Spot the poisoned question · round 1
Which one poisons the answer?
A
Would you use an app that organizes your notes automatically?
B
Walk me through the night before your last mock exam.
▸ reveal after the vote
A is poisoned. It begs for a polite yes. B gets a story, and stories cannot lie.
Spot the poisoned question · round 2
Which one poisons the answer?
A
What did you do the last time you forgot homework?
B
Do you think forgetting homework is a big problem for students?
▸ reveal after the vote
B is poisoned. It asks for an opinion about people in general. A asks what YOU actually did.
Spot the poisoned question · round 3
Which one poisons the answer?
A
How much would you love a study planner with AI?
B
Have you ever paid for anything that helps you study? What was it?
▸ reveal after the vote
A is poisoned. Love is free and worthless. B checks for real past spending: behaviour, not feelings.
You first
Why would your own mother lie to you?
▸ click to reveal after they answer
Because she loves you. Politeness is not demand. Ask about the LAST TIME the problem happened, behaviour tells the truth.
Why everyone lies · 1
The mom reveal
Your mom will say yes to almost anything you build. Not because your app is good. Because disappointing you costs her more than a small lie costs anyone. Every person you interview this morning is running the same math, just with a smaller discount.
Why everyone lies · 2
Politeness has a mechanism
Saying no feels like an attack. Saying yes feels like a gift, and it is free until they actually have to use your product. In Beijing there is even a word for it: mianzi, face. Nobody wants to be the one who makes you lose yours by rejecting your idea to your face.
Why everyone lies · 3
What they say vs what they do
Says
"This is so cool, I would use this every single day!"
Does
Closes the tab. Never opens it again. Downloads a different app the next morning.
Trust the second one. Always.
The three rules
The whole Mom Test, three moves
Their life, not your idea
The moment your app comes up, they get nice. Stay on their morning, their homework, their group chat.
Past behaviour, not future promises
Anyone can promise to use something tomorrow. Ask what they actually did last time.
Listen more than you talk
About 20 percent you, 80 percent them. Talking a lot means you are pitching, not interviewing.
Hear it in practice
Your idea vs their life
Your idea
So would you use an app that reminds you to submit homework on time?
Their life
Walk me through what happens the morning an assignment is due.
You first
In a good interview, what percent of the talking should be you?
▸ click to reveal after they guess
20%
you talk
80 percent them. If you are doing most of the talking, you already lost the interview, you are pitching.
The four questions
That is the entire script
01
Walk me through the last time you [problem]
02
What did you do about it? What did it cost you?
03 + 04
Tried anything else? · If this vanished forever, what would you honestly do?
Questions 1 and 2 of 4
Force one memory. Force a number.
Q1 · walk me through the last time
"Yeah that happens a lot" is a pattern, not a memory. Push for one exact time: where were you, what did you do the second after?
Q2 · what did it cost you
"It was annoying" is a feeling, not a cost. Push for a real number: minutes, yuan, or a grade.
Questions 3 and 4 of 4
Read the alternative. Read the honest future.
Q3 · tried anything else?
"No, nothing" rarely means no competition. It usually means the pain was not big enough yet, or they gave up. Ask why they stopped.
Q4 · if it vanished forever?
The trap: "well what if I built X, would you use that?" That is a pitch, not a question. Watch their face, not just their words.
Leading questions
A leading question hands them the answer
If your question contains "wouldn't", "don't you think", or your own idea, you already told them what to say. A neutral question makes them think for themselves.
Leading vs neutral, three times
By the third one, finish it yourself
Leading · homework
Don't you think it'd be great if homework reminders synced automatically?
Neutral
Walk me through how you keep track of homework deadlines.
Leading · splitting a bill
Wouldn't it be so much easier to split a bill with one tap?
Neutral
Tell me about the last time you split a bill with friends.
Leading · studying
You'd probably use an app that summarizes the textbook chapter, right?
Neutral
What do you actually do the night before a reading quiz?
Quick physical check · do it nowOFFLINE · screens closed
Turn to your neighbor. Ask them a leading question. On purpose.
1:00 on the clock
1Pick any topic. Lunch, homework, the weekend.
2Ask a question that hands them the answer: "Wouldn't it be great if..."
3If you just got asked one, raise your hand.
1:00
Room catches every hand
You first
What's wrong with "wouldn't it be cool if..."?
