Customers & Research

As a solo technical founder, how much time should I really spend understanding the job before writing any code?

A starting point

Enough to talk to ten or fifteen people, which is days, not months, and far less than the time you'll waste building the wrong thing. The technical founder's specific risk is retreating into code because building feels productive while interviews feel awkward. As a starting point, cap the research at a week or two, but don't let "I'm an engineer" be the excuse for skipping it entirely.

Go deeper

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time.

3 resources 3 link-checked Watch Read

Watch

▶️ Video
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it When you are new to a space, your instinct is to explain your idea and hope people nod, which teaches you nothing. This YC talk is a concrete guide to running discovery interviews the right way: extract data from the person instead of pitching, and use a small set of questions that work in any industry, including one you are still learning. It pairs well with The Mom Test as the applied version you can watch before your next call.

How to Talk to Users

On Y Combinator (Startup School) by Eric Migicovsky ~25 min

How to Talk to Users
  • The interview is to extract data, not to sell: stop talking about your idea and let them talk about their problem.
  • Skip hypothetical questions (would you use this) and ask what they have actually done to solve the problem today.
  • A handful of questions works across any industry, so you can start interviewing before you are an expert in the space.
Watch on YouTube youtube.com →

Read

✍️ Essay
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it The canonical primary source on the mindset shift before you start up, Graham's Stanford lecture directly addresses whether you need startup expertise and why the leap is more counterintuitive than it looks. Essential reading before you quit anything.

Before the Startup

From paulgraham.com by Paul Graham ~6,000 words

  • You don't need expertise in startups; you need expertise in your users, make something people want.
  • Startups will take over your life to a degree you cannot imagine, so go in eyes open, not romanticized.
  • The best ideas grow organically from being at the frontier of a field you already know, not from brainstorming 'a startup.'
  • Trust your instincts about people, but distrust them about startup mechanics, the whole thing is counterintuitive.
Open paulgraham.com →
📖 Book
✓ Link checked Paid Beginner

Why we picked it The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past behaviour, not your idea, so you can't be lied to. If a founder reads one thing before talking to a single customer, it's this.

The Mom Test

From momtestbook.com by Rob Fitzpatrick ~130 pages

  • Talk about their life, not your idea.
  • Ask about specifics in the past, not opinions about the future.
  • 'That's so cool, I'd totally buy it' is a compliment, not data, dig for commitment and evidence.
Open momtestbook.com →

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