The Mom Test: how to talk to customers and learn if your business is a good idea when everybody is lying to you

It’s not anyone else’s responsibility to show us the truth. It’s our responsibility to find it. We do that by asking good questions.

That’s kind of weird, right? We find out if people care about what we’re doing by never mentioning it. Instead, we talk about them and their lives.

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: People will lie to you if they think it’s what you want to hear.

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

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.

do you mind if I ask how you’re dealing with this stuff at the moment?

“What sort of difficulties have come up with that solution?”

“Why haven’t you been able to fix this already?”

Ideas and feature requests should be understood, but not obeyed.

If you’ve mentioned your idea, people will try to protect your feelings.

If they say they really want to hear about what you’re working on, promise that you’ll tell them at the end of the meeting or loop them in for an early demo, and that you just want to talk a bit more about their stuff before biasing them with your idea.

Rule of thumb: The more you’re talking, the worse you’re doing.

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

I once heard the general life advice that, for unpleasant tasks, you should imagine what you would have someone else do if you were delegating it. Then do that.

There’s more reliable information in a “meh” than a “Wow!” You can’t build a business on a lukewarm response.

Rule of thumb: If it feels like they’re doing you a favour by talking to you, it’s probably too formal.

A meeting has succeeded when it ends with a commitment to advance to the next step. But you have to force this resolution or the meetings drift along in la-la-land while performing their ancient duty: wasting everyone’s time.

The real failure is listed above as #2: not even asking. I never consider rejection to be a real failure. But not asking certainly is. This can happen because you avoid the scary question or because you haven’t figured out what the next steps should be.

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

A time commitment could include: Clear next meeting with known goals Sitting down to give feedback on wireframes Using a trial themselves for a non-trivial period

Reputation risk commitments might be: Intro to peers or team Intro to a decision maker (boss, spouse, lawyer) Giving a public testimonial or case study

Financial commitments are easier to imagine and include: Letter of intent (non-legal but gentlemanly agreement to purchase) Pre-order Deposit

Rule of thumb: The more they’re giving up, the more seriously you can take their kind words.

The more specific it is, the more seriously you can take it. For example: who does he want to introduce you to and what does “ready” mean? And why can’t he make the intro now?

The worst meetings are the wishy-washy ones that you leave with neither rejection nor advancement. You are in no-man’s-land and you won’t learn anything until you fix the meeting by forcing a next step (or rejection).

A lost meeting can often be saved by just pushing for a commitment at the end while you're being brushed off with a compliment.

Rule of thumb: It’s not a real lead until you’ve given them a concrete chance to reject you.

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

“Hello, I’m doing my PhD research on the problems around X, it would be a huge help if I could ask you a couple questions for my dissertation.”

Rule of thumb: Kevin Bacon’s 7 degrees of separation applies to customer conversations. You can find anyone you need if you ask for it a couple times.

Who has bought in to your idea already? Who could they connect you to?

Hey Tim, thanks so much for taking the time. As I mentioned in the email, we're trying to make it easier for universities to spin out student businesses (vision) and aren't exactly sure how it all works yet (framing & weakness). I think Tom made this intro (authority) because you have pretty unique insight into what's going on behind the curtain and could really help us get pointed in the right direction (pedestal)… (introductions continue) I was looking at your spinout portfolio and it's pretty impressive, especially company X. How did they get from your classroom to where they are now? (grab the reins and ask good questions)

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.

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