Rob Fitzpatrick > Quotes

“Every time you talk to someone, you should be asking at least one question which has the potential to destroy your currently imagined business.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Rule of thumb: People stop lying when you ask them for money.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“The framing format I like has five key elements. You’re an entrepreneur trying to solve horrible problem X, usher in wonderful vision Y, or fix stagnant industry Z. Don’t mention your idea. Frame expectations by mentioning what stage you’re at and, if it’s true, that you don’t have anything to sell. Show weakness and give them a chance to help by mentioning the specific problem that you’re looking for answers on. This will also clarify that you’re not a time waster. Put them on a pedestal by showing how much they, in particular, can help. Explicitly ask for help. Or, in shorter form: Vision / Framing / Weakness / Pedestal / Ask”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“The Mom Test:
1. Talk about their life instead of your idea
2. Ask about specifics in the past instead of generics or opinions about the future
3. Talk less and listen more”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“When you hear a request, it’s your job to understand the motivations which led to it. You do that by digging around the question to find the root cause. Why do they bother doing it this way? Why do they want the feature? How are they currently coping without the feature? Dig.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Don’t spend a week prepping for meetings; spend an hour and then go talk to people. Anything more is stalling. Don’t spend months doing full-time customer conversations before beginning to move on a product. Spend a week, maybe two. Get your bearings and then give them something to commit to.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Regla de oro: la gente sabe cuáles son sus problemas pero no suele saber cómo resolverlos.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, El Mom Test: Cómo mantener conversaciones con tus clientes y validar tu idea de negocio cuando todos te mienten.

“Regla de oro: todo lo que involucre un condicional o un futuro hipotético tiene muchas probabilidades de ser demasiado optimista y, por lo tanto, una mentira.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, El Mom Test: Cómo mantener conversaciones con tus clientes y validar tu idea de negocio cuando todos te mienten.

“As perguntas a serem feitas são sobre a vida dos clientes: seus problemas, interesses, restrições e objetivos.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, O Teste da Mãe: Como conversar com clientes e descobrir se sua ideia é boa, mesmo com todos mentindo para você

“First, your early drafts are supposed to be terrible. Every first draft is a dumpster fire.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, Write Useful Books: A modern approach to designing and refining recommendable nonfiction

“Regla de oro: las opiniones no valen nada.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, El Mom Test: Cómo mantener conversaciones con tus clientes y validar tu idea de negocio cuando todos te mienten.

“Eternity will forgive our earthly blunders. Everyone loves an entrepreneur. After all, you’re putting it on the line to try and make their lives better.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Willpower is a finite resource. The way to overcome difficult situations isn't to power through, but rather to change your circumstances to require less willpower. Changing the context of the meeting to "looking for advisors" is the equivalent of throwing out all your chocolate when you start a diet. You change the environment to naturally facilitate your goals.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Rule of thumb: Learning about a customer and their problems works better as a quick and casual chat than a long, formal meeting.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“They say that startups don’t starve, they drown. You never have too few options, too few leads, or too few ideas; you have too many. You get overwhelmed. You do a little bit of everything. When it comes to getting above water and making faster progress, good customer segmentation is your best friend.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Here’s the thing: only the market can tell if your idea is good. Everything else is just opinion.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“every chapter that the amateur adores, the expert endures, and vice versa.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, Write Useful Books: A modern approach to designing and refining recommendable nonfiction

“Pregunta cómo están resolviendo X actualmente, cuánto les cuesta hacerlo y cuánto tiempo les toma. Pídeles que te hablen de la última vez que les sucedió X. Si no han resuelto el problema, pregunta las razones. ¿Han intentado buscar otras soluciones? ¿Sí? ¿No? ¿Las han encontrado? ¿O ni siquiera se han molestado en buscar en Google?”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, El Mom Test: Cómo mantener conversaciones con tus clientes y validar tu idea de negocio cuando todos te mienten.

“Throughout the writing process, maintain a separate “cutting room floor” document to paste and preserve all the chapters and sections that you cut from the main manuscript. It’s not wasted work; it’s part of the process, and those deleted bits will often reappear later as part of your content marketing.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, Write Useful Books: A modern approach to designing and refining recommendable nonfiction

“Our misguided entrepreneur has a few more conversations like this, becomes increasingly convinced he’s right, quits his job, and sinks his savings into the app. Then he wonders why nobody (even his mom) buys the app, especially since he had been so rigorous.

Doing it wrong is worse than doing nothing at all. When you know you’re clueless, you tend to be careful. But collecting a fistful of false positives is like convincing a drunk he’s sober: not an improvement.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Rule of thumb: Keep having conversations until you stop hearing new stuff.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Compliments are the fool’s gold of customer learning: shiny, distracting, and worthless.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“The measure of usefulness of an early customer conversation is whether it gives us concrete facts about customer’s lives and world views”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Compliments are the fool’s gold of customer learning: shiny, distracting, and entirely worthless.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Con algo tan sencillo como evitar mencionar nuestra idea al inicio de la conversación, empezaremos a formular mejores preguntas de manera natural. Este truco es el más fácil de implementar (y también el más importante) para mejorar nuestras conversaciones con clientes.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, El Mom Test: Cómo mantener conversaciones con tus clientes y validar tu idea de negocio cuando todos te mienten.

“Learning that your beliefs are wrong is frustrating, but it’s progress. It’s bringing you ever closer to the truth of a real problem and a good market. The worst thing you can do is ignore the bad news while searching for some tiny grain of validation to celebrate. You want the truth, not a gold star.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Rule of thumb: Opinions are worthless.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Habla acerca de sus vidas y de ellos en lugar de hablar de tu idea y de ti”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, El Mom Test: Cómo mantener conversaciones con tus clientes y validar tu idea de negocio cuando todos te mienten.

“Regla de oro: observar a alguien realizar una tarea te va a mostrar dónde está el problema y qué deficiencias presenta la solución existente, no aquellas que la persona cree que tiene.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, El Mom Test: Cómo mantener conversaciones con tus clientes y validar tu idea de negocio cuando todos te mienten.

“Regla de oro: hasta que no entiendas las metas y motivaciones de tus clientes, estarás disparando a ciegas.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, El Mom Test: Cómo mantener conversaciones con tus clientes y validar tu idea de negocio cuando todos te mienten.