The Mom Test

• Talk about their life instead of your idea
• Ask about specifics in the past instead of generics or opinions about the future
• Talk less and listen more

It’s called The Mom Test because it leads to questions that even your mom can’t lie to you about. When you do it right, they won’t even know you have an idea. There are some other important tools and tricks that we’ll introduce throughout the rest of the book. But first, let’s let’s put The Mom Test to work on some questions.

Good Questions:

• “Why do you bother?”
• “What are the implications of that?”
• “Talk me through the last time that happened.”
• “What else have you tried?”
• “How are you dealing with it now?”
• “Where does the money come from?”
• “Who else should I talk to?”
• “Is there anything else I should have asked?”

Bad Questions:

• “Do you think it’s a good idea?”
• “Would you buy a product which did X?”
• “How much would you pay for X?”
• “What would your dream product do?” - We are here to collect info, not solutions
• “Would you pay X for a product which did Y?”

The good questions focus on understanding the customer’s motivations, current situation, actions, and industry dynamics. They aim to gather actionable insights rather than opinions or hypotheticals.

On the other hand, the bad questions rely on opinions, hypothetical scenarios, and future promises, which may not reflect reality. They fail to provide useful information for validating business ideas.

Love bad news

One of the reasons we avoid important question is because asking them is scary. It can bring us the upsetting realisation that our favourite idea is fundamentally flawed. Or that the major client is never going to buy. Although it seems unfortunate, this we need to learn to love bad news. It’s solid learning and is getting us closer to the truth.

Prepare your list of 3

Always pre-plan the 3 most important things you want to learn from any given type of person.”

Random snipets

“Rule of thumb: Give as little information as possible about your idea while still nudging the discussion in a useful direction.”

“Rule of thumb: In early stage sales, the real goal is learning. Revenue is just a side-effect.”

Cheatsheet

Just in case you like lists.

Key skills:

• Asking good questions (Chapters 1 & 3)
• Avoiding bad data (Chapter 2)
• Keeping it casual (Chapter 4)
• Pushing for commitment & advancement (Chapter 5)
• Framing the meeting (Chapter 6)
• Customer segmentation (Chapter 7)
• Prepping & reviewing (Chapter 8)
• Taking notes (Chapter 8)

The Mom Test:

• Talk about their life instead of your idea
• Ask about specifics in the past instead of generics or opinions about the future
• Talk less and listen more

Getting back on track (avoiding bad data):

• Deflect compliments - Compliments are the fool’s gold of customer learning: shiny, distracting, and entirely worthless.
• Anchor fluff - bring the person back to details once he starts with this
  • “Generic claims (“I usually”, “I always”, “I never”) 
  • Future-tense promises (“I would”, “I will”)
  • Hypothetical maybes (“I might”, “I could”)
  • Dig beneath opinions, ideas, requests, and emotions

Mistakes and symptoms:

Fishing for compliments

• “I’m thinking of starting a business… so, do you think it will work?”
• “I had an awesome idea for an app — do you like it?”

Exposing your ego (aka The Pathos Problem)

• “So here’s that top-secret project I quit my job for… what do you think?”
• “I can take it — be honest and tell me what you really think!”

Being pitchy

“No no, I don’t think you get it…” “Yes, but it also does this!”

Being too formal

• “So, first off, thanks for agreeing to this interview. I just have a few questions for you and then I’ll let you get back to your day…”
• “On a scale of 1 to 5, how much would you say you…”
• “Let’s set up a meeting.”

Being a learning bottleneck

• “You just worry about the product. I’ll learn what we need to know.”
• “Because the customers told me so!”
• “I don’t have time to talk to people — I need to be coding!”

“Collecting compliments instead of facts and commitments

• “We’re getting a lot of positive feedback.”
• “Everybody I’ve talked to loves the idea.”

The process before, during and after the meeting:

• If you haven’t yet, choose a focused, findable segment
• With your team, decide your big 3 learning goals
• If relevant, decide on ideal next steps and commitments
• If conversations are the right tool, figure out who to talk to
• Create a series of best guesses about what the person cares about
• If a question could be answered via desk research, do that first
• Frame the conversation
• Keep it casual
• Ask good questions which pass The Mom Test
• Deflect compliments, anchor fluff, and dig beneath signals
• Take good notes
• If relevant, press for commitment and next steps
• With your team, review your notes and key customer quotes
• If relevant, transfer notes into permanent storage
• Update your beliefs and plans
• Decide on the next 3 big questions

Results of a good meeting:

• Facts — concrete, specific facts about what they do and why they do it (as opposed to the bad data of compliments, fluff, and opinions)
• Commitment — They are showing they’re serious by giving up something they value such as meaningful amounts of time, reputational risk, or money. 
• Advancement — They are moving to the next step of your real-world funnel and getting closer to a sale.”

“Signs you’re just going through the motions:

• You’re talking more than they are
• They are complimenting you or your idea
• You told them about your idea and don’t know what’s happening next
• You don’t have notes
• You haven’t looked through your notes with your team
• You got an unexpected answer and it didn’t change your idea
• You weren’t scared of any of the questions you asked
• You aren’t sure which big question you’re trying to answer by doing this
• You aren’t sure why you’re having the meeting

Writing it down — signal symbols:

• :) Excited

• :( Angry

• :| Embarrassed

• ☇ Pain or problem (symbol is a lightning bolt)

• ⨅ Goal or job-to-be-done (symbol is a soccer/football goal)

• ☐ Obstacle

• ⤴ Workaround

• ^ Background or context (symbol is a distant mountain)

• ☑ Feature request or purchasing criteria

• ＄ Money or budgets or purchasing process

• ♀ Mentioned a specific person or company

• ☆ Follow-up task

Signs you aren’t pushing for commitment and advancement:

• A pipeline of zombie leads
• Ending product meetings with a compliment
• Ending product meetings with no clear next steps
• Meetings which “went well”
• They haven’t given up anything of value

Asking for and framing the meeting:

• Vision — half-sentence version of how you’re making the world better
• Framing — where you’re at and what you’re looking for
• Weakness — show how you can be helped
• Pedestal — show that they, in particular, can provide that help
• Ask — ask for help

The big prep question:

• “What do we want to learn from these guys?”

The Mom Test

Title: The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers & Learn If Your Business is a Good Idea when Everyone is Lying to You Author: Rob Fitzpatrick ISBN10: 1492180742 ISBN13: 9781492180746