Talking to potential customers (and the right [[Customer Segments|Customer segment]]) is a skill that you can develop. [[Customer learning]] is essential for guiding the way your product develops (and if you even have a real product at all). You should view it as a **tool** instead of just a task to mark off a checklist. If you’re not going to do it properly, it’s just going to waste time and you shouldn’t bother with it at all. ## Purpose - Gain concrete facts about our customer’s lives and world views - Build something that people actually want to buy. - You don’t need to end up with what you wanted to hear in order to have a good conversation. You just need the truth. - **You aren’t allowed to tell them what their problem is, and in return, they aren’t allowed to tell you what to build. They own the problem, you own the solution.** ## Warning signs you’re just going through the motions - You’re talking more than they are - They are complimenting you or your idea - You told them about your idea and don’t have next steps - You don’t have notes (see [[Customer learning]] on how to take notes) - You haven’t looked through your notes with your team - You got an unexpected answer and it didn’t change your idea - You weren’t scared of any of the questions you asked - You aren’t sure what you’re trying to learn in this conversation See [[Customer learning]] for more on how to make sure you’re actually learning and benefiting from the process. ## When done wrong - Can feel like you’re either forcing the customer to say nice things about your product, or on the other side of things, afraid of the customer - We build things that nobody wants - Can lead you down the wrong path due to misinformation ([[bad data]]) - Can be worse than not talking to anyone in the first place ([[false positives]]) ## Conversations with customers - Easy to screw up - Are bad by default, and it’s your job to fix them ## How long should conversations be? Early convos are pretty short, especially if you’re trying to validate a problem. 5 minutes is usually more than enough for that. They might get a bit more length as you get more and more niche into their life. You can usually get what you came for in 10-15 minutes. Once you have a product and the meetings is more sales-y it can take a bit longer. ## Mom test method This method revolves around not really mentioning your idea to the person. If you have a conversation with someone and they know your idea, they’ll want to be polite and you’re more likely to run into false positive signals, which is worse than having no information at all. The mom test method removes that possibility by talking specifically about them, and not even mentioning your idea. They can’t hurt your feelings if they don’t know what your position is in the first place. 1. Talk about their life instead of your idea 2. Ask about specifics in the past instead of generics or opinions about the future 3. Talk less and listen more Give as little information as possible about your idea while still nudging the discussion in a useful direction. ## Making an excuse to talk Sometimes it can be hard to get your foot in the door and talk to people… so that’s when you can use an excuse. **Important: When you use an excuse to talk to someone, it can’t turn into a sales or pitch meeting otherwise it destroys trust. Treat the conversation like a throwaway and just a pleasant learning opportunity** If you need to talk to owners of cafe, make up a story of how you want to understand how the coffee beans came to be, or maybe you’re writing a book, or you’re a PHD student that needs to do research. Find an excuse to chat, and leave it there. If it’s a topic you both care about, find an excuse to talk about it. Your idea never needs to enter the equation and you’ll both enjoy the chat. ## Talking to the wrong people Talking to the wrong people can lead to [[bad data]] and [[false positives]] ## How to find people - If you have a proper [[Customer Segments|Customer segment]] and did [[Customer Slicing]] correctly, you should know where to find them - Otherwise, look at [[Finding leads]] ### How to know if you’re talking to the wrong people 1. You have too-broad of a [[Customer Segments|Customer segment]] and are talking to everyone 2. You have multiple customer segments and missed some of them 3. You are selling to businesses with a complicated buying process and have overlooked some of the stakeholders ## What to do with the information post-talk See [[Customer learning]]. ## Who should show up? 2 people on your side works best - one to talk, one to take notes. Everyone in a company should be involved in customer conversations at some level. If you’re the note taker and notice missed signals or bad questions, don’t feel bad about jumping in and correcting them. Solo is fine, Duo is optimal, but Trio+ is overwhelming for the person being talked to. **You can’t outsource or hire someone to do [[Customer learning]].**