PROBLEM: I have assumptions about my customer's problem, but I haven't tested them with real people.
To be sure a problem is worth your time and resources, you must speak to real people exoeriencibg the problem
Step 5: Customer Discovery
So far, you’ve been working with hypotheses.
You think you know:
What problem people have
Why they care about it
What they experience
What progress they’re trying to make
But you don’t know it for sure yet. The only way to find out is to talk to the people experiencing the problem.
The Evunn Mindset Shift
From What I Believe → What I Can Learn
Don’t ask customers to confirm your idea. Don’t try to convince them that your solution is valuable.
Instead ask:
“What can I learn from their real experiences?”
Your goal isn’t to hear yes, I’d buy that. Your goal is to discover what is actually true.
To find out if the problem is real from people with the problem, use Book 5. Title: Mom Test
Author: Rob Fitzpatrick
Time Investment: 5+ hours (Audiobook)
Listen to audiobook on Libro | Buy at the Bookshop
The Big Idea from Mom Test
Good customer conversations don’t ask people to predict what they might do. They uncover what people have actually experienced and done.
Instead of saying would you pay for help getting more clients?
Ask: Tell me about the last time you struggled to get clients.
The first question produces opinions. The second produces evidence.
What Does This Book Help You Do?
The Mom Test helps you:
Avoid leading questions
Ask about real experiences
Separate facts from opinions
Identify genuine problems
Recognize weak or misleading feedback
Keep conversations focused on learning
Avoid falling in love with your idea
Should I Read It Now?
Yes. You’ve developed hypotheses. Now you need to test them without accidentally steering people toward the answers you want.
Your objective is simple:
Learn what happened, not what people think might happen.
Which Chapters Matter Most to me at this stage? Focus on these sections:
1.The Mom Test (Essential)
Learn the core principles for having useful customer conversations.
2. Avoiding Bad Data (Essential)
Know how to to recognize unreliable feedback, compliments and hypothetical answers.
3. Asking Important Questions (Essential)
Learn how to ask questions that uncover meaningful information.
4. Keeping It Casual (Essential)
Find out how to have natural conversations rather than formal interrogations.
5. Commitment And Advancement (Essential)
Learn how to distinguish polite interest from genuine commitment.
6. Finding Conversations (Recommended)
Learn how to find people to speak with.
7. Choosing Your Customers (Recommended)
Learn who you should actually be talking to.
8. Running The Process (Essential)
Learn how to turn customer conversations into an ongoing discovery process.
Introduction and Conclusion/Cheatsheet:
Skim for context and review.
Supporting Book: Talking to Humans
Author: Giff Constable
Time Investment: 5+ hours (Audiobook)
Listen to the Audiobook with Audible free trial |Buy on Amazon
The Mom Test teaches you how to have better customer conversations. Talking to Humans helps you run the customer discovery process.
It provides practical guidance for:
Deciding who you need to learn from
Defining what you want to learn
Finding interview subjects
Conducting effective sessions
Making sense of what you discover
Avoiding common customer-discovery mistakes
Think of it this way:
The Mom Test → How to ask and listen
Talking To Humans → How to organize and execute the discovery process
Which Parts of Talking to Humans Should You Focus On? Focus on these:
1. Getting Started With Customer Discovery. Understand the purpose and process.
2. Who Do You Want To Learn From? Define the people you need to speak with.
3. What Do You Want To Learn? Turn your hypotheses into learning objectives.
4. How Do You Find Your Interview Subjects? Learn how to find appropriate people to speak with.
5.:How To Ensure An Effective Session? Prepare for and conduct useful conversations.
6. How Do You Make Sense Of What You Learn? Learn how to organize and interpret what you discover.
7. Screwing Up Customer Discovery. Review common mistakes before you make them.
The remaining sections are optional.
Your Step 5 Outcome
By the end of this step, you should have:
Conducted conversations with 10 people who actually experience your potential problem
Evidence about whether the problem exists in the way you expected
Real examples of the customer’s experiences
Evidence of what they currently do to deal with it
Evidence of the consequences of the problem
Evidence of what they have already tried
A clearer understanding of which assumptions were supported, challenged or disproved
This is a critical milestone.
You are no longer relying entirely on what you think customers need.
You now have evidence from real people.
But you may discover something uncomfortable:
Not every problem you investigated deserves to become a business.
Some may be painful but rarely acted upon. Some may be important but poorly suited to your expertise.
Some may have stronger evidence than others.
That’s why the next step is about choosing what deserves your attention.
🔒 Ready To Run Your Customer Discovery?
Reading about customer interviews won’t give you the evidence.
You need to plan the conversations, recruit the right people, ask the right questions and capture what you learn.
The EVUNN Customer Discovery Interview Kit helps you do exactly that.
It gives you a structured system for:
Recruiting → Preparing → Interviewing → Recording → Analyzing → Learning
One Payment. For All EVUNN Stage 1 toolkits.
What Should I Learn Next?
You’ve now investigated your potential problems with real people. You discovered more than one problem worth pursuing in step 1.
The question is no longer: What problems exist?
It’s which problem deserves my attention first to build a busibess around?
Step 6: Problem Prioritization
You’ll learn how to evaluate your evidence and choose the problem with the strongest business potential to build a profitable business around
That takes you from:
Assumptions → Evidence → Priorities
