Comment by irjustin | Hacker News Reader

Comment by irjustin | Hacker News Reader

Fantastic post. Lots of weight on the problem discovery area which is the right move and engineers turned entrepreneurs skip this step a lot. I know I did.

A book recommended by YC's Aaron Epstein is The Mom Test[0]. The first 50-60% of the book is dedicated to how to discover problems with end clients/users that are worth tackling.

I have used the techniques personally and it's great to see what users say is a huge problem vs a problem they're willing to pay for.

It is easy to get stuck in a self-fulfilling trap that a user complains is a big problem. I recently spoke with a customer:

- "What's your biggest problem?" (book says this question is a no no)

- He replies, "If I sell 3 cars at the same time, I'm out of available float (cash) while I wait for those deals to close. This is a HUGE problem for me!"

- "How do you solve this today?" I ask.

- "I have other, larger car sales company who will lend me money at XX rates."

Right there, it's a solved problem. The end user figured out their own way. Turns out other smaller dealers like him rely on large trade line companies.

The only way I could complete is either on lower cost of financing or speed. At which point, for me, it's not a problem worth solving. The problem isn't so big for him where he's willing to throw cash at me for it.

Talk to users.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Mom-Test-customers-business-everyone-...

I loved the mom test so much, I created a summary slide deck. I used the content in every seminar and talk on Entrepreneurship.

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/xamde/summary-of-the-mom-t...

I'm also a huge fan of the Mom Test!

In your specific customer interview, I would probe deeper. For most real problems people have, they've hacked together a makeshift solution. It may work, but it doesn't mean it works well. It doesn't mean the problem is solved.

I would ask "how is it like working with this larger company?". If you have any specific pain points working with larger companies that you've seen, I'd ask "how do you deal with pain point X?"

I doubt someone would say something is their biggest problem if they have a great solution for it!

> A book recommended by YC's Aaron Epstein is The Mom Test[0]. The first 50-60% of the book is dedicated to how to discover problems with end clients/users that are worth tackling.

I can't recommend this book enough. It lists every single mistake I ever made and every lesson I learned in doing so.

The only problem is that I discovered the book after making those mistakes and learning all those lessons.

Of course, following the advice in the book won't guarantee a successful business. But I'm 99% sure that NOT following it is a sure-fire recipe for failure.

Seconding this. Mom test is an essential read. People will say positive things about your product in order to protect your feelings, and this can lead you along the wrong path. When you ask them to purchase though, the conversation becomes really clear.

This book is incredibly helpful - I just wish they'd do a follow up book around how you interview users on your product once it exists.

I guess the same principle applies "tell me about a new feature you want for our product... Did you actually try to find a workaround? No" *X probably isn't a feature we should prioritize top then

I'd love to see more examples of ways to get good existing product feedback.

I found out about the Kano method about a year ago and have been using it professionally since (when appropriate).

It's a great way of discovering customer attitudes towards product features.

Forgive the plug, but I liked Kano so much that I wrote a free tool to create, conduct and analyze Kano surveys at https://kanochart.com

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