The Mom Test" of Corma Company: How It Improves License Management

When building a SaaS platform that revolutionises how companies interact with software, it is critical to ensure that the product tackles real customer pain points. But how do you get honest and valuable feedback from potential customers? The Mom Test, a book written by Rob Fitzpatrick, has become somewhat of a bible for the team at Corma when it comes to approaching customer interviews.

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The Mom Test was written to help founders and startup teams ask questions that lead customers to give you truthful answers, rather than the answers you want to hear. The approach should be straightforward enough that even your mom wouldn't give false praise or spare your feelings. At Corma, we use this framework to understand the challenges that mid-market companies face in managing their software stack. Here’s how it works for us:

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Asking Better Questions with the Mom Test

It might be tempting to ask questions along the lines of: “Would you use a tool that centralises your SaaS usage and automates access management for softwares?”. This question sounds normal, but it often leads to biased responses. To not hurt your feelings, customers might answer with “yes” even if they don't fully mean it. The result is that you'll walk away thinking that this customer wants your product, while in reality, your customers' needs haven't been thoroughly explored.

The Mom Test teaches us to ask more insightful, open-ended questions. Instead of selling our product upfront and asking if they would need it, we ask questions like:

• “Do you have an overview of the SaaS available in the company?”
• “Can you walk us through the challenges you face when onboarding or offboarding employees?”
• “What was the last software contract you renegotiated, and how did it go?”

These types of questions focus on the real experiences of the customers and allow us to understand their pain points.

Avoiding False Positives

One of the biggest challenges we face during interviews is avoiding false positives, where customers give encouraging answers that aren't backed by real need. The Mom Test allows us to uncover the the core issues that make managing SaaS difficult, from lack of centralised visibility to inefficiencies in managing employee accesses.

Asking unbiased questions allows us to understand wether our solution is genuinely solving the problems our customers have.

Driving Product Innovation

At Corma, we set out to provide our customers with the “IT in your pocket” experience for automated user provisioning and managing software licences. The Mom Test helps us get a clearer picture of the pain points our customers face, which in turn fosters product innovation. Identifying the most crucial point or pain point allows us to prioritize which features or innovations to develop next. When we address the right customer pain point, a wonderful solution can emerge that truly resonates with users.

The feedback we gather through this approach ensures we frequently develop new features to build solutions that truly matter. Offering a service and asking customers for a financial commitment, such as signing up or pre-ordering, helps us validate genuine interest and test if people are willing to spend money on our idea. As a startup founder, applying these principles has been invaluable in learning what works and what doesn't. We make it a priority to write down and document customer insights to guide our product development process. There are also courses available that teach effective customer conversations and The Mom Test principles, helping teams learn how to ask better questions and understand user behavior.

Case Studies and Success Stories

The impact of The Mom Test extends far beyond theory—its principles have been put into practice by countless entrepreneurs, startup founders, and established companies to drive real results. By focusing on honest customer conversations and avoiding biased feedback, teams have been able to validate business ideas, refine their products, and create services that truly solve customer problems.

One standout example is Graphite, a company that built a code review platform now trusted by tens of thousands of developers. The founders relied on The Mom Test to structure their early customer conversations, steering clear of leading questions and instead listening for genuine pain points. This approach helped them uncover a real market need and develop a solution that resonated with their users—proving the value of honest, well-structured feedback.

Similarly, many early-stage startups have used The Mom Test to validate new digital services. By talking to a few customers and asking open-ended questions about their past experiences and current challenges, these teams were able to quickly determine whether their ideas addressed real needs. This process not only saved time and effort but also ensured that the final product was something customers were willing to pay for.

Even established companies like Shopify and Pact Coffee have adopted The Mom Test as a practical guide for customer development and sales. By training their teams to avoid leading questions and focus on listening, they’ve been able to gather more valuable insights, improve their offerings, and strengthen customer relationships.

Rob Fitzpatrick, the author of The Mom Test, continues to share practical advice and real-world examples through his website and YouTube channel, making the book a living resource for anyone looking to improve their customer discovery process. Entrepreneurs and business leaders consistently praise The Mom Test as a must-read, quick read, and one of the best books for anyone serious about validating a business idea and building a company that truly meets customer needs.

The key takeaway from these success stories is clear: when you structure your customer conversations to avoid biased feedback—even from friends, family, or your mom—you unlock honest insights that can make or break your business. The Mom Test offers a practical, actionable framework that helps teams focus on what matters most: listening to customers, validating ideas, and building solutions that solve real problems in the world.

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your existing process, The Mom Test is a valuable resource that can help you and your whole team create products and services that customers love. By applying its wisdom, you can avoid the common pitfalls of biased feedback and wasted effort, and instead focus on building a business that stands the test of time.

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