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The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you Paperback – September 10, 2013

by Rob Fitzpatrick (Author)

53 customer reviews

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The Mom Test is a quick, practical guide that will save you time, money, and heartbreak.

They say you shouldn't ask your mom whether your business is a good idea, because she loves you and will lie to you. This is technically true, but it misses the point. You shouldn't ask anyone if your business is a good idea. It's a bad question and everyone will lie to you at least a little . As a matter of fact, it's not their responsibility to tell you the truth. It's your responsibility to find it and it's worth doing right .

Talking to customers is one of the foundational skills of both Customer Development and Lean Startup. We all know we're supposed to do it, but nobody seems willing to admit that it's easy to screw up and hard to do right. This book is going to show you how customer conversations go wrong and how you can do better.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rob is a tinkerer and tech entrepreneur who has been driving perfectly good companies out of business since 2007. Previously a shy techie and official winner of the World's Worst Salesperson award, he picked up quite a few bumps & bruises learning to talk to customers. The lessons are here, boiled down into practical, actionable tips based on extensive work with early stage companies through foundercentric.com.

Paperback: 136 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (September 10, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1492180742
ISBN-13: 978-1492180746
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.3 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 53 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,207 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1224 in Books > Business & Money > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Entrepreneurship

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Hampus Jakobsson

I wish I wrote the book, because I would be so proud

May 17, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

When you have an idea that is great (inside your own head) you really want to go out there and get more positive feedback to build the idea further. Yes, positive feedback. The idea is a good one. So all those people saying "Not interesting" or "Yeah, but.." are not the ones we want to meet, but the ones saying "Yes! I love it! I would buy it when it is out!". It took me a while to learn that those are the worst kind. The negative feedback you can learn to receive, listen to, and ask "why?" and dig deeper and these people are really rewarding. The problem is the nasty ones that "don't want to hurt your feelings" or just want you to stop bothering them. And the best way to get you silence is to say that the like it - or even better say they love it. Then you will not ask anything more and go home with a smile. But they just want to get rid of you. This is the problem The Mom Test helps you solving.

I have always been interested in people and what they think and love ask people questions. I have built a company which was required for $150m and I did 99% of the customer development and problem discovery. I have taken a course in open questions as an interview format. BUT STILL - I find myself tricking myself by not asking people the right questions.

I loved The Mom Test and have recommended it to tons of people. Heck - I wish I would have written the book!

When you ask to get feedback thing:
1. Tell me about the last time you X
2. What went wrong - explain more?
3. What are the consequences?
4. What tools/processes/etc do you use today and why is that not working?

And - the book is worthwhile reading even if you are not building a product (even if it should be mandatory in every "entrepreneurship eduction"), but just want to learn how to listen and make conversations less about you and learn something every time you talk to someone.

19 people found this helpful20 people found this helpful

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Poe

AMAZING. SO GOOD and applicable

October 23, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I read a lot of stuff regarding user interviews. Tons of medium articles, Portugal's book, JTBD user interviews, but this book takes the cake.

Most of the stuff out there is heavy on theory and not on application. It'll go over what you should be doing but not HOW.

Rob really walks you through good examples and why they do/don't work out well. Some things that I took for granted (asking grounded questions over generic ones, eg When was the last time you bought a cookbook vs when do you buy cookbooks gives way better answers) were really hammered in.

MUST read. Top of the list. This is coming from someone that reads user interviews/books/startup business procrastination books all the time.

6 people found this helpful7 people found this helpful

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Jose_49

I pirated the book. Stopped reading. Went to Amazon and bought it.

May 1, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I'm being serious. It's the first time I ever do that. I've read tons of fantastic and game changing books, but it has been a while since I have read something that buffeted me on the face. I've failed 3 personal startups, (They all died in the MVP phase). Even though I did "customer discovery". I can't believe how biased I was when I was asking questions.

I mean, I was taught to ask open ended questions. And I did. What I didn't know was that even open-ended questions can be bad. Do you like this? How much would you pay for this? I thought those questions were valuable, that while it wouldn't create commitment, it would give me some sort of idea. WRONG.

Heck, even telling people about your idea can be bad. Because people wouldn't be 100% honest with you. The right thing to do is to uncover whether the idea is worth pursuing by digging into the other person's mind, and qualifying them before proceeding.

This has been eye-opening, and I would like to thank Rob Fitzpatrick (The author) for this amazing piece of practical content. I haven't finished reading it, once I do, I'll keep tabs on it and probably read it again, and again, and again. I"ll use this as a handbook for future customer discoveries, and will develop a series of paths while talking with people.

2 people found this helpful3 people found this helpful

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Joshua Long

Read this before you invest another penny or hour into your startup!

June 3, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I've taught opportunity assessment & feasibility analysis at the University level, and wish I had this book then as I would have used it as the text for the whole course.

Rob lays out all the pitfalls of doing market research and finding a product fit that we've all faced as we try to get ventures off the ground. He then provides the step-by-step outline on how to do it properly, making it copy-and-paste simple to implement.

Don't sweat the price of the book as I'd pay $250 for it now if I had to since it's given me a massive shortcut on dialing in the features in our SaaS app.

3 people found this helpful4 people found this helpful

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IanP

Buy this book

October 6, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Buy this book - just do it. I went to a proper business school 30 years ago - if I had owned this book, I could have saved 60,000 USD. It will not outline the Time Value of Money or define Macro Economics, but 100% will show you that no matter how smart you are, if nobody will pay for your product or service...well...nobody will pay for your product or service.

4 people found this helpful5 people found this helpful

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Dawn to dusk

Great book for any founder

July 15, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Loved this book. As a founder in the early stages of customer development, I learned a lot about how to change the questions I am asking in and how to think about the responses differently. I also completely changed my outreach email after reading the book based on the 5 components outlined by Rob. You know a book is practical and helpful if you feel motivated to change your behavior right after reading it.

One person found this helpful2 people found this helpful

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Works great even if you've got zero phone skills like me :-)

September 7, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I still remember reading this book, more like spending an hr reading and probably 30 minutes skimming.. and then putting a full plan for a research interview I was doing. That was like my first attempt, was nervous as I'm an absolute mess when it comes to phone skills or sales talk.. but when I kept digging deeper into the experts responses after he'd give a typical answer, so I use a certain questioning phrase from the book and it pulls out some gems from the expert. Love it

2 people found this helpful3 people found this helpful

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Bazandsuz

but jump straight to bad and leading questions that give 'desired' or 'interested' feedback

December 12, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I've worked with a lot of entrepreneurs who always want know they should do customer interviews, but jump straight to bad and leading questions that give 'desired' or 'interested' feedback, but don't produce learning. The Mom Test is a fantastic primer on how to avoid this and use those same interviews to get useful information that can shape your business.

One person found this helpful

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