The Mom Test
Rob Fitzpatrick · 2013
Entrepreneurship
How to Talk to Customers and Learn If Your Business Is a Good Idea When Everyone Is Lying to You
Rob Fitzpatrick reveals that the way most entrepreneurs talk to customers guarantees they'll hear lies. Your mom will always say your idea is great. The fix: ask about their life and problems instead of pitching your idea. Good customer conversations are about their behavior, not your solution.
Context & Background
The number one reason startups fail is building something nobody wants. The standard advice — "talk to customers" — doesn't help because most people do it wrong. They pitch their idea and ask "would you use this?" which always gets a polite yes. Fitzpatrick shows how to have conversations that actually reveal truth.
The Mom Test: Talk about their life instead of your idea, ask about specifics in the past instead of generics about the future, and talk less and listen more. Bad questions ("Would you buy this?") get unreliable answers. Good questions ("What are you currently doing to solve this?") reveal actual behavior. Commitment and advancement — end every conversation with a concrete next step.
The book became the definitive guide to customer discovery in the startup world. At 130 pages, it's the most concise and practical book on customer interviews ever written. Y Combinator, Techstars, and startup programs worldwide recommend it as essential reading for founders.
Quotes from The Mom Test
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