The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

by Rob Fitzpatrick

Bad customer conversations aren’t just useless. Worse, they convince you that you’re on the right path. They give you a false positive that causes you to over-invest your cash, your time, and your team.

The measure of usefulness of an early customer conversation is whether it gives us concrete facts about our customers’ lives and world views.

Mom was unable to lie to us because we never talked about our idea.

If you just avoid mentioning your idea, you automatically start asking better questions. Doing this is the easiest (and biggest) improvement you can make to your customer conversations.

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

Rule of thumb: Watching someone do a task will show you where the problems and inefficiencies really are, not where the customer thinks they are.

Rule of thumb: If they haven't looked for ways of solving it already, they're not going to look for (or buy) yours.

Rule of thumb: People stop lying when you ask them for money.

It boils down to this: you aren’t allowed to tell them what their problem is, and in return, they aren’t allowed to tell you what to build. They own the problem, you own the solution.

With the exception of industry experts who have built very similar businesses, opinions are worthless. You want facts and commitments, not compliments.

While using generics, people describe themselves as who they want to be, not who they actually are. You need to get specific to bring out the edge cases.

Startups are about focusing and executing on a single, scalable idea rather than jumping on every good one which crosses your desk.

Every time you talk to someone, you should be asking at least one question which has the potential to destroy your currently imagined business.

Rule of thumb: You should be terrified of at least one of the questions you’re asking in every conversation.

3 separate meetings: the first about the customer and their problem; the second about your solution; and the third to sell a product.

Rule of thumb: “Customers” who keep being friendly but aren’t ever going to buy are a particularly dangerous source of mixed signals.

Rule of thumb: If you don’t know what happens next after a product or sales meeting, the meeting was pointless.

The major currencies are time, reputation risk, and cash.

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

Rule of thumb: Keep having conversations until you stop hearing new stuff.

Before we can serve everyone, we have to serve someone.

Rule of thumb: If you aren’t finding consistent problems and goals, you don’t have a specific enough customer segment.

If there isn’t a clear physical or digital location at which you can find your customer segment, then it’s probably still too broad.

Rule of thumb: Good customer segments are a who-where pair. If you don’t know where to go to find your customers, keep slicing your segment into smaller pieces until you do.

Rule of thumb: If you don’t know what you’re trying to learn, you shouldn’t bother having the conversation.

Rule of thumb: Notes are useless if you don’t look at them.

The process before a batch of conversations: 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 During the conversation: 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 After a batch of conversations: 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

Rule of thumb: Go build your dang company already.

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