idea, people will try to protect your feelings** # Cut off pitches Don’t try to pitch your shit to people - it comes off as annoying and a forced way to farm compliments. ## Symptoms - “Yes but it also does X Y Z!” - “No, I don’t think you get it…” If you go into pitch mode, apologize and move on, and say something like “Whoops, I just slipped into pitch mode. Sorry about that - I get excited about things! Can we jump back to what you were saying about _ ?” If they’re really interested in what you’re working on, you can promise to tell them after the meeting. **Anyone will say your idea is great if you’re annoying enough about it** # Talk less People will generally talk themselves into what they care about eventually, so shutting up and letting them talk is a good tactic. Don’t ever interrupt them to fix their assumptions about your product, or anything similar. Customers talking to you is them allowing you to gleam insights into their mental model of the world - losing that learning is a shame. You’ll always have the opportunity to fill them in on things later on. **The more you’re talking, the worse you’re doing.**