Module 2: Customer Discovery
The Mom Test Questioning Guide
How to extract unbiased truth from prospects without pitching your software or soliciting polite compliments.
The core rule of Rob Fitzpatrick’s The Mom Test is simple: You should not ask anyone whether your business idea is good. If you ask people if they would use your app, they will lie to you to avoid hurting your feelings.
Three Golden Rules
- Talk about their life and past actions, not your idea.
- Ask about specific instances in the past, not hypothetical futures.
- Talk less and listen more. If you speak for more than 25% of the call, you are pitching, not learning.
Good vs Bad Question Bank
| Bad (Biased) Question | Good (Behavioral) Question |
|---|---|
| “Do you think our AI ticket assistant is cool?” | “Walk me through how your team handled support tickets last Tuesday.” |
| “Would you pay $50/mo for a tool that did X?” | “What software tools do you currently pay for to solve this?” |
| “What features would you love to see in an ideal solution?” | “What workarounds have you hacked together in Excel or Python?” |
Detecting False Positives
Beware of compliments:
- “That sounds amazing! You guys should definitely build that!” → Polite brush-off.
- “Oh man, last week I spent 6 hours manually reconciling Stripe payouts and I almost cried.” → Genuine acute pain.
Continue to Screening Qualified Buyers.
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