What is the Mom Test? What do you gain out of the Mom Test?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Mom Test <\/em>by Rob Fitzpatrick is a practical guide on how to get meaningful feedback about your business or product. Fitzpatrick explains how to ask the right questions<\/a> and elicit unbiased responses from customers that will move your business forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read more to understand what the Mom Test is so you can master it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n What is the Mom Test? Fitzpatrick\u2019s \u201cMom Test\u201d is a set of rules that ensures you receive honest feedback from customers: specifically, feedback that signals whether your idea will meet their needs and therefore be successful. The test\u2019s name originates from the idea that mothers in particular are most likely to lie to you to spare your feelings. However, if you ask the right questions, you can get honest, valuable feedback from whomever you ask\u2014even your mom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Shortform note: Is it fair for Fitzpatrick to claim that parents are dishonest\u2014and to name a set of rules (and a book) after this claim? Arguably yes: Studies suggest that parents regularly lie to their children<\/a>. They do so not just to spare their children\u2019s feelings but also to try to prevent tantrums, maintain traditional fantasies like the existence of Santa Claus, and avoid uncomfortable topics of conversation like death and sex.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Fitzpatrick explains, applying the Mom Test is important because customer feedback can make or break your new business venture<\/strong>. Deep one-on-one conversations with potential customers can give you all the information you need to craft a successful business<\/a>. However, if you fail to collect or accurately interpret honest customer feedback, you could spend months or even years pouring money into a product with irredeemable flaws\u2014or that customers never wanted in the first place. Furthermore, failing to use the Mom Test in your discussions with customers will yield information that\u2019s worse than useless\u2014as we\u2019ll see, most feedback actively pushes you toward failure by convincing you that bad ideas are good.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Shortform note: In Principles<\/em><\/a>, Ray Dalio<\/a> also argues that in business, you need to actively work to get others to tell you the truth so you can avoid investing in bad ideas. Unlike Fitzpatrick, Dalio primarily applies this idea to relationships between employees rather than relationships with customers. At the hedge fund he founded, Dalio has implemented a rule of radical honesty<\/a>: All employees must speak up when they disagree with anyone else, even their boss\u2019s boss. This way, everyone at the company receives brutal but useful feedback when they propose a bad idea.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fitzpatrick\u2019s Mom Test consists of three rules:<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Shortform note: Although Fitzpatrick frames the Mom Test as a set of three rules, in practice, they combine to form a single mindset. In other words, following one rule at a time would be missing the point\u2014they\u2019re all part of a greater whole and should thus be applied concurrently.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s explore each rule of the Mom Test in detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fitzpatrick\u2019s first rule of the Mom Test is to never pitch your business idea<\/strong>. If you reveal what your product is, the customer will likely judge it directly\u2014they\u2019ll compliment the idea or give suggestions on how you can make it better. Unfortunately, such customer judgments are unreliable. People will often compliment bad ideas to spare your feelings, and they\u2019re generally unaware of what they really<\/em> want to buy. Building your business on this kind of feedback is fundamentally misguided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of pitching (or even mentioning) your business idea, ask customers about their daily lives.<\/strong> Fitzpatrick explains that the most valuable information you can get from a customer includes 1) their goals, 2) the problems preventing them from reaching those goals, and 3) the habitual way they currently solve their problems. Unlike customer judgments, this information is grounded in reality and is therefore objective and reliable. If you use this information to design a product or service that helps customers solve their existing problems and achieve their goals more easily and effectively than they do now, you\u2019ll be successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Often, you can get information about potential customers\u2019 lives without ever letting them know that you\u2019re trying to get feedback from them<\/strong>\u2014or that you have a business idea at all. For example, just by chatting with a stranger at the bookstore about their daily reading habits, you could gauge how viable your business idea for a new e-reader is without ever revealing that you\u2019re an entrepreneur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fitzpatrick\u2019s second rule of the Mom Test is to ask customers about the specific past, not the vague present or the hypothetical future.<\/strong> This rule is necessary because people are bad at accurately assessing their present habits and predicting how they would act in the future. For example, if you\u2019re asking a stranger in a bookstore about their reading habits, don\u2019t settle for answers like \u201cI try to read for an hour before bed every night,\u201d or \u201cI would definitely read more if I had a device that made it easier.\u201d In actuality, that stranger may currently only find the time to read once a week and is likely overestimating how much a new device would boost their motivation to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, ask specific questions about that past that are grounded in objective fact. For example, ask questions like \u201cWhere were you the last time you sat down to read?\u201d and \u201cCould you walk me through what you did last night before bed?\u201d Questions like these give you a window into the customers\u2019 life without relying on their own distorted interpretations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Stumbling on Happiness<\/em><\/a>, Daniel Gilbert further explains why people are so bad at assessing their present habits and predicting how they\u2019ll feel after buying your product. In short, instead of seeing the world as it really is, our brains distort how we see the world to make us feel better about ourselves. For example, in the present, we ignore information that contradicts what we believe and compare ourselves to others who make us look better in comparison<\/a>. When we predict the future<\/a>, we ignore realistic yet unpleasant details to imagine a time when we\u2019ll be much happier than we are now<\/a>. We\u2019re also totally unaware that our brains are making these subjective tweaks to reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our example above, the potential customer in the bookstore fully believes that they read for an hour before bed most nights and that they would read more if they bought a new e-reader. Their brain is fabricating these realities because it helps them feel good about their self-image as a sophisticated reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, according to Gilbert, our memories of the past are distorted and detached from reality, just like our assessment of the present and predictions about the future. This means that even if you specifically ask potential customers for objective facts rooted in the specific past, you may receive inaccurate responses. With this in mind, ask specific questions about the recent<\/em> past, if possible, to avoid as much memory distortion<\/a> as you can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fitzpatrick\u2019s third rule of the Mom Test is to listen more than you talk.<\/strong> Recall that you want an unfiltered view of the customer\u2019s life. The less you talk about yourself<\/a> and what you want to hear from the customer, the less biased their self-descriptions will be. <\/strong>If you follow Rule #1 and avoid pitching your idea<\/a>, this rule should be easy to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that we\u2019ve explained what the Mom Test is and how to use it to get valuable feedback from discussions with customers, let\u2019s explore how to use these conversations to support your business. Fitzpatrick advises you to approach discussions with customers in slightly different ways depending on the stage your business is in: First, before you have a product, use the Mom Test to gather information about your customers. Second, once you have a product, advance your business by getting potential customers to commit to it. Let\u2019s inspect each of these two stages in turn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is the Mom Test? What do you gain out of the Mom Test? The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick is a practical guide on how to get meaningful feedback about your business or product. Fitzpatrick explains how to ask the right questions and elicit unbiased responses from customers that will move your business forward. Read more to understand what the Mom Test is so you can master it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":59551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,45,103],"tags":[762],"class_list":["post-80291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-business","category-sales","tag-the-mom-test","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Mom Test, Explained<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Rule #1: Don\u2019t Pitch Your Idea<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rule #2: Ask Specific Questions About the Past<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Why Customers Fail at Describing Reality<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Rule #3: Listen More Than You Talk<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n