• Startups, sales, designers wearing a research hat, UX researchers, business owners: this is a FABULOUS book that will improve how you speak to customers and find real insights
• Absolutely need to read if you ever talk to users or customers to help inform your product or business
• Written in plain, easy language and gives example conversations; short read but densely packed with value

<aside> ✏️ Below are my personal notes from reading the The Mom Test. This book is so great at putting UX Research ideas into everyday language. A must read for any researcher, but also anyone interested in improving how they receive feedback.

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Summary

• If you just avoid mentioning your idea, you automatically start asking better questions.
• The questions to ask are about your customers’ lives: their problems, cares, constraints, and goals.
• You aren’t allowed to tell them what their problem is, and in return, they aren’t allowed to tell you what to build. They own the problem, you own the solution.
• Don't interrupt; listen: When customers try to understand your idea ("...So it’s similar to...”), you will be hugely tempted to interrupt and “fix” their understanding. By listening, you get to understand their mental model.
• Ask the questions that could totally f*ck you. You can tell it’s an important question when its answer could completely change (or disprove) your business. You should be terrified of at least one of the questions you’re asking in every conversation.
• Understanding the big picture over the details. Everyone has problems they know about, but don’t actually care enough about to fix. And if you zoom in too quickly and lead them to that semi-problem, they’ll happily drown you in all the unimportant details.
• Pre-plan the 3 most important things you want to learn from any given type of person (e.g. customers, investors, industry experts, key hires, etc). Update the list as your questions change.

Rules of thumb:

• People know what their problems are, but they don’t know how to solve those problems.
• Ask about what they already do now, not what they believe they might do in the future.
• Avoid approval-seeking questions. Anyone will say your idea is great if you’re annoying enough about it.
• Give as little information as possible about your idea while still nudging the discussion in a useful direction.