The Mom Test Questions: Good and Bad Examples

The Mom Test is easy to agree with and hard to execute. Most founders can recite the rules, then open their next customer call with "so, would you use something like this?" The gap closes fastest when you see real questions side by side: the version that produces polite noise, and the rewrite that produces evidence.

If you have not read the book, start with our Mom Test summary for startup founders. This post assumes the basics and goes straight to examples.

What makes a question "bad" in Mom Test terms

A bad question is not rude or stupid. It is a question whose answer cannot be trusted, usually for one of three reasons:

• It asks for an opinion about your idea, which invites politeness.
• It asks about the future, which invites optimistic guessing.
• It leads the witness, embedding the answer you hope to hear.

A good question asks about specific past behavior, real spending, or real consequences. The answers are checkable facts about the customer's life.

Side by side rewrites

Testing whether the problem exists

Bad: "Do you struggle with keeping track of customer feedback?"

This is leading. You named the struggle, and agreeing is the path of least resistance.

Good: "Walk me through the last time a customer complaint surprised you. What happened?"

Now they have to produce a story or admit there is not one. Either answer teaches you something.

Testing whether the problem matters

Bad: "Would it be valuable to solve this?"

Everything is valuable in the abstract. Yes costs nothing.

Good: "What have you already tried to fix this? What did it cost you?"

If they have never attempted a workaround, never budgeted for it, and never escalated it, the problem is probably a shrug, not a priority. Real pain leaves receipts.

Testing demand for a solution

Bad: "Would you pay for a tool that did this automatically?"

Hypothetical money is free. People say yes to imaginary purchases all day.

Good: "What do you currently pay for in this area? Who signed off on that?"

Existing spending is the strongest demand signal available before you have a product. It proves budget, urgency, and a purchasing process all at once.

Testing priorities

Bad: "Is this one of your top problems right now?"

You are asking them to rank your idea flatteringly while you sit in front of them.

Good: "What is eating most of your time this month?"

If your problem space never comes up unprompted, that silence is the answer. This question also surfaces the problems they would actually pay to remove, which is often better material than your original idea.

The commitment question

One category deserves special attention: the close. After a strong conversation, bad interviewers accept "this is great, keep me posted" as a win. The Mom Test treats that as a polite rejection.

Bad: "Can I keep you updated on our progress?"

Nobody refuses this. It commits them to receiving emails.

Good: "It sounds like this costs your team real time. Would you be open to a 30 minute pilot next month, or is there someone on your team who owns this that I should talk to?"

Advancement or evidence. If they dodge a concrete next step after describing serious pain, either the pain is smaller than it sounded or they are not the buyer. Both are important to know now.

A practice drill you can run today

Take your current interview script, or write down the five questions you asked on your last call. For each one, check:

1. Could the person answer without knowing my idea exists?
2. Does it ask about something that already happened?
3. Would a specific number, name, or date be a natural answer?

Rewrite anything that fails. If you are not sure what to replace them with, our list of customer discovery questions that find real pain is a good source of raw material, and the broader process lives in how to validate a startup idea before you build it.

Good Mom Test questions feel almost boring in the moment. There is no pitch, no reveal, no moment where the customer says your idea is brilliant. You trade that dopamine for something better: answers you can build a company on.