The Mom Test

The measure of usefulness of an early customer conversation is whether it gives us concrete facts about our customers’ lives and world views.

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. 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

It’s called The Mom Test because it leads to questions that even your mom can’t lie to you about.

Rule of thumb: Opinions are worthless.

Rule of thumb: Anything involving the future is an over-optimistic lie.

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

Rule of thumb: People know what their problems are, but they don’t know how to solve those problems.

Rule of thumb: You’re shooting blind until you understand their goals.

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

Rule of thumb: Watching someone do a task will show you where the problems and inefficiencies really are, not where the customer thinks they are.

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

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

Rule of thumb: While it’s rare for someone to tell you precisely what they’ll pay you, they’ll often show you what it’s worth to them.

The questions to ask are about your customers’ lives: their problems, cares, constraints, and goals.

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.

With the exception of industry experts who have built very similar businesses, opinions are worthless. You want facts and commitments, not compliments.

Sometimes it’s easier to spot the symptoms than to notice the sneaky compliment itself. Symptoms (in the meeting): “Thanks!” “I’m glad you like it.” Symptoms (back at the office): “That meeting went really well.” “We’re getting a lot of positive feedback.” “Everybody I’ve talked to loves the idea.” All of these are warning signs. If you catch yourself or your teammates saying something like this, try to get specific.

Rule of thumb: Compliments are the fool’s gold of customer learning: shiny, distracting, and worthless.

Fluff comes in 3 cuddly shapes: Generic claims (“I usually”, “I always”, “I never”) Future-tense promises (“I would”, “I will”) Hypothetical maybes (“I might”, “I could”)

The world’s most deadly fluff is: “I would definitely buy that.”

Other fluff-inducing questions include: “Do you ever…” “Would you ever…” “What do you usually…” “Do you think you…” “Might you…” “Could you see yourself…”

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.

Startups are about focusing and executing on a single, scalable idea rather than jumping on every good one which crosses your desk.

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.

You should dig in the same way around emotional signals to understand where they’re coming from. Just like feature requests, any strong emotion is worth exploring. Is someone angry? Dig. Embarrassed? Dig. Overjoyed? Dig!

Questions to dig into feature requests: “Why do you want that?” “What would that let you do?” “How are you coping without it?” “Do you think we should push back the launch to add that feature, or is it something we could add later?” “How would that fit into your day?” Questions to dig into emotional signals: “Tell me more about that.” “That seems to really bug you — I bet there’s a story here.” “What makes it so awful?” “Why haven’t you been able to fix this already?” “You seem pretty excited about that — it’s a big deal?” “Why so happy?” “Go on.”

Rule of thumb: Ideas and feature requests should be understood, but not obeyed.

Rule of thumb: If you’ve mentioned your idea, people will try to protect your feelings.

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

You can’t learn anything useful unless you’re willing to spend a few minutes shutting up (even if you have something really smart to say).

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

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.

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

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

“Does-this-problem-matter” questions: “How seriously do you take your blog?” “Do you make money from it?” “Have you tried making more money from it?” “How much time do you spend on it each week?” “Do you have any major aspirations for your blog?” “Which tools and services do you use for it?” “What are you already doing to improve this?” “What are the 3 big things you’re trying to fix or improve right now?”

Rule of thumb: Start broad and don’t zoom in until you’ve found a strong signal, both with your whole business and with every conversation.

Pre-plan the 3 most important things you want to learn from any given type of person (e.g. customers, investors, industry experts, key hires, etc). Update the list as your questions change.

Symptoms of formality: “So, first off, thanks for agreeing to this interview. I just have a few questions for you and then I’ll let you get back to your day…” “On a scale of 1 to 5, how much would you say you…”

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

Commitment — They are showing they’re serious by giving up something they value such as time, reputation, or money. Advancement — They are moving to the next step of your real-world funnel and getting closer to purchasing.

A meeting has succeeded when it ends with a commitment to advance to the next step.

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.

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

The major currencies are time, reputation risk, and cash. A time commitment could include: Clear next meeting with known goals Sitting down to give feedback on wireframes Using a trial of the product 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: It’s not a real lead until you’ve given them a concrete chance to reject you.

Keep an eye out for the people who get emotional about what you’re doing. There is a significant difference between: “Yeah, that’s a problem” and “THAT IS THE WORST PART OF MY LIFE AND I WILL PAY YOU RIGHT NOW TO FIX IT.” Steve Blank calls them earlyvangelists (early evangelists). In the enterprise software world, they are the people who: Have the problem Know they have the problem Have the budget to solve the problem Have already cobbled together their own makeshift solution

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

If it sounds weird to unexpectedly interview people, then that’s only because you’re thinking of them as interviews instead of conversations. The only thing people love talking about more than themselves is their problems.

Rule of thumb: If it’s not a formal meeting, you don’t need to make excuses about why you’re there or even mention that you’re starting a business. Just ask about their life.

Rule of thumb: If it’s a topic you both care about, find an excuse to talk about it. Your idea never needs to enter the equation and you’ll both enjoy the chat.

Immersing myself in the community I met a load of people and soon had all the connections and conversations I could handle

For marginally more effort than attending an event, you can organise your own and benefit from being the centre of attention.

It’s the fastest and most unfair trick I’ve seen for rapid customer learning. As a bonus, it also bootstraps your industry credibility.

Teaching is under-valued as both a learning and selling tool.

Spend the time to teach. You can teach at conferences, workshops, through online videos, blogging, and by doing free consulting or office hours.

If you have a reasonably sized and relevant blog audience, lining up conversations is trivial. You just write a post about it and ask people to get in touch.

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.

I’m jealous of founders who are still in (or recently out of) university. Professors are a goldmine for intros.

Top-tier investors are awesome for B2B intros. Beyond their own rolodex and company portfolio, they can usually pull off cold intros to practically any industry.

The common, “Can I get your opinion on what we’re doing?” sets expectations of neediness and that you want compliments or approval. No expectations at all are set by, “Do you have time for a quick coffee/lunch/chat/meeting?” which suggests you’re liable to waste their time.

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.

Once the meeting starts, you have to grab the reins or it’s liable to turn into them drilling you on your idea, which is exactly what you don’t want (since that forces you into a pitching situation, thus destroying your learning).

In terms of mindset, don’t go into these discussions looking for customers. It creates a needy vibe and forfeits the position of power. Instead, go in search of industry and customer advisors. You are just trying to find helpful, knowledgable people who are excited about your idea.

The UX community (who knows their customer conversation!) says you should keep talking to people until you stop hearing new information.

It’s not about “how many” meetings. It’s about having enough for you to really understand your customers.

Which leads to confusing signals and three problems: You get overwhelmed by options and don’t know where to start You aren’t moving forward but can’t prove yourself wrong You receive mixed feedback and can’t make sense of it

Their customer segment was incredibly broad, but in a sneaky way. Imagine that we’re building something for “students”.

These guys weren’t having 20 conversations with their customers. They were having one conversation each with 20 different types of customers. That’s why the feedback was so inconsistent.

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

Start with a broad segment and ask: Within this group, which type of person would want it most? Would everyone within this group buy/use it, or only some? Why does that sub-set want it? (e.g. what is their specific problem) Does everyone in the group have that motivation or only some? What additional motivations are there? Which other types of people have these motivations?

We know this slice is taking fitness seriously, so we might suspect they’re stronger early adopters.

Rule of thumb: 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.

Rule of thumb: If you don’t know what you’re trying to learn, you shouldn’t bother having the conversation.

Rule of thumb: Notes are useless if you don’t look at them.