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

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.

Trying to learn from customer conversations is like excavating a delicate archaeological site. The truth is down there somewhere, but it’s fragile. While each blow with your shovel gets you closer to the truth, you’re liable to smash it into a million little pieces if you use too blunt an instrument.

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

The world’s most deadly fluff is: “I would definitely buy that.” It just sounds so concrete. As a founder, you desperately want to believe it’s money in the bank. But folks are wildly optimistic about what they would do in the future. They’re always more positive, excited, and willing to pay in the imagined future than they are once it arrives.

The only thing people love talking about more than themselves is their problems. By taking an interest in the problems and minutia of their day, you’re already more interesting than 99% of the people they’ve ever met.

Do you think it's a good idea?" Awful question! Here’s the thing: only the market can tell if your idea is good. Everything else is just opinion. Unless you’re talking to a deep industry expert, this is self-indulgent noise with a high risk of false positives.

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.

The framing format I like has five key elements. You’re an entrepreneur trying to solve horrible problem X, usher in wonderful vision Y, or fix stagnant industry Z. Don’t mention your idea. Frame expectations by mentioning what stage you’re at and, if it’s true, that you don’t have anything to sell. Show weakness and give them a chance to help by mentioning the specific problem that you’re looking for answers on. This will also clarify that you’re not a time waster. Put them on a pedestal by showing how much they, in particular, can help. Explicitly ask for help. Or, in shorter form: Vision / Framing / Weakness / Pedestal / Ask

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

When you hear a request, it’s your job to understand the motivations which led to it. You do that by digging around the question to find the root cause. Why do they bother doing it this way? Why do they want the feature? How are they currently coping without the feature? Dig.

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

The Mom Test: 1. Talk about their life instead of your idea 2. Ask about specifics in the past instead of generics or opinions about the future 3. Talk less and listen more

We go through the futile process of asking for opinions and fish for compliments because we crave approval. We want to believe that the support and sign-off of someone we respect means our venture will succeed. But really, that person’s opinion doesn’t matter. They have no idea if the business is going to work. Only the market knows. You’re searching for the truth, not trying to be right. And you want to do it as quickly and cheaply as possible. 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.

Zooming in too quickly on a super-specific problem before you understand the rest of the customers life can irreparably confuse your learnings.

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.

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.

Long story short, that person is a complainer, not a customer.

Rule of thumb: Anyone will say your idea is great if you're annoying enough about it.

Don’t fall into the trap of only talking to the most senior or important people you can find. You want to talk to people who are representative of your customers, not the ones who sound impressive on your status report.

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.

Unfortunately, we've missed the elephant, which is that the poorest schools may not have the budgets available to pay us what we need to sustain and grow a business.

Common wisdom is that you price your product in terms of value to the customer rather than cost to you.

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

One of the reasons we avoid important questions is because asking them is scary. It can bring us to the unsettling realisation that our beloved idea is fundamentally flawed. Or that the major client is never going to buy. Although this sort of news seems unfortunate, we need to learn to love it.

for unpleasant tasks, you should imagine what you would have someone else do if you were delegating it. Then do that.

search out the world-rocking scary questions you’ve been unintentionally shrinking from. The best way to find them is with thought experiments. Imagine that the company has failed and ask why that happened. Then imagine it as a huge success and ask what had to be true to get there. Find ways to learn about those critical pieces. You can tell it’s an important question when its answer could completely change (or disprove) your business.

in shorter form: Vision / Framing / Weakness / Pedestal / Ask The mnemonic is “Very Few Wizards Properly Ask [for help].” Here’s what it might look like before you have a product: Hey Pete, I'm trying to make desk & office rental less of a pain for new businesses (vision). We’re just starting out and don’t have anything to sell, but want to make sure we’re building something that actually helps (framing). I’ve only ever come at it from the tenant’s side and I’m having a hard time understanding how it all works from the landlord’s perspective (weakness). You’ve been renting out desks for a while and could really help me cut through the fog (pedestal).