The Mom Test

• Term: The Mom Test 
• Origin: Coined by Rob Fitzpatrick in his book The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you.

Definition

"The Mom Test" is a set of rules for asking good customer validation questions that even your mom can't lie to you about. It is a foundational framework in the Lean Startup methodology designed to extract pure, actionable facts from customer interviews instead of polite fluff.

Core Philosophy

People (especially your friends, family, and even strangers being polite) will naturally lie to protect your feelings. If you ask, "Do you think my app idea is good?", they will almost always say yes. To validate if a business idea has real market demand, you must completely stop talking about your idea. Instead, you must investigate their past behaviors, current pain points, and actual money/time spent.

The 3 Golden Rules

1. Talk about their life, not your idea. (Keep your idea a secret as long as possible).
2. Ask about specifics in the past, not generics or opinions about the future. (e.g., "How did you solve this last time?" instead of "Would you use an app that does this?").
3. Talk less and listen more.

Identifying False Positives (Red Flags)

If you hear these, you are gathering bad data:

• Compliments: "That's a genius idea!" (Compliments cost nothing and do not validate your business).
• Fluff / Hypotheticals: "I would definitely buy that for $20." (Never trust future predictions).
• Feature Requests: "Can you add AI to it?" (Dig into why they want the feature, rather than just building it).