Talking to Humans Book Review

A review of the book 'Talking to Humans' written by Giff Constable.

Hello all,

This book review will be a bit unorthodox. Typically, the majority of the content will include my own thoughts such as the review on Value Proposition Design or Sell It Like Serhant however this book was such a good read that much of its content stood on its own. Below I have many quotes that I had simply sent to a friend of mine a year ago. This book is cheap on Kindle and a quick read but as you'll see it has some real, actionable advice on how one can improve their primary market research skills with people in the field.

Regarding interviews...

"How do you know your most important questions? I like to begin by understanding my most important, and most risky, assumptions. Those tend to be the areas where you need to gather insights most urgently. You can uncover your assumptions in a myriad of ways. You can use Alex Osterwalder’s business model canvas or Ash Maurya’s lean canvas."

The assumptions mapping tool comes to mind in this quote. Assumptions mapping is where you create a quadrant with and X and Y axis. Assumptions are judged, as it says above, by how much you know and how much risk they have against your current hypothesis or business plan. Risk, from what I've seen, is the Y axis and knowledge is the X axis. From here you basically plot each assumption that you have and when you have finished you have a graphical display of what is actually worth your time testing.

"When you are contemplating your questions, be careful with speculation."

This is one of my weaknesses. For me it is fun to sit around and chat, speculate for the sake of speculation. As with most books I read I think this one can apply to your personal life or your business so if you are in a position where you are trying to advance your business.

"It is more effective to ask your interview subject to share a story about the past."

This parallels well with the book Believe Me: A Storytelling Manifesto for Change-Makers and Innovators( free with the Kindle Unlimited membership). I've been lucky to be in a supervisory role in the last four years and with that, exposed to 30+ personalities from different military branches and many different states. I wish I had understood this sooner, that leadership (which is influence) isn't a transactional matter. I shouldn't have to be the person to show up and give someone an interview but instead meet them where they are at and get them in storytelling mode.

"try to ask questions that start with words like who, what, why and how."

"An interesting open-ended question, which Steve Blank likes to use to conclude his interviews, is: “What should I have asked you that I didn’t?"

"My recommendation is to set up a situation where the subject thinks they are actually buying something, even if they know the thing doesn’t exist yet."

Stories don't lie and getting them to imagine a situation in third person helps separate them from the circumstances at hand and give me a glimpse into how they have handled conflict in the past.

"people don’t honestly think about willingness to pay unless they feel like it is a real transaction."

"customers are too constrained by their current reality to design effective solutions."

"It is the customer’s job to explain their behavior, goals, and challenges. It is the product designer’s job to come up with the best solution."

"You should use referrals as much as possible. Set a goal of walking out of every interview with 2 or 3 new candidates."

"Asking for advice should be your default method early in your customer discovery process."

"Another effective spin on “asking for advice” is to create a blog focused on your problem space, and ask people if you can interview them for an article."

"don’t jump into sales mode too early."

"Go into each session prepared to hear things that you might not want to hear. Some entrepreneurs even take the mindset that they are trying to kill their idea, rather than support it, just to set the bar high and prevent themselves from leading the witness."

"The researchers at Meetup.com, who borrow from Clayton Christensen’s Jobs To Be Done framework, use an interesting tactic to help their subjects get in story mode. When they are asking someone to take them through a purchase experience, from first thought through purchase and then actual product usage, they say: “Imagine you are filming the documentary of your life. Pretend you are filming the scene, watching the actor playing you. At this moment, what is their emotion, what are they feeling?"

"People love to brainstorm on features and solutions, and this will end up influencing the stories they might tell. So dig into their stories first, and gather any feedback second."

"disarm their politeness training. People are trained not to call your baby ugly. You need to make them feel safe to do this."

"Don’t Abdicate Your Role As Product Designer It is not the job of the customer to design your product. It is yours. As you are gathering information and making decisions, act like a intelligent filter, not an order-taker."

"observing your customers can be as powerful as directly talking to them."

In closing, I hope this review was not a bland summary but a personal response that might encourage you to read the book or at least do some more research. I’d love to keep the discussion going so please feel free to leave comments, ask questions, or let me know if I missed something!

If you are interested in other books such as this check out my entire list of Good Reads.

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