The Mom Test Quotes

“Pregunta cómo están resolviendo X actualmente, cuánto les cuesta hacerlo y cuánto tiempo les toma. Pídeles que te hablen de la última vez que les sucedió X. Si no han resuelto el problema, pregunta las razones. ¿Han intentado buscar otras soluciones? ¿Sí? ¿No? ¿Las han encontrado? ¿O ni siquiera se han molestado en buscar en Google?”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, El Mom Test: Cómo mantener conversaciones con tus clientes y validar tu idea de negocio cuando todos te mienten.

“Digamos que estamos creando una aplicación para ayudar a empresas de la construcción a gestionar sus proveedores. Puedes pedirles que te muestren cómo lo hacen actualmente. Hablar de las partes del proceso que odian y aquellas con las que están contentos. Preguntar qué otras herramientas y procesos probaron antes.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, El Mom Test: Cómo mantener conversaciones con tus clientes y validar tu idea de negocio cuando todos te mienten.

“Habla acerca de sus vidas y de ellos en lugar de hablar de tu idea y de ti”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, El Mom Test: Cómo mantener conversaciones con tus clientes y validar tu idea de negocio cuando todos te mienten.

“As perguntas a serem feitas são sobre a vida dos clientes: seus problemas, interesses, restrições e objetivos.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, O Teste da Mãe: Como conversar com clientes e descobrir se sua ideia é boa, mesmo com todos mentindo para você

“Here are 3 simple rules to help you. They are collectively called (drumroll) The Mom Test: 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”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Eternity will forgive our earthly blunders. Everyone loves an entrepreneur. After all, you’re putting it on the line to try and make their lives better.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“They say that startups don’t starve, they drown. You never have too few options, too few leads, or too few ideas. You have too many. You get overwhelmed. You do a little bit of everything. 

When it comes to avoiding drowning and making faster progress, good customer segmentation is your best friend.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Willpower is a finite resource. The way to overcome difficult situations isn't to power through, but rather to change your circumstances to require less willpower. Changing the context of the meeting to "looking for advisors" is the equivalent of throwing out all your chocolate when you start a diet. You change the environment to naturally facilitate your goals.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Commitment can be cash, but doesn’t have to be. Think of it in terms of currency—what are they giving up for you? A compliment costs them nothing, so it’s worth nothing and carries no data. The major currencies are time, reputation risk, and cash.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Compliments are the fool’s gold of customer learning: shiny, distracting, and entirely worthless.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Here’s the thing: only the market can tell if your idea is good. Everything else is just opinion.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Our misguided entrepreneur has a few more conversations like this, becomes increasingly convinced he’s right, quits his job, and sinks his savings into the app. Then he wonders why nobody (even his mom) buys the app, especially since he had been so rigorous.

Doing it wrong is worse than doing nothing at all. When you know you’re clueless, you tend to be careful. But collecting a fistful of false positives is like convincing a drunk he’s sober: not an improvement.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Regla de oro: las opiniones no valen nada.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, El Mom Test: Cómo mantener conversaciones con tus clientes y validar tu idea de negocio cuando todos te mienten.

“Habla acerca de sus vidas y de ellos en lugar de hablar de tu idea y de ti Pregunta por datos del pasado en lugar de hacer preguntas genéricas o preguntar por opiniones o hipótesis acerca del futuro Habla menos y escucha más”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, El Mom Test: Cómo mantener conversaciones con tus clientes y validar tu idea de negocio cuando todos te mienten.

“Con algo tan sencillo como evitar mencionar nuestra idea al inicio de la conversación, empezaremos a formular mejores preguntas de manera natural. Este truco es el más fácil de implementar (y también el más importante) para mejorar nuestras conversaciones con clientes.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, El Mom Test: Cómo mantener conversaciones con tus clientes y validar tu idea de negocio cuando todos te mienten.

“Don’t spend a week prepping for meetings; spend an hour and then go talk to people. Anything more is stalling. Don’t spend months doing full-time customer conversations before beginning to move on a product. Spend a week, maybe two. Get your bearings and then give them something to commit to.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“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.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Keep having conversations until you stop hearing new stuff.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Changing the context of the meeting to “looking for advisors” is the equivalent of throwing out all your chocolate when you start a diet. You change the environment to naturally facilitate your goals.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Hearing a compliment can still be useful though—it’s a warning flag that the person you’re talking to is trying to get rid of you.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Commitment can be cash, but doesn’t have to be. Think of it in terms of currency—what are they giving up for you? A compliment costs them nothing, so it’s worth nothing and carries no data. The major currencies are time, reputation risk, and cash.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Compliments are the fool’s gold of customer learning: shiny, distracting, and worthless.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Anything involving the future is an over-optimistic lie.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Here’s the thing: only the market can tell if your idea is good. Everything else is just opinion.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“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.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Trying to learn from customer conversations is like excavating a delicate archaeological site. The truth is down there somewhere, but it’s fragile.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Every time you talk to someone, you should be asking at least one question which has the potential to destroy your currently imagined business.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“With the exception of industry experts who have built very similar businesses, opinions are worthless. You want facts and commitments, not compliments.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“They say that startups don’t starve, they drown. You never have too few options, too few leads, or too few ideas; you have too many. You get overwhelmed. You do a little bit of everything. When it comes to getting above water and making faster progress, good customer segmentation is your best friend.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

“Learning that your beliefs are wrong is frustrating, but it’s progress. It’s bringing you ever closer to the truth of a real problem and a good market. The worst thing you can do is ignore the bad news while searching for some tiny grain of validation to celebrate. You want the truth, not a gold star.”
― Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you