The day · Page 50
Ask like the Mom Test
[GIVE THIS TO THE ROOM · this is the testing crash course for whoever runs the station]
Rob Fitzpatrick wrote The Mom Test on one insight: everyone lies to you about your idea, especially your mum, because they love you and want to be nice. So never ask anyone to judge the idea. Ask about their life, and watch their hands.
His three rules, and what they mean at your station:
1. Talk about their life, not your idea. Open with the conversation, not the screen. "Tell me about the last time you tried to put an outfit together in a hurry" comes before any demo. Thirty seconds of their reality tells you how to read everything they do next.
2. Ask about specifics in the past, not opinions about the future. "What did you do last time?" beats "would you use this?" every time. Watch for the three answers that mean nothing: a compliment ("this is cool!"), a vague future promise ("I would definitely use this"), and a feature request you did not ask for. Note them, smile, and steer back to the past: "have you ever actually paid for something like this?"
3. Talk less, watch more. Hand over the screen, give one real task from the brief ("you have 90 seconds, find tonight's outfit"), and go quiet. Silence feels rude for the first five seconds and then it starts producing the truth.
| Ask this | Not that |
|---|---|
| "Walk me through the last time this happened." | "Would you use an app that fixes this?" |
| "What did you do next? What did that cost you?" | "Does that sound useful?" |
| "What have you already tried and dropped?" | "Would you pay for it?" (asked as a poll) |
A good test leaves you a little uncomfortable, because you heard something you did not want to hear.