How to Ask Mom-Test Questions (With Examples)
The Mom Test in practice: how to ask questions that get honest answers, with good and bad examples you can copy into your next interview.
The rule: people can’t lie about their own life
The Mom Test, coined by Rob Fitzpatrick, is a simple idea: ask questions so good that even your mom couldn’t give you a false positive. People lie to be nice, especially about your idea. But they can’t lie about what they actually did last Tuesday. So aim every question at their life and their behavior, never at your product.
Swap opinion questions for behavior questions
Opinion and hypothetical questions ("Would you use this?", "Do you think this is a good idea?") invite flattery. Behavior questions about the recent past ("What did you do the last time…?") return facts. Here is the same intent, asked badly and well:
- Bad: “Would you pay for an app that fixes this?” → Good: “What are you spending to deal with this today?”
- Bad: “Do you think meal-prep is a hassle?” → Good: “Tell me about the last time you cooked for the week.”
- Bad: “Would you use a tool like this?” → Good: “What have you already tried? Why did you stop?”
Follow the emotion and the money
When someone gets animated, whether frustrated, embarrassed, or relieved, slow down and dig in. Emotion marks a problem that matters. So does spending: money and time already committed to a workaround are the clearest proof that a problem is worth solving.
Ask for commitments, not compliments
“That sounds great” is a compliment, and compliments are noise. Real signal is a commitment: a next meeting, an intro to a colleague, time to try a prototype, or a pre-order. If the conversation was as promising as it felt, ask for one. What they do next tells you more than anything they said.
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