I hate the Mom’s test.... oh no, actually I love it! Each startup will be writing a guest blog to share the highs and lows that come with being an early stage startup. This is your chance to get a sneaky peek into what it is like to be part of Collider and even grab a chunk of wisdom on the way.
This week’s is written by Carl Wong, the Director of LivingLens.
So as we reach the end of week 4 of the Collider programme, it turns out that it’s time for me to write my first ever blog. Now, I can talk for England (‘Yes we know’ I can hear you thinking), but articulating engaging, witty prose in the written form is something I struggle with a little. Who know’s why? Maybe you do indeed, but regardless, be gentle with me should you decide to critique these first tentative efforts...
Anyhoo, end of week 4, and I think I know how it feels to be a dog, or perhaps more appropriately, a mayfly. I feel like I’ve done 7 months worth of thinking and decision making in these last 25 days. Each day finishes with me wishing we all lived on Pluto in order to get more done (length of time it takes for Pluto to complete one rotation on its axis 6 days 9 hours 18 mins), albeit we’d probably be a little more chilly. Here are a number of words I have added to my game of Investor Bingo recently; Hypothesis, Use Case, Roadmap, Runway, Stable Release, Power Users, Pivot (we’ll come back to this one!), Dev Sprint, Elasticity (really not sure about this one), MVP, Follow-on. I’ve yet to have a conversation with anyone in the world of Collider were I haven’t got 4 corners and a granny shouting house outside of 3 mins....
So let’s talk about the Pivot. When does a small change or re-positioning become the fantastical Pivot, and when does a Pivot become a mistaken wild goose chase up one’s derrier? It feel to me that LivingLens, our earstwhile market research video platform, is well on its way to pivoting. Our small idea has grown a crystalis and is transforming into a BIG IDEA. It fills me with both excitement and fear thinking of the possibilities, and the challenges of making it happen, but its genesis can be found a few weeks ago at the damn blasted Mom’s test session. The Mom Test is a book by Rob Fitzpatrick. The general vibe is How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you. ‘Don’t go after the sale, focus upon Product Market fit.’ They said. ‘ No, no, no!’ I screamed (sort of) – ‘I’m this close to the biggest decision makers I’ll meet, and I will therefore MAKE them love my product!’ I also screamed sort of. Well, Rose slapped me about, and Miles made me read, and after some internal mental battles, and a fair whack of practice, turns out I was wrong. Very, very wrong.
I love the Mom’s test. Fact. You won’t find a bigger convert around. It has helped us massively. By letting go of the sale, and treating each meeting like some market research fieldwork to glean problems and opportunities, we’ve uncovered some ‘truths’ we didn’t know existed. These new ‘truths’ have transformed our thinking, and are evolving our video platform into putting the consumer in front of anyone, anywhere, using any device, effortlessly reaching precise consumer insight film within moments. Our service will become a product. We’ll crawl the web as well as your content, and we’ll package it all up in the funkiest UX you’ll see.
Read the book, and let go of the sale. It may up with a pivot, but it’s the only path to true success!