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

Rule of thumb: Some problems don’t actually matter.

A slightly leading question, but sometimes we need to nudge to get to the topic we’re interested in.

You: “Why don’t you download it now?” If someone’s being flaky, put them to a decision. If they don’t care enough to try solving their problem today, they aren’t going to care about your solution tomorrow. Them: “I’ll do it next time.” Not a real problem.

It took me years to learn that there’s no such thing as a meeting which just “went well”. Every meeting either succeeds or fails.

Rule of thumb: Go build your dang company already.

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 lookin

What does it mean if you reach out to 100 people and 98 of them hang up on you? Well, nothing, except that people don’t like getting cold calls. No surprise there. More importantly, it means you’ve now got 2 conversations in play.

Signs you’re just going through the motions: You’re talking more than they are They are complimenting you or your idea You told them about your idea and don’t have next steps You don’t have notes You haven’t looked through your notes with your team You got an unexpected answer and it didn’t change your idea

the industry. It will give you a better starting point for choosing where to begin.

Create a series of best guesses about what the person cares about