The Imposter Method
Definition
Use an existing product or service as a starting point for your new product. Most new products or services are not completely new and different from existing ones. Many times there are other products and services that are close enough and, with some work, can be used to impersonate the new product you have in mind.
Test new markets, positioning, or features using products that already exist.
The Imposter Method is your fastest path to validation when you're not building something completely new—you're repositioning, repackaging, or adapting something that already exists.
When to Use The Imposter Method
Use this method when:
- ✅ You want to test a new market for an existing product
- ✅ You're exploring different positioning or messaging
- ✅ You need to validate a feature set before custom development
- ✅ An existing product is close enough to simulate your idea
- ✅ Building from scratch would take months, but you need data in weeks
Don't use this when: Your idea is truly novel and nothing similar exists to repurpose.
How It Works
The core principle: Take an existing product or service and relabel, repackage, or reposition it to impersonate your new idea. Then measure real behavior.
The 3-Step Process
1. Find your imposter
Identify an existing product that's close enough to your vision. It doesn't need to be perfect—it needs to be good enough to test the core hypothesis.
2. Adapt and relabel
Rebrand, repackage, or modify just enough to simulate your new positioning or target market. Keep changes minimal and fast.
3. Test with real stakes
Don't just show it and ask for opinions. Ask for deposits, pre-orders, or commitments that reveal actual willingness to pay.
Real-World Example: Tesla Roadster
The vision: An all-electric luxury sports car that could compete with high-end performance vehicles.
The problem: Building an electric car from scratch would cost hundreds of millions and take years. Elon Musk needed to know if anyone would actually buy one before making that investment.
The imposter: A Lotus Elise roadster—a lightweight, high-performance sports car with the right look and feel.
The adaptation:
- Ripped out the internal combustion engine
- Installed an electric motor and battery pack
- Made minor body modifications
- Kept the premium sports car aesthetic
The test: Musk drove the electric Lotus around and showed it to potential buyers. But he didn't stop at "Would you buy this?"
He asked: "Are you interested enough to write a $5,000 deposit check right now to get on the waiting list?"
The result: He got checks. Real money. Data, not opinions. That data justified the massive investment to build Tesla from the ground up.
More Examples
Enterprise Software: Testing a New Vertical
Scenario: Your CRM works well for tech companies. You think it could work for healthcare, but the sales cycle is different and you'd need to add compliance features.
The imposter approach:
- Take your existing CRM
- Create healthcare-specific demo data and workflows
- Rebrand the interface with healthcare terminology
- Pitch it to 10 healthcare prospects as if the compliance features exist (but note what's missing)
What you learn: Do they care about your core value prop, or do they immediately need features you don't have? Will they sign a letter of intent?
Consumer Product: New Positioning
Scenario: You sell a productivity app to freelancers. You think remote teams would love it, but they'd need collaboration features.
The imposter approach:
- Repackage your freelancer app with "teams" branding
- Create landing pages and messaging for the team use case
- Offer a "team plan" that's really just multiple individual accounts
- See if teams sign up and how they try to use it
What you learn: Is the team market interested? What collaboration features do they immediately ask for? Do they convert at team pricing?
How to Run Your Imposter Experiment
Step 1: Define Your Hypothesis
Be specific about what you're testing:
- ❌ "People will like our product in a new market"
- ✅ "At least 30% of healthcare clinic managers we demo to will request a trial within the next 30 days"
Step 2: Find Your Imposter
Ask yourself:
- What existing product is 60-80% similar to what we envision?
- What's the minimum adaptation needed to test the core hypothesis?
- Can we simulate missing features manually (Mechanical Turk) or just explain them?
Step 3: Set Up the Test
Choose your test metric:
- Deposits or pre-orders (strongest signal)
- Trial sign-ups with credit card required
- Detailed demo requests from qualified prospects
- Time spent using the imposter product
Avoid weak signals:
- "Would you use this?" (opinions)
- Email collection without commitment
- Likes, shares, or upvotes
Step 4: Adapt Just Enough
Don't over-invest. You need:
- ✅ Enough fidelity to test the core value proposition
- ✅ Branding/messaging that matches your target market
- ✅ A way to measure real behavior
You don't need:
- ❌ Perfect feature parity
- ❌ Custom development
- ❌ A finished product
Step 5: Run and Measure
Timeline: 2-4 weeks is usually enough to get meaningful data.
Sample size: Start with 20-50 target customers. If fewer than 5 show strong interest, you likely have a problem.
What to track:
- Conversion rate at each stage (views → demos → sign-ups → deposits)
- Questions and objections (what's missing that they need?)
- Time to decision (fast = strong signal, slow = weak signal)
Common Mistakes to Avoid
🚫 Making it too perfect
You're testing demand, not building the final product. Ship the imposter fast and rough.
🚫 Accepting opinions instead of commitments
"This looks interesting" means nothing. "Here's my credit card" means everything.
🚫 Testing too many variables at once
Test one big change: new market or new positioning or new features. Not all three.
🚫 Ignoring what's NOT working
If people don't bite on the imposter, the real version won't save you. Listen to the data.
What You Learn
A good Imposter experiment tells you:
- ✅ Market response: Do they care enough to commit?
- ✅ Feature gaps: What's missing that they need immediately?
- ✅ Pricing signal: Will they pay what you need to charge?
- ✅ Messaging fit: Does your positioning resonate?
- ✅ Go/no-go decision: Should you invest in building the real thing?
Moving Up the Validation Ladder
The Imposter Method is excellent for reaching the top of the validation ladder:
Interest → They look, they ask questions
Desire → They request demos, they share contact info
Willingness to Pay → They write checks, they sign contracts
If your imposter can't get real commitments, your custom-built version won't either.
🚀 Ready to test your idea with The Imposter Method?
Most teams spend 6-12 months building the "right" version of a product, only to discover the market doesn't care. An Imposter experiment gives you real data in 2-4 weeks.
What you get:
- Help identifying the right imposter product to adapt
- Experiment design to test your core hypothesis
- 2-4 week sprint to run the test and collect data
- Analysis of results and clear go/no-go recommendation
- Tracking and documentation in the Exponentially Platform
Related Methods
- The Mechanical Turk – Use humans to simulate features that don't exist yet
- The Fake Door – Test interest before you have anything to show
- The MVP – After your imposter validates demand, build the minimum real version
Learn More
- All Pretotyping Methods – Overview and decision framework
- Original Imposter Method article by Alberto Savoia at Google
