Mom Test examples — bad vs good, side by side
Four side-by-side conversation snippets showing the same founder running the same interview two ways — and getting completely different signal.
For the methodology — the 3 rules, the question structure — read the full Mom Test guide.
❌ Bad version
Founder: "We're building a project management tool for distributed teams. Would you use something like that?"
User: "Yeah, definitely. We're always looking for better tools."
Founder: "Great! Would you pay $20 a month per user?"
User: "Sounds reasonable. Send me a link when it's ready."
✓ Good version
Founder: "Tell me about how your distributed team currently coordinates work. What was the last project where coordination got hard?"
User: "Last quarter — we were rolling out a new feature across 3 time zones. Slack messages got buried, the PM didn't see blockers, two engineers worked on the same thing for a week."
Founder: "How did you eventually catch the duplication?"
User: "Standup the following Monday. Cost us $20K of engineering time."
Lesson:The bad version got two polite yeses and zero useful information. The good version surfaced a $20K pain point and the moment it was discovered.
❌ Bad version
Founder: "I'm thinking of building a fitness app that uses AI to design workouts. Sound interesting?"
User: "Yeah, sounds cool. I've been wanting to get back in shape."
Founder: "How much would you pay for that?"
User: "Like $10 a month? Maybe $15."
✓ Good version
Founder: "When was the last time you tried to start working out consistently?"
User: "Three months ago. Got a Peloton, used it for 5 weeks, stopped."
Founder: "What made you stop?"
User: "I got bored doing the same classes, and I didn't know which one to pick when I had 40 minutes."
Founder: "When you stopped, did you feel guilty about the cost?"
User: "Yeah. I'm still paying $44/month and I haven't opened the app in 6 weeks."
Lesson:The good version found the actual problem (boredom + decision fatigue) AND a strong willingness-to-pay signal ($44/month already being paid for unused service). The bad version got a hypothetical $10–15 price.
❌ Bad version
Founder: "We're building an AI assistant that joins your sales calls and writes summaries. Useful?"
User: "Yeah, our sales team would love that. We waste so much time on notes."
Founder: "How much would your team pay for it?"
User: "I'd need to check, but probably worth $30 a seat."
✓ Good version
Founder: "How does your team currently handle call notes?"
User: "Reps take notes in Salesforce after each call. Some are great, some are 2 lines."
Founder: "When was the last time bad notes caused a problem?"
User: "Last week. AE forgot a customer's objection from the discovery call, brought it up again on the demo. Customer got annoyed, deal slipped."
Founder: "What did you do about it?"
User: "Yelled at the rep. Asked why we don't have call recordings. Looked at Gong but it's $1,500/seat — out of budget."
Lesson:The good version surfaced the specific incident, the decision-maker behavior, the existing tool consideration, AND the budget ceiling. The bad version got a hypothetical $30 with no anchor.
❌ Bad version
Founder: "Would you use an app that plans your meals based on what's in your fridge?"
User: "Honestly, yes. I throw out so much food."
Founder: "Cool! What features matter most?"
User: "Probably barcode scanning, recipes, maybe a shopping list."
✓ Good version
Founder: "Walk me through last week's meals. What did you actually eat?"
User: "Ordered DoorDash 3 nights, made pasta twice, ate cereal for dinner once."
Founder: "You said you throw out food — when was the last time?"
User: "Last Sunday. Found a half-bag of spinach and some chicken from a week ago. About $15 of food."
Founder: "What made you not cook them?"
User: "I came home tired, didn't want to think about what to make, ordered DoorDash. Then forgot they were there."
Lesson:The good version revealed the real problem isn't lack of recipes — it's decision fatigue at 7pm. Different product entirely than what the bad-version interview implied.
Catch yourself in real time
Reading the examples is easy. Catching yourself slipping into the bad version mid-conversation is hard. We built GoNoGo as a 30-min drill — voice AI asks Mom Test questions, then shows you the transcript with traps highlighted.
Practice for free →30 min · No credit card · Then talk to humans