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.

They run customer conversations with bar owners who confirm that: yes, they would like more customers on the slow nights; and yes, they would pay you if you could send customers on demand. The founders take this as strong validation (“They have the problem and committed to pay!”) without recognising that the vast majority of the risk is in the prod

It’s easier to guide the conversation and stay on track if you have an existing set of beliefs that you’re updating. Spend up to an hour writing down your best guesses about what the person you’re about to talk to cares about and wants. You’ll probably be wrong, but it’s easier to keep the discussion on track and hit important points if you’ve crea

Some problems don’t actually matter.

Rule of thumb: While it’s rare for someone to tell you precisely what they’ll

The Mom Test is a set of simple rules for crafting good questions that even your mom can't lie to you about.

Bad data gives us false negatives (thinking the idea is dead when it’s not) and—more dangerously—false positives (convincing yourself you’re right when you’re not).

Ask learning questions which pass The Mom Test. Then confirm by selling it.

My #1 fitness problem is still an unimportant one.