Coming Up with the Perfect Name

Names matter.  They immediately convey a message, before you even make it to a positioning statement.  Companies will pay consultants and spend lots of money trying to come up with the perfect name for their product… or their company, for that matter.  Even engineers aren’t immune, as they are often responsible for naming features or elements of a product… names in code that may stick in documentation or turn up in the UI somewhere… and before you know it, they’re terms being used by customers.  It’s the difference between people referring to that functionality as “F8 advanced startup configuration” or “safe mode.”

So how does one come up with a name?  Without succumbing to some level of marketing cutesy-ness that makes engineers gag?  Let me help you get your “MBA” in naming:

1) Message.  Figure out what you want to convey.
2) Brainstorm.  Write down all the related words you can think of.
3) Assemble.  Pick through and select different favorite words and combinations until you have a short list of 3-5 you like.

First, the Message. Take a step back and figure out what you’re trying to convey with the name.  Since a name is essentially a mini-positioning statement, you should avoid the temptation to simply come up with merely a descriptive name.  Boring!  You may also try to avoid conveying something.  For instance, if you want something to sound easy to use, you may not want a very complicated-sounding name.   If possible, write down in prose what your intended reaction is when someone hears this eventual name.

Got that?  Great.  Now the second step: Brainstorm. Start writing down as many words as you can that are related to what you’re trying to convey.  Pop up a thesaurus and go nuts.  One word may inspire another; give yourself permission to go off on tangents.

Once you’ve got a good list of words, you can Assemble. Start picking through them, combining them in whole or in part, discarding ones that give the wrong connotation, and otherwise manipulating them until you have a short list of favorites.  Try to come up with at least 3-5 choices.

Chances are good that you have other people who have a say in what this name is.  Take your short list of names and ask them to rank your list, or at least find out if they have any favorites or vetoes.  For bonus points, include at least one name you don’t like so the others look good by comparison.

Ready for some practice?  I received the following email asking me for help renaming a new product feature that’s part of a hosted telephony service.

We have a feature in the new release[... which] is the programmatic action to take if a call fails.  [...It] is currently called “Default Call Action”.   What this feature does is allow users to login and specify some ways that the customer wants the system to act if the application is unavailable.   The user can specify an optional wav file to play and then a phone number that the system will transfer the call to.

Below is a thread with a bit of brainstorming on how to rename this.   “Call Failure Action” was considered since this more accurately reflects what we are providing, but of course “Failure” is kind of a taboo word.   “Call Recover Action” was also suggested, although it was argued that we aren’t really “recovering” in this scenario just taking a different action.    None of these capture the fact that the customer has the flexibility to specify what will happen in this case.

So with the above brief description, give it a shot, and use your MBA.  Message: Figure out what you’re trying to say. Brainstorm: Generate your list of words.  Assemble: Come up with 3-5 potential names for the feature.  In my next post I’ll show you the message I chose, the words I brainstormed, my assembled short list of suggestions, and what the developers eventually went with.

This exercise is part of a larger theme when it comes to mixing an engineering mentality with a marketer’s task list — call it structured creativity.  It’s too easy for people to assume that marketing work is black magic, a vacuous practice beyond the reach of the left-brain logical thinkers.   Wrong.  It is possible to be creative on demand by following the right process — one that sets boundaries to guide your analysis but still opens the door for innovation and right-brain thinking.  Best of all, you don’t need an MBA in marketing — or naming — to accomplish this.