day thirty three
Book review: The Mom Test by Robert Fitzpatrick
Recommended reading for my Nu School summer program, this book redefined my perspective on my own projects. You see, as an engineer at my core, my first instinct has always been to open an IDE and see how I can fix the problem. WRONG!
This book provides an excellent framework that everyone can utilize to interview users. A lot of times, we tend to ask bad questions: – “Do you think this product is a good idea?” – “Would you pay X for a product that does Y?”
These are examples of questions that WILL make people lie to you, because they don't want to hurt your feelings. This book leads you away from fluff, compliments, and mere annoyances to facts, data, and real world user problems.
It's written in a dry, real style. It gives advice so practical that you could read this book and go off and ask questions.
“It boils down to this: 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.”