The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers and Learn If Your Business is a Good Idea When Everyone is Lying to You
Author: Rob Fitzpatrick Year: 2013 Genre: Product Management
About This Book
The Mom Test is a short, brutally practical guide to doing customer conversations that uncover truth instead of flattery. It teaches you to ask about people’s real behaviour and priorities rather than pitching your idea.
Key Insights
- Avoid opinions and hypotheticals: Ask about the last time, specifics, money, and alternatives—not “Would you use this?”
- Don’t pitch, learn: Your job is to understand problems, workflows, and constraints, not to sell.
- Look for commitment: The only strong signals are time, reputation, and cash. Everything else is noise.
- Talk about their life, not your idea: Let them lead; dig into workarounds, hacks, and current spend.
- Good questions are concrete: “When did this last happen?” “Who else cares?” “How do you solve it today?”
- Write it down: Capture notes and patterns; validate with multiple customers from the same segment.
Why I Recommend It
This is the most actionable book on customer discovery. Apply it and you’ll waste less time building the wrong thing and get to product‑market fit faster.
The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers & Learn If Your Business Is a Good Idea When Everyone Is Lying to You
Author: Rob Fitzpatrick Year: 2013 Genre: Leadership
About This Book
The Mom Test provides practical guidance on how to talk to customers and validate business ideas without getting misleading feedback. Rob Fitzpatrick explains why people lie to entrepreneurs (usually to be nice) and provides specific techniques for getting honest, actionable insights.
The book focuses on the fundamental problem of customer validation: people will tell you what they think you want to hear, especially when they’re trying to be supportive. Fitzpatrick provides concrete strategies for asking better questions and interpreting responses correctly.
Key Concepts
- The Mom Test: Questions that even your mom can’t lie about
- Bad Questions vs. Good Questions: How to ask questions that reveal truth
- Commitment and Advancement: Getting real commitment, not just interest
- Customer Development Process: Systematic approach to learning from customers
- Pattern Recognition: Identifying genuine problems vs. polite interest
Why I Recommend It
This book is essential for anyone building products or services. The insights about customer validation apply not just to startups, but to any situation where you need to understand user needs and validate assumptions.
The practical, actionable advice makes it immediately applicable. The focus on getting honest feedback rather than positive reinforcement is crucial for making good decisions about product development and business strategy.
Key Highlights
- Practical Techniques: Specific questions and approaches for customer interviews
- Honest Feedback: Methods for getting truthful responses instead of polite lies
- Validation Focus: Clear guidance on what constitutes real validation
- Customer Development: Systematic process for learning from users
- Decision Making: How to interpret feedback and make informed decisions
Who Should Read This
- Entrepreneurs and startup founders
- Product managers and designers
- Anyone building products or services
- Business development professionals
- People conducting user research or customer interviews
“The Mom Test is the definitive guide to customer validation and getting honest feedback.” - Startup Review