The mom test

What Hacker News says

1. nzlendSep 2026
   Recommend the Mom Test as good place to start on how you can make sales before having a product (and figuring out if your product is something people actually want):

   https://inkubator.si/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/The-Mom-Test...

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2. ungreased0675May 2026
   What are you doing to learn how to PM?

   I recommend reading The Mom Test.

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3. lelanthranApr 2026
   >> We’re excited. When can you come back and show us a prototype?”

   > When you've put your hand in your pocket.

   I thought the same thing. From my reading of "The Mom Test", my sales strategy changed to incorporate the lies that a business would tell you to avoid hurting your feelings.

   Basically, if you cannot give me a purchase order after seeing the software, you don't want it!

   I do like the idea of a cancellable purchase order that they sign: organisations need an earthquake to move them sometimes. Once that thing is approved and signed by the powers that be, absolutely no one in that org is going to bother cancelling it and going with a competitor.

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4. rozumemApr 2026
   I fell into the same trap of "build, and they will come" multiple times. Reading The Mom Test changed my perspective on things. I cannot recommend that book enough. Good luck. It's possible. I started my SaaS 8 yrs ago and it more than pays for my lifestyle.
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5. groaskFeb 2026
   Most solo developers spend 90% of their time writing code and 10% on everything else. After a few years of building indie products — some failures, a couple that found traction — I've tried to document the framework I wish I'd had earlier.

   The framework has four phases: clarify, build, grow, monetize. None of it is novel. The value is in applying it in order, because most failures happen when you skip the first phase and go straight to the second.

   Clarify first. Before writing code: who exactly are you solving a problem for, and what problem are you solving? The answer needs to be specific enough to function as a filter for future decisions. "Productivity software for remote workers" is not an answer. "A tool that helps freelance developers track billable time without switching contexts" is closer.

   Once you have that, validate the problem using a simple heuristic: Frequency × Intensity × Scale. A problem that's frequent, painful, and affects many people is real. A problem that scores high on only one dimension is usually not worth building around. Also: what users say they want and what they actually do are different. Design around behavior, not stated preferences.

   Competitive research belongs here too. The 1-star reviews on app stores and complaint threads in relevant communities are a map of unmet needs. That's your opportunity space.

   Build less, ship sooner. The right unit to build is the minimum thing that lets a real user accomplish the core task. Every feature beyond that is a liability until it's validated. The goal is to shorten the loop: build → ship → real user feedback → iterate. Most indie products fail because this loop is too slow, not because the underlying product is bad.

   Grow through content and community. Paid acquisition before you've validated the model is expensive and usually misleading. Content that addresses real problems in your domain compounds over time. Community participation — being genuinely useful in places where your target users already are — builds trust that converts at higher rates than ads. The practical version: write about problems you've actually solved. Show up consistently. Don't make every post about your product.

   Charge before you feel ready. Delayed monetization is usually a form of avoiding the most important feedback signal. If nobody pays, that tells you something essential — and you want to learn it as early as possible, not after six months of building. Think through the unit economics: LTV needs to exceed CAC, or you don't have a business yet. Retention matters more than acquisition. Track the metric that best reflects whether users are getting value, and let that drive decisions.

   The short version: define who you're solving for, validate before building, ship in small increments, and charge for your product sooner than feels comfortable. The hard part isn't technical — it's the discipline to do the unsexy work before the fun work.

   A note on the sequencing: most indie product failures I've seen — including my own — share the same pattern. The builder had a problem they wanted to solve, skipped the validation phase, built for months, shipped, and discovered either that nobody wanted it or that the people who wanted it wouldn't pay. The fix is not to become a business person instead of a developer. It's to do a small amount of structured thinking upfront and revisit it regularly as you learn. The code is the easy part.

   One resource I'd point to: Rob Fitzpatrick's "The Mom Test" for the validation phase. The core idea — ask about problems, not solutions, and watch behavior rather than taking stated preferences at face value — has saved me significant amounts of time building things that turned out not to matter.

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6. rasulkireevJan 2026
   FINISHED:

   - Traction by Gabriel Weinberg (it's ok)

   - A Skill Called Luck by Jakob Greenfeld (very good)

   - Unf*ck Your Sales by Jakob Greenfeld (very good)

   - Books by Alex West (very good)

   - How to Live by Derek Sivers (very very good)

   - Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown (really enjoyed it)

   - The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (it's okay)

   - The Narrow Road by Felix Dennis (it's okay)

   - Oh Crap! Potty Training by Jamie Glowacki (success)

   - Вишнёвый Сад Чехов Антон Павлович (did not like it at all)

   - Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift (liked it)

   - Hunt, Gather, Parent Michaeleen Doucleff (this book is a game changer, strong recommend for every parent)

   - MAKE by Pieter Levels

   - Main Street Millionaire by Codie Sanchez

   - Start Small, Stay Small by Rob Walling

   - The Sweaty Startup by Nick Huber

   - The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury (did not like it at all)

   - Чем Люди Живы Лев Николаевич Толстой (nice)

   - 80/20 Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall (pretty good)

   - Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (eye opening)

   - Growth Levers and How to Find Them by Matt Lerner (meh)

   - Alexander Pushking Stories (very nice. crazy how he makes rhymes yet the whole thing makes sense)

   IN_PROGRESS:

   - War and Piece (I'm shocked at how much I'm liking it)

   - Scaling Fast by Swizec Teller (really good, about to finish)

   - Unreasonable Hospitality (it alright)

   - Mom Test (it's good, but for some reason I keep failing to finish it)

   - Marcus Aurelius Meditations (reading it slowly as inspiration strikes)

   - Seneca Dialogues

   - Ultimate Guide to Link Building by Garrett French

   STARTED, BUT DID NOT FINISH (That's a big add list):

   - Michel de Montaigne "Essays"

   - Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (feels to hard to tackle right now)

   - Seeking Wisdom

   - Product Led Growth

   - Demand Side Sales

   - Odyssey by Homer

   - Full Stack Tao by Alex Kondov

   - Logic for Programmers

   - The Story of Philosophy

   - The Story of Civilization Vol 1

   - The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx

   - Economic Facts and Fallacies Thomas Sowell

   - The Beginning of Infinity David Deutsch

   - Obviously Awesome by April Dunford

   - SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Mary Beard

   - American Kingpin by Nick Bilton (it's good, just felt irrelevant, will revisit)

   - Indexing Beyond the Basics by Tobias Petry (only read it when necessary)

   - The Mind Illuminated by John Yates (can't keep meditations to stick)

   Note:

   - I keep notes on books I finished on my site, but need to bring it up to date: https://www.rasulkireev.com/book-notes/

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