Customer Conversation Access

Use this skill to help teams get into useful customer conversations without turning every interaction into a formal interview or sales pitch. The best access path depends on where the target segment already spends time and who can credibly introduce the team.

Source Traceability

Primary source: The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick, especially chapters 4, 6, and

1. Guidance is paraphrased for this MIT repo; authoring notes used converted

EPUB lines 2176-2362 and 2791-3610.

Access Paths

| Path | Use When | Watch For | |------|----------|-----------| | Warm intros | Someone credible can introduce the team | Make the ask easy and specific | | Existing communities | Customers gather in events, forums, meetups, Slack, Discord, or associations | Participate before extracting value | | Casual chats | The context naturally touches the problem | Keep the idea out until needed | | Teaching or office hours | The team has a useful point of view | Do not disguise a sales pitch as education | | Landing-page replies | People opted into the topic | Follow up personally, not only with metrics | | Advisors | Industry structure is unclear | Advisors should create learning, not just status |

Meeting Framing

When a formal ask is required, include:

1. Vision: the broad problem or better world.
2. Stage: where the team is now.
3. Weakness: what the team does not understand yet.
4. Pedestal: why this person can help.
5. Ask: the specific, easy-to-forward conversation request.

Keep the framing short. Do not ask for opinions on the idea. Ask for help understanding a domain, problem, workflow, or decision process. Prefer a short, specific conversation over a broad "pick your brain" request.

Output Format

markdown
# Customer Conversation Access Plan

## Segment
[Who we need to talk to.]

## Best Access Paths
| Path | Why It Fits | First Action | Risk |
|------|-------------|--------------|------|

## Warm Intro Or Meeting Ask
- Vision:
- Stage:
- Weakness:
- Why them:
- Ask:

## Follow-Up
- Target number of conversations:
- Next source if this fails:
- What to track:

Workflow

Use workflows/frame-warm-intro.md when drafting an intro request, meeting request, or conversation opener.

Quality Bar

• Do not default to cold outreach if a warmer path is plausible.
• Do not hide a sales pitch inside a request for advice.
• Do not ask for a formal meeting when a casual conversation would learn enough.
• Do not measure access only by response rate. The goal is useful

conversations with the right people.