Mom test:
- talk about their life, not your idea
- ask specific in the past, not generic/opinions on the future
- ask facts not opinions - based on the past. How you currently solve X. How much you currently pay. How much time does X take?
- Understand intent - why do you bother with X?
- Understand impact - what are the the implications of that?
- Talk me through the last time that happened?
- What else have you tried?
- Do they care enough to solve the problem?
- How are you dealing with it now?
- Where does the money come from?
- Anything else i should have asked?
- Who else should i talk to?
- Get committment or advancement to prove value (time/cash/reputation)
- Meetings - always have an idea of what happens next
Questions to dig r.e. feature requests (pg32)
- why do you want that?
- what would that let you do?
- how are you coping without it?
- do you think we should push back the launch to add that feature, or is it something we could add later?
- how would that fit into your day?
Questions to dig r.e. emotional signals (pg33)
- tell me more about that
- that seems to really bug you - i bet there’s a story here
- what makes it so awful
- why haven’t you been able to fix this already?
- you seem pretty excited about that - it’s a big deal?
- why so happy?
- go on?
Questions to dig r.e. does this problem matter? (pg50)
- how seriously do you take your blog?
- do you make money from it?
- have you tried making more money from it?
- how much time do you spend on it each week?
- do you have any major aspirations for your blog?
- which tools and services do you use for it?
- what are you already doing to improve this?
- what are the 3 big things you are trying to fix or improve right now?