The Mom Test

The Mom Test talks about ways to tell if your business idea is great or terrible by assessing the opinions of your friends, family, and investors accordingly, and not believing everything they say just to make you feel good.

Before you ask any potential customer for feedback, you should know if they are in need of it, if they would buy it, or if they can find other cheaper or even free alternatives to it. Always look for real data and cold, harsh truths, instead of aiming for compliments. But how can you tell if someone is feeding you good data?

When you’re pitching, skip the chatter and notice if they’re trying to compliment you too much. Most of the time, it just means that they’re trying to move away from commitment. A person interested in your idea will ask you specific questions and try to get a detailed idea about multiple aspects of your business.

Therefore, learn from young or inexperienced entrepreneurs, and ditch the chit chatter, the compliments, and over-hyperbolizing aspects of your idea. Instead, talk business, and stick to it. Investors will appreciate it, while family members and friends will learn that you are looking for concrete advice. Also, ask straight questions, such as if they want to invest, if they are looking to commit in the long run, to find out if you’re wasting each other’s time, or not.

In the process of collecting data from the market, many entrepreneurs fail to see their idea as it is. Although it may be painful to admit that your business is set for failure, a clever executive knows when to back off, and in contrast, when to push more. The market is full of answers if you know how to find them. Of course, asking the right questions is a great way to gain insights, but interpreting them counts just as much. If you want to develop a fitness app, you’ll first have to find a niche. The internet is full of fitness and nutrition advice of all kinds, so it can be pretty confusing when you start your journey. Therefore, bring forth a series of solutions targeted at a niche. You can’t possibly target all groups at once. Instead, go for a specific gender, age group, occupation, and so on. For example, you could target stay-at-home moms in their twenties or thirties, who are looking for simple exercises to keep their shape in a minimum amount of time. Once you have your niche sorted out, you can start asking them questions. If your market already has everything they need online, there’s no need for you to develop a paid app which will probably go unnoticed. Instead, look…