The Mom Test: how to talk to customers and learn if your business is a good idea when everybody is lying to you

Who else should I talk to?"

"What else have you tried?"
Good question. What are they using now? How much does it cost and what do they love and hate about it? How much would those fixes be worth and how big of a pain would it be for them to switch to a new solution?

"Talk me through the last time that happened."

Ask how they currently solve X and how much it costs them to do so. And how much time it takes. Ask them to talk you through what happened the last time X came up. If they haven’t solved the problem, ask why not. Have they tried searching for solutions and found them wanting? Or do they not even care enough to have Googled for it?

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

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

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

Mom was unable to lie to us because we never talked about our idea.

That’s kind of weird, right? We find out if people care about what we’re doing by never mentioning it. Instead, we talk about them and their lives.

Look before you zoom

Write them down, but don’t rush to add them to your todo list. Startups are about focusing and executing on a single, scalable idea rather than jumping on every good one which crosses your desk.