These days, thanks to Lean Startup and Lean UX, I’m fairly obsessed with the idea of faking things.

Faking product ideas, faking product features (see Fast, Frugal Learning with a Feature Fake), faking whatever is necessary to help us rapidly and economically learn about customer needs.

So I was extremely impressed the other day with a fake that came courtesy of my daughter Eva.

Eva (pictured in the dalmatian costume above) has a friend who was having a birthday. The boy’s parents know that their son loves Halloween. But his birthday happens to be in April, not October.

Showstopper right?

Nope.

The boy's parents simply decided to fake Halloween

They bought lots of candy, distributed it to 4 neighbors who kindly agreed to go along with the fun and presto, six 4-year-olds trick-or-treating in April!

In the 12 years that I’ve been in and around kid birthday parties, I’ve yet to encounter such an ingenious fake!

What are you faking these days?