▸ click to reveal after they answer
It is not a question, it is a pitch wearing a question mark. They will always say yes to being nice.
Before you dojo
How you sit changes what they say
Keep a poker face
Don't light up at good news, don't wince at bad news. Any reaction teaches them what to say next.
Let the silence sit
Count to three after they answer before you talk again. The real answer often comes after the pause.
Write their exact words
Quotes, not summaries · Destination: TEAM FOLDER. Put quotation marks on the page, live, while they are still talking.
Why practice first
Claude will be meaner than your mom
It plays a polite, evasive, slightly-lying adult, exactly like a real interview, then it turns around and scores every leading question you asked. No human interview partner will do that for you.
Copy this prompt · run it now
The dojo: Claude plays the customer
Role-play a customer for my problem interview. Be realistic: polite, a bit evasive, occasionally lying to be nice, like a real adult talking to a student. After the interview, score me: which of my questions were leading? Where did I pitch instead of listen? What did I fail to follow up on? Problem area: [X]. (This is Day 1 prompt anatomy aimed at a conversation: context, instruction, format, iterate.)
Demo · watch one round first
I run round zero. Then you run round one.
LIVE DEMO · no rehearsal
"Role-play a customer for my problem interview. Then score me."
Run live, on a real problem from the room. Whatever the score says, it says.
YOU DO
Just watch this one. Open your own laptop and have the dojo prompt ready to paste, but don't run it yet. Notice the shape: interview first, score second.
Exercise 1 · do it now
FOLLOW ALONG · laptops openDojo round 1
5:00 on the clock
1Run a full interview against Claude-as-customer.
2Get your score: leading questions, pitches, missed follow-ups.
5:00
Groan at your score
Debrief · 60 seconds
Read your score before round 2
Leading questions
Count how many Claude flagged. Circle your worst one.
Pitches
Moments you described your idea instead of asking a question.
Fix ONE thing
Not all three. Pick your worst habit and kill it in round 2.
Exercise 2 · do it now
FOLLOW ALONG · laptops openDojo round 2
5:00 on the clock
1Same customer, new interview. Fix the one thing round 1 caught.
2Compare scores. Biggest jump gets read to the room.
5:00
Share the biggest jump
10:08
Read your biggest jump to the room
One team reads their round 1 leading question next to their round 2 fix, out loud. This becomes the shared example everyone remembers walking out the door.
The real sprint
Who, what, and how you rotate
5+ interviews
Cross-team, staff, parents on WeChat, friends by video
Quotes, not summaries · Destination: TEAM FOLDER
Write what they SAID, on paper
Never pitch
You are a detective, not a salesperson
Work in pairs
One asks, one writes, silently. Never both talking at once.
Swap every interview
Whoever wrote last time asks next. Everyone gets both reps.
Mix your targets
At least three different kinds of people
Calling a parent
The WeChat call, step by step
1Voice or video call your parent. Tell them it's the deeper version of last night's four questions.
2Put the phone on speaker so your partner can hear and write too.
3Ask all four questions before you say one word about your idea.
4Thank them, hang up, write your best quote down before you forget it.
THE WALL wants quotes
Would you write this down?
Not a quote, an opinion
"I think that's such a good idea, I would totally use it!"
A quote worth the wall
"Last Tuesday I forgot my planner at home, so I just guessed on the reading and got it wrong."
Proof this actually works
Before Dropbox worked, its founder just showed people a video.
75,000 signups overnight, from one screen recording, before the product reliably worked. Validate first. You're about to do the same thing, on foot, in the hallway.
Go deeper · optional
The Mom Test, and one legendary demo
The book today's four questions come from
short read
Rob Fitzpatrick's Mom Test, free excerpts and the whole framework, straight from his own site.
momtestbook.com
YC's version of today's whole lesson
quick watch
A Y Combinator partner on how to actually talk to users, the direct companion to what you practiced with Claude this morning.
youtube.com/watch?v=z1iF1c8w5Lg
The demo video that got 75,000 signups
2 min watch
Drew Houston made a short video of Dropbox before Dropbox really worked. The most famous proof that talking to (and showing) real people beats guessing.
youtube.com/watch?v=3lVtP0HRvyA
All three are on the portal too.
13:15 · next
This afternoon: sense-making with AI
Bring your quotes back at 1:15. Claude clusters your notes into patterns and calls out which of your conclusions you're only reaching because you want them to be true.