Notas: "The Mom Test"

A USEFUL CONVERSATION

The measure of usefulness of an early customer conversation is whether it gives us concrete facts about our customers' lives and world views. These facts, in turn, help us improve our business.

THE MOM TEST

1. Talk about their life instead of your idea

2. Ask about specifics in the past instead of generics or

opinions about the future

3. Talk less and listen more

It's called The Mom Test because it leads to questions that even your mom can't lie to you about.?

GOOD / BAD QUESTIONS?

"Do you think it's a good idea?" BAD

"Would you buy a product which did X?" BAD

"How much would you pay for X?" BAD

"What would your dream product do?" BAD

"Why do you bother?" GOOD

"What are the implications of that?" GOOD

"Talk me through the last time that happened." GOOD

"Talk me through your workflow." GOOD

"What else have you tried?" GOOD?

"Would you pay X for a product which did Y?" BAD

"How are you dealing with it now?" GOOD

"Where does the money come from?"GOOD

"Who else should I talk to?" GOOD

"Is there anything else I should have asked?" GOOD

AVOIDING BAD DATA?

• DEFLECTING COMPLIMENTS?

The best way to escape the misinformation of compliments is to avoid them completely by not mentioning your idea. If they happen anyway, you need to deflect the compliment and get on with the business of gathering facts and commitments.

• ANCHORING FLUFF

Fluff comes in 3 shapes:

1. Generic claims ("I usually", "I always", "I never")

2. Future-tense promises ("I would", "I will")

3. Hypothetical maybes ("I might", "I could")

When someone starts talking about what they "always" or "'usually" or "never" or "would" do, they are giving you generic and hypothetical fluff. Ask good questions that obey The Mom Test to anchor them back to specifics in the past. Ask when it last happened or for them to talk you through it. Ask how they solved it and what else they tried.

• DIGGING BENEATH IDEAS

Entrepreneurs are always drowning in ideas. We have too many ideas, not too few. Still, folks adore giving us more. At some point during a good conversation, the person you're talking to may "Flip” to your side of the table. This is good news. They are excited and see the potential, so they'll start listing tons of ideas, possibilities and feature requests.

ASKING IMPORTANTE QUESTIONS?

You can tell it's an important question when its answer could completely change (or disprove) your business. If you get an unexpected answer to a question and it doesn't affect what you're doing, it wasn't a terribly important question to begin with.

• LOVE BAD NEWS

One of the reasons we avoid important questions is because asking them is scary. It can bring us to the unsettling realization that our beloved idea is fundamentally flawed. Or that the major client is never going to buy. Although this sort of news seems unfortunate, we need to learn to love it. It's solid learning and is getting us closer to the truth.

• LOOK BEFORE YOU ZOOM

Another way to miss the important questions is by obsessing over ultimately unimportant nuances. We let ourselves get stuck on the details before understanding the big picture.

• PREPARE YOUR LIST OF 3

Pre-plan the 3 most important things you want to learn from any given type of person (.g. customers, investors, industry experts, key hires, etc). Update the list as your questions change.

Pre-planning your big questions makes it a lot easier to ask questions which pass The Mom Test and aren't biasing. It also makes it easier to face the questions that hurt. When we go through an unplanned conversation, we tend to focus on trivial stuff that keeps the conversation comfortable. Instead, decide on the tough questions in a calm environment with your team.

MEETINGS EITHER SUCCEED OR FAIL

It took me years to learn that there's no such thing as a meeting which just "went well". Every meeting either succeeds or fails. You've lost the meeting when you leave with a compliment or a stalling tactic.

CRAZY CUSTOMERS AND YOUR FIRST SALE

It's pretty weird that anybody buys anything from young startups. In all likelihood, before the year is up, you're going to either go out of business, abandon the product, or sell the company. And even if you stay the course, there's no guarantee you can actually do what you say you can do.

First customers are crazy. Crazy in a good way. They really, really want what you're making. They want it so badly that they're willing to be the crazy person who tries it first. Keep an eye out for the people who get emotional about what you're doing. There is a significant difference between: "Yeah, that's a problem" and "THAT IS THE WORST PART OF MY LIFE AND I WILL PAY YOU RIGHT NOW TO FIX IT." Steve Blank calls them earlyvangelists (early evangelists). In the enterprise software world, they are the people who: Have the problem, Know they have the problem, Have the budget.