How to explain a technical product
Explain a technical product by naming the job in the buyer’s words, then giving the person who will check you something they can verify. April Dunford’s framing point is that features and technology, offered before a frame, leave a prospect guessing what you are. Learn the words from their past work, which is the rule in The Mom Test.
On this page
The frame comes before the mechanism
Dunford describes framing as the context that lets a prospect see what you are and why it matters. She writes that startups often skip it and open on features or technology, so the prospect guesses, or guesses wrong. The architecture can be the reason the outcome is true. It is a poor opening for someone who does not yet know the job.
Use their words for a week they already had
Rob Fitzpatrick’s The Mom Test puts the interview rules in one place: talk about their life rather than your idea, ask about specifics in the past rather than opinions about the future, and listen more than you talk. The explanation should reuse a phrase they used about last week’s work. A phrase you coined in the office is not yet an explanation. The customer interview page covers how to ask.
Steps
Name the category and the customer
What it is, and who it is for, before any component.
Use one phrase from their work
A step they did last week, in their words.
One outcome
What they can now do, or what they stop doing.
Then the mechanism
For the reader who will check you. After the frame, not instead of it.
Put proof they can open
A sample, a request, a diagram, a doc. Next to the claim.
What to move down
| If you lead with | A stranger can say | Move it |
|---|---|---|
| The architecture | Nothing about the job yet | Behind the outcome |
| A new category name | A word they cannot place | After a familiar frame |
| The job in their words | What it is and who it is for | Leave it first |
| A sample they can run | Whether the claim is checkable | Beside the outcome, not above it |
FAQs
How technical should the page be?
As technical as the reader who has to trust it. Precise terms, after the job is clear. Skip adjectives.
What if the buyer is not technical and the user is?
Two lines, one position. The buyer hears the outcome. The user hears how they would check it.
Can a diagram replace the sentence?
A diagram can carry the mechanism. The first sentence still has to say what it is and who it is for.