The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

Getting good feedback for a new idea requires asking the right questions. People will generally try to make you happy. If you ask them if your new idea will work, the will likely say yes. Instead, the key is to ask questions in a way that even your Mom would provide useful feedback. Get people to talk about themselves. What are their pain points? How do they get around it now? Is it truly something painful enough that would like a better solution? (Or are they comfortable with a current workaround?) The goal is to get a better understanding rather than pitch a solution. This understanding can happen in brief informal settings rather than formal meetings. It is also important to have appropriate actions. If the meeting is more formal, there should be some sort of next steps. This may be an introduction to other people, or even a realization that this is not something worth pursuing. It is also valuable to get the "hard questions" out there early. It is much better to fail early than to putter around for a while before the massive failure. Regardless of what questions are asked, recording the feedback is critically important. Even the "back of the napkin" notes should be recorded in a common platform and shared widely among the team.