New book if you are trying to run experiments to validate an idea
I just published a new book on how to run effective experiments in order to make better business and product decisions. The book, called Testing with Humans, is the natural sequel to Talking to Humans, which explains customer discovery.
Eric Ries, Steve Blank, and Hiten Shah among others have praised the book (you can see their comments here, and I hope this community finds it useful.
It's concise and highly practical, as one would hope from an entrepreneur writing for other entrepreneurs.
Is there somewhere I can read an extract? Interested in buying but want to understand what is inside first
Drop me a line at giff.constable @ gmail and I’ll send you a digital copy. If you like it, you can buy a copy on amazon after. :-)
Bookmarked and thanks for sharing! I'm going to read it soon :)
Talking to humans would be the first to go to? I'm currently in the ideation phase so I should start to talk to potential customers soon...
Yes, I would start by talking to potential customers in a focused way — that means choosing the kinds of people you want to talk to carefully, and focusing on the key things you want to learn (which follows from defining your assumptions and big risks). I think experiments come second, and should include continued qualitative research.
Ultimately nothing beats putting people through an experience of some kind and watching their behavior, but it takes the “talking” side to really understand what is going on and make leaps.
Do you write about cold contacting people in "Talking to humans"? I've never done that so I'm kind of insecure in how to approach it. A book with some nice hints would be helpful
yes actually, the appendix to Talking to Humans has a couple examples of cold emails and cold voice mail as inspiration, although always worth customizing to your own voice. Brevity, clarity and authenticity are the keys :-)
Nice. Thanks a lot
Hey, I'm not at a point where I'd buy your book right away, but would probably subscribe to a blog or newsletter about the subject to get a little free info about the subject and remind myself to dig in more later ;-)
Understand Andrew. We give the book for free to non-profits and schools, and if you are cash strapped while bootstrapping, fill out the form on testingwithhumans.com and I'll send you a copy.
There's also some content on my blog, but it's less organized (I've been heads down the last few years turning around a fintech startup)
I'm not cash-strapped. I just try to be selective and already buy enough books I don't read. I just replied to suggest you should link to your blog :) Signed up for your newsletter!
Hahah I know what you mean. My blog is at http://giffconstable.com if useful.
I filled out your form! I would appreciate a copy. :)
Hi Giff, thanks for the heads up about your new book. It's so cool to discover people sharing all kinds of entrepreneurial work here on IH.
I decided to buy both the new book and its predecessor, as they both look like great resources. And after digging into the sample first chapters, I realized that your approach goes hand in hand with some other books I've been reading recently, particularly Sense & Respond by Gotthelf and Seiden. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest!
Good luck with the launch :)
Thanks Scott. Yes, Jeff and Josh are former colleagues of mine (we started a company together), and we share very similar values. The Cooking Light case study in Sense & Respond was actually my work with Time.