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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

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The Mom Test

By: Rob Fitzpatrick
Narrated by: Rob Fitzpatrick
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$8.99/mo. after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offer ends July 5, 2026 at 11:59pm PT.

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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.

©2013 Robfitz Ltd (P)2019 Robfitz Ltd Business Development & Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship Management Management & Leadership Marketing & Sales Sales & Selling Business Marketing Leadership Thought-Provoking
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Practical Advice • Actionable Insights • Casual Tone • Clear Examples • Concise Content • Straightforward Guidance

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I found it to be solid. Pretty useful. Kind of sounds like it was a recorded presentation.

Most valuable takeaways for me were: get hard facts about their life and behavior, not their opinions or theoretical questions. Avoid talking about your idea/product (at least initially) and instead focus it on learning about their problems and behavior related to your target space. Dig in deeper from the generic answers to get to the specific facts (how do they currently deal with / solve the problem and how much does it cost them). Always plan 3 things you want to learn, and end with an ask (ie. Get a commitment). A customer learning meeting should not “go well” - it should either be successful or not (did you learn new facts and/or get a commitment?)

Solid

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This is legitimately one of the most valuable business books I've ever read.

I've been devouring The Mom Test the last few days.  I've been wanting to build a web app product for the longest time and have been following the Microconf/Brennan Dunn/Amy Hoy world for a few years and have never really put a couple of things together about idea validation until reading this book.  I will definitely be asking more better questions now!

Every product person should read this book now

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never too late to learn . I have sure changed my way of validating my ideas.

validation of ideas inc

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This was a useful book to reference before sales meetings. I’d say the author’s delivery could be a bit more engaging, but he’s not a voice actor and the information os useful so i’d say it gets a pass. Also screw jeff bezos

A must read for any founder

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Critical information delivered in such an easy-to-understand way that it leaves you wondering why you hadn’t already figured this out yourself. It also taught me that the vast majority of customer interviews are done all wrong.

It was nice to hear the author’s voice - it has a comforting quality to it and you can hear his passion. But his “ummms” and occasional stumbles were a bit distracting.

A Must-Read for Startups

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