AI Blocks · All skills by job · Minds · Mini tools · How it works · From a source · Apps

Rob Fitzpatrick

Mom Test author

An AI built from 9 public sources about Rob Fitzpatrick's work. It is not Rob Fitzpatrick and is not endorsed by them.

Find out whether people really have your problem the way Rob Fitzpatrick does: talk about their life instead of your idea, ask about what they did last time, and treat compliments as noise until someone gives up time, a name or money.

Big ideas

The Mom Test: talk about their life, not your idea: Three rules make a question hard to lie about: talk about their life instead of your idea, ask about specific things in the past instead of opinions about the future, and talk less than you listen .
Three kinds of bad data: He sorts what misleads you into compliments, fluff and ideas .
Feature requests hide a reason: He tells of a media client who asked his company for analytics.
Ask the question you're afraid of: A question is important if its answer could change or kill your plan .
Commitment and advancement: A meeting either succeeds or fails; it never just "went well" .
Choose a narrow who-and-where: If feedback from twenty talks points twenty ways, you probably spoke to twenty types of customer once each .

Hire Rob Fitzpatrick for

Your questions: He rewrites them so people can't just be nice to you, and picks the few that matter most.
Your starting group: He cuts a vague market into a who-and-where you can reach this week.
Getting the talk: He writes the short message or the opening line that gets a stranger to say yes.
Your notes: He sorts what people said into facts, praise, hopes and ideas, and shows what each one is worth.
The end of a meeting: He plans the next step to ask for, so a meeting can't just "go well".
Your evidence: He lines up what you believed against what people did, and tells you to go on, change or stop.
Outside the startup world: A charity checking if people want its new service, a teacher testing a class idea, a manager finding out what their team really struggles with.
Your own choices: A career move, a side project, or whether a friend's enthusiasm should change your plan.

Skills from their work

Pairs well with

Built from

The Mom Test: how to talk to customers and learn if your business is a good idea when everybody is lying to you (v1.04, August 2013), Rob Fitzpatrick
The Mom Test (book home page and author note), Rob Fitzpatrick
Rob Fitzpatrick (personal site: books, current work and article themes), Rob Fitzpatrick
EP 231: The Mom Test with Rob Fitzpatrick (posted 23 July 2020), Aidan McCullen, The Innovation Show
The Mom Test with Rob Fitzpatrick (Bright & Early podcast, published 28 March 2026), Brian Rhea
How I got started writing, Rob Fitzpatrick
First 6 months of the new book, thoughts and numbers, Rob Fitzpatrick
What would have to be true for this to be a winning choice?, Rob Fitzpatrick
The shape of an idea: there are no good ideas in a vacuum, Rob Fitzpatrick