The Mom Test

There are three simple rules: talk about their life, not your idea. Ask about specific moments in the past, not predictions about the future. Talk less and listen more.

The method works because it removes the social pressure to be nice. When you ask 'would you use X?', you're asking someone to predict their own future behaviour in front of the person who built X. That's roughly the worst possible research setup. When you ask what they actually did last Tuesday, you're asking them to remember facts — which is both more reliable and less flattering.

The test is named after the idea that you shouldn't ask your mum whether your business is a good idea. She'll say yes. Ask her instead about the last time she ran into the problem your business claims to solve.

Bad: 'Would you use a feature that summarised your portfolio performance weekly?'

The interviewee will say yes, because the question implies you want a yes, and the only socially acceptable alternative is to seem lazy about their own finances.

Good: 'Walk me through the last time you checked your portfolio. What day was it, what made you open the app, what were you looking for, and what did you actually do with what you saw?'

The answer might be: 'I opened it on Tuesday because I got a price-alert push, I wanted to see if I should sell, I didn't sell, and I closed the app within 30 seconds.'

Now you know: the job isn't summary, it's decision support at a specific trigger moment. You'd never have learned that from the first question.