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Comment by iovrthoughtthis | Hacker News Reader

I say it every time, to every founding team I meet.

Read “The Mum Test”[1]. It will make you aware that you to get unbiased feedback you need to remove your identity from the idea so that people aren’t nice to protect you.

[1] http://momtestbook.com/

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Removing your identity is incredibly helpful. The last time I did this from scratch, we didn't have our company name on the door. We were doing a consumer-focused product, so we told all our early test users that we were doing market research. Eventually a significant percentage of test subjects figured out that one of the products discussed was ours, because most of the later questions focused on it. But that was after we got their honest, early reactions.

Basically, if you want to find out whether you're baby's ugly, you have to make sure people think the photos are of a baby, not your baby.

I also keep recommending this book to everyone. The TL;DR is: NEVER ask questions about hypotheticals. Ask people about what they do, how much they pay, how much time it takes, and so on. Facts, not answers to "Would you use this if...?"

Indeed! One of the things I found frustrating about the article is that he talks about people 'lying' constantly... when if fact he had just asked meaningless questions.

He used the word lying. They didn't know they were lying.

They were miswanting. And it's a HUGE glossed over fact when talking to customers.

Yes, it's the customer development version of the XY problem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem

Interestingly enough, that’s also a principle of behavioral interviewing. Hypothetical questions allow the bullshitters to shine, but specific targeted lines of question about what the interviewee did in a specific situation is frequently enlightening.

For a technical sales job, I would have people do a role play about suggesting a technology. They’d always start saying “I would tell them about...” and I’d pause and ask them to tell me the thing, not talk about telling me.

My point is that I believe hypotheticals take a lot pressure off and allow you to be super vague in interviews. For the past, talk about real situations. For the present, do a role play.

Can’t recommend this book highly enough.

Unfortunately I only read it after making all the mistakes it lists - but I know from personal experience that everything it says is correct.

thank you. Skimming through this now and seeing how clearly it maps to recent conversations we've had that have turned into customers vs conversations we thought would and never did

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