The Mom Test, chapter 1

As I mentioned in my previous post, this is a terrific book about user research. I’ve read it once before, and now I’m going through it again, much more slowly and carefully, and trying to apply the principles as I develop my Get In Touch app.

(Note: the title has nothing to do with the gendered stereotype that people’s moms are technologically illiterate.)

The gist of this book is that most people have been going about user research and problem discovery the wrong way. Namely, by telling people, “I’m building an app. What do you think about this idea?” At which point people are very unlikely to tell you their honest opinion, because they don’t want to hurt your feelings.

Instead, Fitzpatrick recommends asking people about what they think about your idea, without revealing that it’s your idea. So if you’re developing, say, a hypothetical app that helps you stay in touch with your friends, you would say to someone, “Hey, I heard someone suggesting they use some sort of online system to keep track of their contacts. I wasn’t sure whether I liked the idea or not. What do you think?” Or, “How do you keep in touch with your friends? I always feel like I do a bad job of it.”

The point is to get their thoughts about something before they think your ego might be involved.

The chapter has a lot of Do’s and Don’t’s vis-a-vis getting feedback from potential users. I’ve talked to some friends already about what features they want, but I’m not sure I’ve incorporated these lessons very well. I’m going to make a spreadsheet of people who have expressed interest, and go through them to learn what they want out of an app like Get In Touch. I’ll start with my Kickstarter supporters.

I’ll have difficulty applying some of the lessons with my friends, since almost all of my friends know I’m working on Get In Touch. But a lot of the lessons will still apply; I’ll just have to work hard to prevent friends from thinking my ego is on the line. I’ll emphasize that I’m in the discovery phase, and am very open to exploring different directions — they should tell me what they actually want. If they act interested, I’ll tell them that in a month or so I’ll have a premium version, and would they like to sign up for $10/month? No? Well, what would an app have to do for you to be willing to pay that?

One of my favorite points was to ask specific “when” questions. Rather than “do you ever buy smartphone apps”, ask “When was the last time you paid for a smartphone app?” People’s are sometimes better at remembering their past than forecasting their future.

Be especially attuned to disinterest (or merely mild interest) from the user. As a founder who’s excited about my idea, it will be easy for me to not notice that, and barge ahead.

Fitzpatrick advises that you identify the parts of your product hypothesis that you’re least confident about, and ask questions about those parts. Here’s how I’d describe my product hypothesis:

1. People feel they aren’t doing a good job of keeping up with their friends and relatives. They want to do better at this.
2. Given the right tool, people will actually put some time and effort into keeping up with their friends.
3. I’m capable of building a tool people will want to use.
4. I can market the tool effectively so lots of people start using the tool.

I’m very confident in #1. Over and over again, people tell me how they wish they kept up with their friends more.

I have some evidence, and also some doubts, about #2. I think many people who wish they were in better touch with their friends would like it to happen magically, but are not very motivated to change their habits much. On the other hand, some people already do put time and effort into organizing their contacts, and they feel that the tools available aren’t very good. So:

• I should probe this point more deeply. Who is and isn’t willing to take action? What would motivate people to take action?
• Can I focus on the people who are already spending time/energy/money on this? How can I find these people?
• For people who won’t take much effort, are there things they’re already doing that they don’t like doing? If my tool actually reduces their effort, they might start using it (though switching to a new tool requires some up-front effort).

For #3, I’m very confident in my technical abilities to build a tool. I don’t have as much evidence of my abilities as a visual and UX designer. But I might have trouble answering this question in user interviews; I think I’ll just need to get a version of the product in front of people so I can see how they use it.

#4 is very shaky. The central premise of this blog is that I’m bad at marketing. But I’m going to get good at it through this project, so I’m not too worried about this one for now. (And it’s not something users can answer for me very well, anyway.)

Speaking of hypotheses, mine is pretty broad. If I start with a very generic hypothesis like “people have trouble staying in touch with their friends; my app will help them stay in touch better”, then it will be hard to know whom to target, how much to charge, etc.

To help me learn more, I’ll come up with sub-hypotheses based on more specific combinations:

• “Poly people need help coordinating with their polycules.”
• “Recent college graduates need help keeping up with their college friends who now live in different cities.”
• “Older people need help remembering who to stay in touch with.”
• “Executives and salespeople have a very high ratio of the people they’d like to stay in touch with relative to the amount of time they can spend keeping in touch, so they’d like something that makes them very efficient.”

And then I can reach out to members of those groups and find out if my targeted hypotheses are correct.