Best book on early stage startups period. And it's barely 100 pages long. My favorite quote from it: “Someone should definitely make an X!” “Have you looked for an X?” “No, why?” “There are like 10 different kinds of X.” “Well I didn't really need it anyway.” Long story short, that person is a complainer, not a customer. They’re stuck in the la-la-land of imagining they’re the sort of person who finds clever ways to…
Exactly! I think it is q bit over 100 pages (140) but still really short. It was recommended so many times to me so I really wanted to make a short summary. The thing with separating complainers from customer is a great learning as well. If you just see complainers maybe the problem isn't that important ;)
Correct. It's 136p long. I remember it as no more than 85p. It's that good.
> If you just see complainers maybe the problem isn't that important ;)
The mom test is one of those books that have a lot of good advice. Most summaries are quite bad and led me to think the book itself was bad, but thankfully, this is a good one.
Although not quite the same, this reminds me of a very simple trick many blind people are taught during training on how to navigate the city: Never ever ask "Is this line 4" if you want to know which tram just arrived. Ask "which line is this?" Simply because the first version will make many people answer "yeah yeah" without even looking. The second version forces them to actually answer your question with something…
Also if there is no PA on public transport vehicles that announces which line it is as it’s approaching the stop, and it’s a city, not a small town or village, it’s quite a shitty city to be living in. Consider moving elsewhere. If they can’t get their accessibility shit right, no way they’re going to have working snow plows in winter. Also the underground canals are gonna be so clogged that a mildly heavy rain will…
I get your attitude, but I can't confirm. For one, I am not sure if you actually realize how much work it is to learn to navigate your environment blind in a city. Even if there is no PA, asking is a million times simpler then moving to another city, because, you know, if you move, you have to start all over again and will need at least a year until you can somewhat move freely in that new city again. Also, where I come from we are pretty used to snow. Its not quite far up north, but our snow plowing infrastructure works, and flooding isn't a common event either. So yeah, in general, I am on your side, I'd love to have a PA. But the truth is, in the two most largest cities in my country, there is none, so I have to resort to either knowing which line arrives where, or simply ask someone. I've gotten used to that. Also, I have a certain feeling that involving random strangers in accessibility issues is actually doing something for the society. It forces people to deal with the issues disabled people have.
Best book on early stage startups period. And it's barely 100 pages long. My favorite quote from it: “Someone should definitely make an X!” “Have you looked for an X?” “No, why?” “There are like 10 different kinds of X.” “Well I didn't really need it anyway.” Long story short, that person is a complainer, not a customer. They’re stuck in the la-la-land of imagining they’re the sort of person who finds clever ways to…
I had a conversation in the 90s with an acquaintance:
A: What the world really needs is a native Java compiler. That would be really great! You should write one.
W: I wrote one for Symantec. You can buy it today.
The mom test is one of those books that have a lot of good advice. Most summaries are quite bad and led me to think the book itself was bad, but thankfully, this is a good one.
Thank you for that! I really recommend reading the whole thing but I think a summary is really good to have as well.
Rob did an awesome job here :)
I've actually added The Mom Test to my recommended reading list for direct reports, since it helps a lot in requirements gathers from both internal and external customers.
Best book on early stage startups period. And it's barely 100 pages long. My favorite quote from it: “Someone should definitely make an X!” “Have you looked for an X?” “No, why?” “There are like 10 different kinds of X.” “Well I didn't really need it anyway.” Long story short, that person is a complainer, not a customer. They’re stuck in the la-la-land of imagining they’re the sort of person who finds clever ways to…
I had a conversation in the 90s with an acquaintance: A: What the world really needs is a native Java compiler. That would be really great! You should write one. W: I wrote one for Symantec. You can buy it today. A: I don't want it.
Best book on early stage startups period. And it's barely 100 pages long. My favorite quote from it: “Someone should definitely make an X!” “Have you looked for an X?” “No, why?” “There are like 10 different kinds of X.” “Well I didn't really need it anyway.” Long story short, that person is a complainer, not a customer. They’re stuck in the la-la-land of imagining they’re the sort of person who finds clever ways to…
I had a conversation in the 90s with an acquaintance: A: What the world really needs is a native Java compiler. That would be really great! You should write one. W: I wrote one for Symantec. You can buy it today. A: I don't want it.
I even did that to myself. I thought about a great product. I was convinced, so I wanted to build it (it would also fulfill my need). Of course then I did research if it already exists. It did. I didn't want it.
Heya, author here. Fun to see this. I wrote the book after becoming hugely frustrated as an introverted technical founder trying to "talk to customers" but finding zero books about sales/interviews/etc that spoke to my context. That first company (yc s07) failed just as I started to figure it all out, but the casual approach proved useful (and comfortable) in my future businesses, so I wanted to document it for other…
Looking forward to reading the book, looks great.
Just a small technical issue: I just tried to buy the book on http://momtestbook.com/ via Gumroad, and Chrome refuses to autofill the credit card number in the Gumroad widget because the site is http-only. I circumvented that by copying the link from the "Buy on Gumroad" button, but it might be hurting your sales. Consider adding SSL certificate or just make the button click open the Gumroad site.