Exercise: Spot the Bad Interview Question

Below are six questions a founder might ask a potential customer. For each one, decide: does it follow the Mom Test rules (specific, past-tense, about their real life) — or does it break them (hypothetical, leading, about your idea)?

1. "Would you use an app that reminds you to drink more water?"
2. "Tell me about the last time you felt dehydrated during your workday — what did you do?"
3. "Do you think busy professionals need a better way to track expenses?"
4. "What's the last tool or method you used to track a work expense? Walk me through it."
5. "If I built a tool that did X, would you pay $15/month for it?"
6. "What are you currently spending money or time on to deal with [the problem]?"

Your task: Write down which ones are Mom-Test-good and which are bad, and for each bad one, rewrite it as a good one. There's no single correct rewrite — the test is whether your version asks about something real and specific that already happened, not a hypothetical about your idea.

Bring your answers to your next live session — your tutor will go through them with you and may put you on the spot with a couple more in real time.