Deck used as part of the Oxford Immersion program

1. THIS WEEK
Monday Afternoon Customer Development
Tuesday Morning Business Model Design
Tuesday Afternoon Investment
Thursday Morning Pitching
Thursday Afternoon Negotiation

2. NAMES

3. Learning Goals

4. There is no
One True Way

5. WHAT IS
CUSTOMER
DEVELOPMENT?

6. ONE DAY
A man wakes up, turns on the radio, goes upstairs,
turns on the light, and kills himself.
Why?

7. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebehnken/5343485804

8. LEARN
CONFIR
M

9. OBSERVE EXPERIMENT

10. DETECT ANALYSE

11. Do we
understand
them?
Do we have
the right
product?

14. Question
How much of what you
believe about your
customers is wrong?

15. Lying bastards.
Everybody will tell you what you want to hear,
especially if you want to hear it.

16. Pricing, tricks,
advisors, politics,
introductions.
Only available in pre-product conversations!

17. Getting actionable facts.

18. The burden of truth is on
the observer.

19. Dear son,
You are the best and your idea is
awesome. You should do it -
I will buy one.
Your Mom

20. Dear son,
I never understood why you
didn’t take that corporate job.
Your idea will fail. Go back to
school.
Your Mom

21. The Mom Test
Questions so good, even
your mom can’t lie to you.

22. Past
Because nobody can
predict the future.

23. Fact
Because opinions change.

24. Specific
Because generalities hide the truth.

25. The Mom Test
Past - Fact - Specific

26. https://www.flickr.com/photos/shoutsfromtheabyss/5340846422/

27. Good question
or bad question?

28. Is this something
you would buy?

29. Let’s apply
The Mom Test.

30. What are the
three rules?

31. Is this something
you would buy?

32. How do you currently
deal with this
problem?

33. How do you currently
deal with this
problem?

34. How can we improve this?

35. How have you dealt
with this problem?

36. When does this
problem pop up?

37. When does this
problem pop up?

38. We could still get an invented
answer.
Let’s fix this.

39. When has this
problem popped up?

40. What makes this go
off-track?

41. What makes this go
off-track?

42. This is great for finding opportunities
to help in outlying cases.
But it’s still too general.

43. Has this ever gone
off-track?

44. How much would you
pay for this?

45. How much would you
pay for this?

46. How much does this
problem cost you?

47. How much does this
problem cost you?

48. How much has this
problem cost you?

49. What’s your budget?

50. Customer Development
isn’t sales!

51. What’s your budget?

52. Talk about their
life, not your idea.
Rule Of Thumb

53. Please tell me how
you handle this.

54. Please tell me how
you handle this.

55. LEARN
CONFIR
M

56. OBSERVE EXPERIMENT

57. Please show me how
you do this.

58. Can I ask why?

59. Do we
understand
them?
Do we have
the right
product?

60. If you’re in the mindset of a learner,
trying to understand the customer,
you’re doing great!

61. Can I ask why?

62. Conversation is a skill,
not a process.

63. You’re already good at it -
you just don’t know it yet.
Just like you already speak French!

64. Softball
Questions
To get them talking. To start the momentum.

65. Softball Question
How’s it going
with… ?

66. What’s your softball question?
What words are natural for you? Write it down.

67. Let’s say you have a
travel booking app idea.
We want to learn about travel in
people’s lives.

68. Now try it!
One-minute conversations -
get the momentum going!

69. Signals
What to listen for.

70. Obstacles
Problems and friction
indicate areas where
we can help.

71. Goals tell us where we fit in
the bigger picture of their life.
Listen for -ly words, like
quickly, or cheaply.Goals

72. Actions give us a sense of if
they care enough to do
something, and if so, what
their options are.
Actions

73. Signals
Obstacles Goals Actions

74. Demo!
I’ll talk to one of you and
point out the signals I hear.
Did you catch them too?

75. Now try it!
Listen for signals.
Put your hands up
when you hear one.

76. Anchor
Questions
To explore a signal.

77. Anchor Question
Interesting. Tell
me more about
that.

78. Anchor Question
Can you help me
understand …?

79. Anchor Question
You can just raise your
eyebrows like you’re
surprised!

80. What’s your anchor question?
What words are natural for you? Write it down.

81. Now try it!
Direct the conversation towards a
signal you heard.

82. Recording The
Right Stuff.
Their words - not yours!
Pair up.

83. Now try it!
Write down what you hear.

84. Making decisions.
The trick to making decisions as a team is
to share insight, then decide together.

85. Now try it!
Put your sheets down on the table.
Point to phrases you don’t understand
and ask the interviewer to explain
what was going on.

86. Rule of Thumb
Direct conversations to
specific, past, events,
not general current or
future.

88. Compliments Are
Not Signals.

89. Sounds great.
I love it!

90. Sounds great. I
love it!

91. Brilliant -- let me
know when it
launches!

92. Brilliant -- let me
know when it
launches!

93. Compliments?
Stalling tactic?
They don’t care.
:(

94. There are a couple
people I can intro you
to, when you’re ready.

95. Partial commitment?

96. Validate by going for
full commitment.

97. I would definitely
buy that!

98. Your Mom
Is this something
you would buy?

99. Rule of Thumb
Advancement to the
next step is a signal you
are ready to Confirm.

100. Advancements
Time
Money
Reputation

101. Facts
Commitmen
t

102. Learn Confirm
2 stages of learning

103. @saintsal
@lvelev
Thank you!