Item 10: Read The Mom Test

This item is admittedly a bit of a cop-out, but I am including it because it has been one of the most helpful things I've done when it comes to understanding what potential stakeholders actually want:

Read the book The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick. It is a quick, easy, well-written read, and it gives precise, effective advice for avoiding false positives when talking to customers.

For example, when I would demo features for stakeholders in the past, I used to say: "is this something that's useful to you?", to which they would inevitably reply "Yes!" and then proceed to not use the feature ever. Now, what I say instead is "tell me about the last time you were working on X and could've used this feature?" Now, they have to come up with something concrete, and it'll be much easier to see whether or not it actually provides value. One of the many, many pearls of wisdom in this book.

Science: Tribalism – People are complex creatures, they care about being part of the tribe, they want to make you feel good and help you (CITATION NEEDED)

p.s. I am in no way affiliated with Rob Fitzpatrick or The Mom Test; I make no money off of this endorsement, so that's how you know I'm serious about how good it is 😁