Essay

Customer Interviews: Advanced Techniques

Aakash Gupta Freemium Intermediate

Gupta names the Mom Test problem directly, that people in interviews behave like your mom and unconsciously lie to keep you happy, and pairs it with concrete fixes like using visual prototypes to surface real objections instead of polite ones. It is a good next step once you have the basics down and want sharper techniques for a conversation you know will be biased.

  • Leading questions like do not you think this is easier will always get you a biased answer
  • Showing a prototype instead of describing an idea makes it easier for people to object honestly
  • Deliberately include current, potential, and churned users, not just people who already like you
Open on news.aakashg.com ↗

It answers 3 questions

  1. How do I get honest answers when the person I'm interviewing is a friend or someone in my network?
  2. How do I run good discovery calls in India when the person keeps saying yes to be polite but never converts?
  3. What are the questions that quietly ruin an interview by leading the person to the answer I want?

Read with it

  1. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  2. Video · ~20 min How to do customer interviews? | Rob Fitzpatrick, author of "The Mom Test" Rob Fitzpatrick
  3. The cleanest distillation of the one framework that turns a customer chat into a relationship instead of a survey. The three... Sachin Rekhi's Blog Article · 10 min read A Primer on Talking to Customers From Rob Fitzpatrick's The Mom Test Sachin Rekhi
  4. A deep conversation on why direct questions fail and how story-based interviews surface real behaviour. Torres names the common... Lenny's Newsletter Podcast · ~75 min Teresa Torres on how to interview customers Lenny Rachitsky and Teresa Torres
  5. A YC partner turns 'talk to users' into a repeatable 5-question interview script you can use this afternoon. It's The Mom Test... YC Startup Library Video · ~25 min How to Talk to Users Eric Migicovsky (YC / founder of Pebble)
  6. The definitive essay on where good ideas come from: notice problems you personally have, don't force it. Use it as the lens for... paulgraham.com Essay · ~20 min read How to Get Startup Ideas Paul Graham
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