The Mom Test

Rob Fitzpatrick takes up familiar advice: never ask a mother whether a business idea is good, since she loves her child and will lie. He argues that the advice misses the real point. Asking anyone at all whether an idea is good is a bad question, and almost everyone will bend the truth a little in reply. Finding out what is true is the founder's job, not the job of the people being asked. Fitzpatrick treats customer conversations as a basic skill of both Customer Development and Lean Startup, one that is easy to get wrong and hard to do well. The guide walks through the ways these conversations fail and how to run them better.

Auquan CEO Chandini Jain said it explains how to plan user interviews that avoid leading questions and draw out unbiased feedback. Taraba Virtuala co-founder Roxana Bitoleanu would put it first on her list, saying nothing else teaches how to ask questions without sounding too eager or giving too much away.