SaaS Strategists,

Let’s face it.

Your mom is your #1 supporter.

If you ask your mom about your startup idea, the feedback will always be positive.

As a startup founder, you wouldn’t like to end up in a dead end & find out that your SaaS idea isn’t worth a penny after investing 6 months in building it right?

That’s why you need to know how to ask the right questions so that even your mom will tell you if your idea sucks.

In today’s issue, we cover a SaaS validation strategy simply called:

‘The Mom Test’

Here’s how to achieve it 👇️ 

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How to utilize The Mom Test the right way

The Mom Test is a book published by Rob Fitzpatrick that dives deep into a specific topic:

How to talk to your customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you.

The core idea is that you will always think you have the next $1B idea if you ask your mom.

That’s why you need to be smart & ask the right questions so that even if your idea SUCKS, your mom will confirm it.

The main thing that Rob talks about in his book is that you should never, ever pitch your idea directly.

You always want to talk with your potential customers & see if they are facing a problem you’re trying to solve, as well as how urgent it is for them to be solved.

THE GOAL is to get the most unbiased feedback possible.

You want your customers not to feel like they are being researched, but rather to feel like you’re having a casual chat at the bar.

Here’s a breakdown of the main concepts in The Mom Test Strategy:

As you can see, the main concept relies on asking open-ended questions

Don’t ask:

❌ Do you think this idea is good?

❌ How much would you pay for X?

❌ I’m building X. Would you use it?

Instead, ask:

✅ Can you explain your workflow to me?

✅ Can you tell me about a time when you faced this problem?

✅ Did you try to solve those problems in the past?

• ✅ If yes: What solutions did you try?

  • Did they work? What did you like about them?

  • If they didn’t work out: Why not?

• ❌ If no: Why haven’t you looked any further for solutions?

Main concepts you should follow when using The Mom Test

• Avoid pitching your idea directly

• Focus on understanding the problem - sometimes what you think is the biggest selling point could be proven wrong by your audience. Ask them what problems they are facing.

• Test your assumptions

• Search patterns in the feedback - Did someone else said something similar?

Here’s a quick exercise:

Create 5 open-ended questions specifically based on your SaaS industry & try to use them in your next casual conversation.

You’ll validate your idea sooner than you think.

🔝 Top Tweets

Here are the 2 top tweets for this week:

🔥 SaaS Fire

SaaS products so good they'll light up your week:

Graphy.new is a tool that helps you easily create beautiful charts that you can share to your social media.

Not a SaaS itself, but definitely a valuable resource! Saasprompts will help you write better prompts that elevate your SaaS game. 🔥 

💡Idea of the Week

Here’s the SaaS idea of the week:

AI Linkedin prospecting tool. This tool automatically analyzes a prospect’s LinkedIn profile in order to determine which prospects are most likely to be converted, allowing sales professionals to focus their efforts on the most promising leads.

Pros

• Increased efficiency with automated recommendations

• Customizable criteria allows you to tweak the algorithm to your own liking

Cons

• Limited to LinkedIn

• Initial training overhead is required in order to set the tool up properly

That’s it for today!

Now go ahead & try to get feedback for your next SaaS idea from your mom!

I’ll see you next Thursday.

Ognjen Gatalo

Chief SaaS Strategist ☁️ 

P.S. If you know someone that is building a SaaS, forward this newsletter to them.