The Mom Test ❤️
Each week, I deconstruct ideas on product, growth, and building the future.
Hello friends,
I used to be a PM at Meta. While there, I worked with an amazing UX researcher, Carolina Cerruto. She taught me everything I know about user research, including this one…
The Mom Test ❤️
The Mom Test
The Mom Test is a strategy for getting insights out of users, even when they may be prone to lying to you.
Your mom might say she likes something because it’s you:
“I love you!”
“That’s awesome!”
“You’ve got a million-dollar idea!”
White Lies
Some users may unconsciously lie for their own reasons:
embarrassment
not wanting to offend
the pressure of being put on the spot
unaware of their true feelings
lapse in memory
The Mom Test gets a deeper sense of how users feel.
Talk Less
To drive early customer interviews towards facts rather than opinions:
Talk about their life experiences instead of your idea
Get info on specifics from the past rather than generalizations about the future
Talk less and listen more
Spell It Out
Simple questions that can help you guide the conversation:
Why do you want that?
What would that empower you to do?
How are you managing without it?
How would that fit into your day?
Should we push back the launch to add the feature?
Thank you for reading,
Elliott
👋 Hi, I’m Elliott, founder of General Collaboration, a Chrome Extension that interconnects apps like Notion, Google Docs, and Jira so you can @mention anything from anywhere and see all your @mentions in one place.