The Mom Test – How to Create Better Products

Every person working on a new product aims to solve a customer’s problem, whether that is a better platform for video (looking at you, TikTok) or a cheaper way to buy furniture (Ikea). But building a product doesn’t necessarily mean that you will meet your customer’s needs.

There are multiple ways that product designers and developers have worked to align with their consumer base more closely. They may do ethnographic studies, focus groups, and trial product runs, among other practices. 

Samsung’s Milk team talk to mom

According to the new tell-all book about the Korean giant, Samsung Rising, the author offers unique insight into an internal practice. When working back in 2013 on a music project, Samsung took an innovative approach to create a better product. 

The product development team attempted to balance all the features they wanted with a product that was simple to use. So the lead, Daren Tsui came up with the “mom test” – he gave the prototype software to his mom.

Some mom’s aren’t very technical and struggle to use new technology, so this was a type of stress test that could help show areas that were difficult to use.

Daren was pleasantly surprised to find that his mom was able to use the main way to change the music, and innovative dial. After the test Tsui concluded “Okay, great. This is something that everybody can understand. It’s reminiscent of the old ay of changing radio stations, but it’s digital” (p. 225).

Why include your mom in testing

If your goal is to create an innovative solution, especially one for the mass market, it is critical that you make sure anyone can use your product easily. This person, of course, doesn’t need to be your mom.

The point is to find someone that –

• Is willing to try something new
• Is accessible to you (family works well)
• Will be honest with you
• Is not great with technology
• Is private enough to not share it with everyone 

Consider including a new QA test

As you develop a new website, user interface, app, hardware, among other new innovations, consider adding a new quality assurance test to your stack. Find someone like your mom, son, grandma, or grandpa – anyone that can fulfill the needs above and see if they can use your product well.

A couple of ideas to keep in mind during the test –

• Don’t give them too much guidance. Ask them to complete a specific task and see if they can do it. If not, that should tell you the level of usability. 
• Consider asking multiple people to ensure different types of people can use it. Diversity in your participants will serve you best.
• Take good notes and don’t give the participant too much feedback. You want a fresh pair of eyes on the interface.
• Always thank them for their time (you may need to ask them again someday!)

By including the target audience, and perhaps the fringe of the target audience, you find design flaws and weaknesses in your product and fix it while it is reality easy and cheap to do so. The next time you are building something, consider employing the “mom test.”