Steph Hay wrote a great post over at A List Apart on The Mom Test and keeping it real:

For me, no one on earth is better at calling me on my crap than my mom. She worked hard to birth me, raise me even when I was incredibly annoying, and guide me as I struggled through all my melodramatic “Who am I?” crises. All while deftly managing millions of dollars for an entire school system in Ohio.

So whenever I write content, I apply the Mom Test to ferret out hidden marketing or business jargon. Here’s how it works: I write content, then read it out loud while imagining my mom is listening. (Sometimes she actually is. Call your mom; she misses you.)

If at any point I envision my mom saying, “That sounds nice, Steph,” then I know it’s not real enough. The goal of this technique is always to elicit an actual reaction from her, like “Oooh, can I use it?” or “When is this event happening, again?” These substantive “What next?” responses indicate that she really understood.

I’ve been working on a product description for the new app forever, trying to refine it and make it more down-to-earth. It is so hard to do. I love The Mom Test. I had a chance to apply it this past week with an uncle of mine. He is a very smart man but generally doesn’t understand technology. I’ve spent years explaining to him what I do and he never seems to get it, always saying the best he can do is a text message and email. It’s always hard to tell but I get the impression he understood the new product, at least at a high level. We’ll see the next time I speak with him.

I started exercising consistently about a year ago. I’ve tried off and on and failed repeatedly. I’d get on the bike all summer, lose a bunch of weight, and then gain it all back in the winter. I realized a year ago I was trying to do too much in the winter and the pressure of trying to do too much kept me from doing anything. David Heinemeier Hansson talked about goal creep in a recent blog post:

It didn’t take long before my ambition swelled, and I upped the goal from finishing mid-pack to top 10. Of course, not before taking a brief moment to bask in the glory of reaching that first goal, enjoying success per my own definition. A definition that would surely have qualified as utter failure for many others (what schmuck is happy to be mid-pack among gentlemen?! At the time, me!).

And thus, the goal creep was on. It crept from top 10, to podium, to moving up to a bigger series, a faster car, more downforce, tougher competition, longer races, a better team, and on it went.

My old problem is that I didn’t let goal creep happen. I wanted to be on the podium before I even learned to ride. Last winter I took a different approach. I decided I didn’t have to be my high school weight again in one year. (That’s a joke. I was 6’1, 145 pounds when I graduated high school. I wouldn’t even want to be that light again, even if I could.) I wanted to lose the weight over multiple years. My first winter’s goal was to exercise for 20 minutes four days per week then ride all summer. This winter it’s 30 minutes and five days per week. I’ll keep letting the goal creep until I’m at a happy weight and fitness level.