The Mom Test

The advice is to not ask your mom or ANYONE if your business idea is good, it's a bad question that people will lie to you about
No one is responsible to show us the truth, only we can get there through good questions

Digital cookbook example, you ask your mom if it's a good idea, she follows your lead and protects your ego, you don't listen to her hesitation and then she offers enthusiam which you take as a green light that you've validated it
Worst part is that after the conversation you're more convicned that it's a good idea, at least if you knew nothing you would be careful
Enough rope to hang ourselves

Ask about the situation in general then drill down to specifics (what apps do you use, what's the last thing you did"), you get real information about a productive use that she did, You dig into unexpected answers (she doesn't search for apps but relies on people telling her about them), you tackle the question from multiple points (ipad use and cookbook use), get useful information about buying habits of cookbook and then use specifics to get through unhelpful answers
She enjoys it and you get golden information that will show you a bad plan for what it is

Early conversation is useful if it gives us concrete information about customer's lives and world view
- Most people don't workout because view it as additional burden that unless they invest a lot in they won't get anything useful out of
Without specifics of a user a generic idea will never tell us the specific requirements that need to be included and won't have answers to difficult questions (how will you get users, what features do they need the most?)
Good conversations will also expose major risks to address
Key idea is that people can't lie to us about our idea if we never mention it
Just avoid mentioning your idea and you'll get an improvment

Talk about their life instead of your idea
Ask about specifics in the past instead of generics or opinions about the future