5 creative takes on the painted door test

Business tips

Which is easier? (1) Painting a picture of a door. (2) Building a door from scratch, installing it, making sure it opens and closes, adding a lock, getting the keys made, realizing you installed the lock upside down, redoing it, and...I think that's it, but honestly I'd have given up when I saw the 2x4s.

That's the idea behind the painted door test: you can save yourself a lot of time and effort by "painting" new features or products—to be sure people want them—before actually building them. Here, entrepreneur Neal Taparia talks about how he and his co-founder use painted door tests across all aspects of their business.

Grab a brush

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