Book

The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers & Learn If Your Business Is a Good Idea When Everyone Is Lying to You

Rob Fitzpatrick · momtestbook.com Paid Beginner

The definitive short book on why customer conversations mislead founders and how to fix the questions you ask - used in accelerator curricula worldwide and directly applicable to a founder doing pre-launch interviews.

  • Core rule: ask about specific past behaviour, never about hypothetical future intent
  • Compliments and enthusiasm in an interview are a red flag, not validation
  • Concrete scripts for redirecting a conversation away from pitching toward listening
Open on momtestbook.com ↗

It answers 2 questions

  1. How do I do customer interviews without everyone just telling me what I want to hear?
  2. How do I know if my D2C brand has actually reached product-market fit, or if I'm just imagining it from a few good sales days?

Read with it

  1. The original Sean Ellis PMF survey, made freely usable - the fastest way to actually run the 40% test on your own repeat buyers... pmfsurvey.com Tool Product/Market Fit Survey Sean Ellis & GoPractice
  2. A clear step-by-step on running the 40% test correctly - who to survey, when, and how to avoid the sampling mistakes... Learning Loop Article Product-Market Fit Survey Guide: Sean Ellis 40% Test Template Learning Loop
  3. A practical, ecommerce-specific rundown that combines interviews, competitor research and small paid tests into one sequence a... LaunchMyStore Blog Article How to Validate Your Ecommerce Product Idea Before Investing Money LaunchMyStore
  4. A founder-voice, long-form account of how Wakefit's early demand testing and customer conversations actually happened, useful... Founder Thesis Podcast Dreaming with Resilience: Ankit Garg's Journey Building Wakefit into India's ₹1100 Cr Home Solutions Giant Founder Thesis
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