Run a problem interview that asks about real past behaviour and pains, avoiding leading and hypothetical questions.
The Mom Test and good interview questions
The Mom Test and good interview questions
Customer development — popularised by Steve Blank and later refined by Rob Fitzpatrick in The Mom Test, and by Teresa Torres in Continuous Discovery Habits — is the practice of talking to real users to validate problems before building anything. The core rule is deceptively simple: ask about real past behaviour, not hypothetical future intentions. When you ask 'Would you use this feature?', people almost always say yes to be polite, even if they would never actually use it. That answer is worthless. Instead, ask 'Tell me about the last time you tried to do X — what happened?'
Three things to avoid in problem interviews. First, leading questions: 'Don't you find it frustrating that there's no dashboard?' tells the interviewee the answer you want and they will confirm it. Second, hypothetical questions: 'Would you pay for this?' or 'How much would you pay?' are opinions about an imaginary future; past behaviour is far more predictive. Third, compliment-fishing: 'We're building X — what do you think?' invites people to be kind rather than honest.
Three things to do instead. Ask about the last real time something happened ('Tell me about the last time you had to share a report with your manager'). Dig for specific stories and context ('What did you do? What did you try first?'). Trust facts about what people did over opinions about what they might do.
Example. Bad question: 'Would you use a tool that automatically summarises your emails?' Good rewrite: 'Tell me about the last time you felt overwhelmed by email. Walk me through what you did.' The good version reveals real behaviour, real coping strategies, and real pain — without planting the idea of a 'summariser' in the interviewee's mind.
Lesson notes
The Mom Test and good interview questions
Customer development — popularised by Steve Blank and later refined by Rob Fitzpatrick in The Mom Test, and by Teresa Torres in Continuous Discovery Habits — is the practice of talking to real users to validate problems before building anything. The core rule is deceptively simple: ask about real past behaviour, not hypothetical future intentions. When you ask 'Would you use this feature?', people almost always say yes to be polite, even if they would never actually use it. That answer is worthless. Instead, ask 'Tell me about the last time you tried to do X — what happened?'
Three things to avoid in problem interviews. First, leading questions: 'Don't you find it frustrating that there's no dashboard?' tells the interviewee the answer you want and they will confirm it. Second, hypothetical questions: 'Would you pay for this?' or 'How much would you pay?' are opinions about an imaginary future; past behaviour is far more predictive. Third, compliment-fishing: 'We're building X — what do you think?' invites people to be kind rather than honest.
Three things to do instead. Ask about the last real time something happened ('Tell me about the last time you had to share a report with your manager'). Dig for specific stories and context ('What did you do? What did you try first?'). Trust facts about what people did over opinions about what they might do.
Example. Bad question: 'Would you use a tool that automatically summarises your emails?' Good rewrite: 'Tell me about the last time you felt overwhelmed by email. Walk me through what you did.' The good version reveals real behaviour, real coping strategies, and real pain — without planting the idea of a 'summariser' in the interviewee's mind.