What is The Mom Test? The rules, with real examples

What is The Mom Test? The Mom Test is Rob Fitzpatrick's discipline for customer conversations: ask people about their life and their past behaviour, never about your idea. Done properly, even your mom cannot flatter you into building the wrong thing. The rules

Talk about their life, not your idea.

Ask about specifics in the past, not opinions about the future.

Talk less, listen more.

Signals that feel like progress and are not Compliments, generic enthusiasm, "I would definitely use that", and any promise about a future self. None of them cost the speaker anything, so none of them are evidence. What commitment actually looks like Commitment costs time, reputation or money: a next meeting booked, an introduction made, a pilot agreed, a deposit paid. MomProof's agent asks every question this way, which is why the answers it brings back are worth acting on.