How to name and describe your product

1 The bottom line

Name your product for the outcome users want, in words they already use, and keep the story to three or four points. Users buy a result they can picture in one line, so vague categories and technical terms lose sales.

2 Key takeaways

• Sell the result users want, not the activity or the category. People pay when the product points at a better life.
  • Adam Turaev, Praktika12:45 sold a better job instead of English lessons, and users in a low-income market paid about $100 a year.
  • Dris, Methods9:09 dropped "UGC marketplace" for "the new way to make money online", and users doubled every two weeks.
• Use words users already know. A familiar word needs no explaining.
  • Leon Sasson, Rise7:47 renamed "homeostatic sleep drive" as "sleep debt".
  • Melissa Cash, Pok Pok24:00 used the word "Montessori" after a customer review made the link.
• Let your price be judged against a bigger cost. A costly alternative makes your price look small.
  • Ethan Ethier, Built With Science28:00 calls the app a trainer in your pocket at about $189 a year, and trial-to-paid is 35 to 40% on organic YouTube traffic.
• Keep the story to three or four points. Customers do not absorb more than that.
  • Tony Fadell, Apple, Nest, Build Collective46:10 says anything past that "becomes gobbledygook for a customer".
  • Daniel Heintzman, Cal AI45:40 checks that a feature's title alone makes people want it.
• Open the page with a short benefit line. Clear value can lift sales without a discount.
  • Goldelucks added benefit-first descriptions and orders rose 31.56%.

We didn't sell English to them. We sold them an opportunity to get a better job.

Adam Turaev, Praktika

2.1 Pick the outcome and the category

Decide what result you sell and what box you sit in before you choose any words.

• Sell the outcome, not the activity. Source: Adam Turaev, Praktika12:45
  • Frame every claim around the result, such as a better job.
  • Compare your price to the cost of the alternative. Praktika's "50X cheaper than a tutor" claim came from this.
  • Brazil has weak purchasing power and few consumer subscriptions, yet people paid about $100 a year Turaev12:45.
• Reframe away from the category name. Source: Dris, Methods9:09
  • Methods first called itself a UGC marketplace app and nobody wanted to join.
  • Selling to companies works the same way. Promise conversions, money and virality instead of UGC or influencer marketing, and they pay more.
  • Methods now ranks first for "make money online" searches.
• Define the product by what people do with it. Source: Mikey Shulman, Suno37:58
  • Suno is not an AI-powered Spotify for passive listening, because Spotify already offers more music than anyone can hear.
  • It offers creative entertainment, where people entertain themselves by making things.
  • Mikey frames value as a pyramid. Utility is the base, entertainment sits above it, and fulfillment is the top.
• Stay narrow enough to be known for one thing. Source: Tyler Denk, beehiiv40:30
  • "Newsletter platform plus anything you need to build around it" beats the vague "creator platform for anyone with an audience".
  • Expanding into an everything platform makes the product harder to describe. When asked about newsletter platforms, ChatGPT names beehiiv and Substack first and second.

2.2 Choose the comparison for your price

The comparison you invite sets how expensive your product feels.

• Position the app against a pricier human service. Source: Ethan Ethier, Built With Science28:00
  • Frame the app as a personal trainer in your pocket, not a tracker, so users compare it to the cost of a trainer.
  • Keep the framing in paid ads too. Meta ads never call it a tracker.
  • The price is about $189 a year or $30 a month and has not changed since launch. Trial-to-paid is about 25% on Meta.
• Show that the product returns more than it costs. Source: Casper, Payout28:26
  • The easiest sale is spending X and getting X plus more back.
  • Payout costs about $40 a year and users can expect to claim at least $200. Casper calls this the biggest formula he has seen for apps to succeed.

2.3 Name the product

A good name tells people who it is for and what to expect.

• Name the app after the niche, not the founder. Source: Nancy Anderson, Natal38:19
  • Natal tells people in one word that it is for pre and postnatal women.
  • Nancy built the brand as Nancy Anderson Fit for a long time and says she would not do it again. A founder name also makes it hard to share the spotlight with other coaches.
• Pick the word that signals the right promise. Source: Tomas Hoyos, Apt24:37
  • Apt says "career mentor", not "career coach". Coaching carries stigma, high cost and scheduling friction.
  • The mentor framing sits in your pocket, is available 24/7 and costs less than a cup of coffee a day.
  • Career coaching is described as a $7 billion market.
• Borrow one familiar word that carries your values. Source: Melissa Cash, Pok Pok24:00
  • Pok Pok first marketed its open-ended, creativity-led pillars and nobody cared.
  • A customer review compared it to Montessori. The word signals good education, creativity and independence even if only half of users can define it.
  • Melissa calls it a crazy unlock.
• Tie the name to the reason the company exists. Source: Kenneth Schlenker, Opal33:40
  • Opal began with a written manifesto about attention-stealing technology before any product existed.
  • The name is the opposite of a phone: a calming gemstone versus warm, electric glass and aluminum.
  • The gemstone theme runs through the app, the rewards and the marketing.

2.4 Write the description in plain words

Say what the product does for the user, in the user's own language.

• Swap technical terms for names users connect with. Source: Leon Sasson, Rise7:47
  • Rise built on the homeostatic sleep drive and circadian rhythm, then renamed them sleep debt and energy schedule.
  • They found the terms through research and customer interviews.
• Put a short, benefit-first description at the top of the page. Source: Goldelucks
  • Goldelucks had strong traffic but many visitors left without buying. Short benefit-led descriptions gave them a reason to buy right away.
  • Fix the message before you reach for a discount.
  • Orders rose 31.56% and order revenue rose 66.2%. Revenue grew faster than orders, so the gain did not come from cheaper prices.
• Review your own page as a user would. Source: Max Schoening, Notion1:06:30
  • Use jobs to be done to compare what users hire the product for with what you want them to want.
  • Picture explaining the page at a whiteboard to a friend, then compare that to the marketing-speak version.
  • A recent Notion landing page for a new feature was rewritten this way.
• Let AI draft the slogan, description and top reviews, then A/B test it. Source: Hannah & Henry
  • Run the AI version against your existing page.
  • The AI-optimized product pages increased sales by 45.67%.

2.5 Sharpen the story before you launch

Settle the story first, then build and market around it.

• Write the press release first and limit it to three or four features. Source: Tony Fadell, Apple, Nest, Build Collective46:10
  • Draft it before the project starts so marketing shapes the product.
  • Do not add five more features expecting better sales. Do not cut a key feature at the end without asking how you will sell it.
  • Cal AI applies the same test, asking whether a feature is easily explainable in a press release. Its standard is "take a picture and see the calories and macros" Daniel Heintzman, Cal AI45:40.
  • The host's modern version is whether you can explain it in a 10-second TikTok video Heintzman45:40.
• Write the launch thread before the video, and give the story one to two weeks. Source: Jack McDermott and Tanmay Jain, ElevenLabs19:30
  • Write the core value promise and secondary promises tightly. Turn them into a thread with a headline and hooks, then into video.
  • If a feature does not make a good thread, you need a strong reason to build it.
  • The team spends one to two weeks on story refinement before each launch, because new benchmarks arrive weekly and you cannot count on press to tell your story McDermott and Jain, ElevenLabs18:00.
  • Tanmay ran his first launch within about six weeks of joining.
• Tell the pitch out loud again and again. Source: Tony Fadell, Apple, Nest, Build Collective1:01:48
  • Tell it to smart friends outside the project, watch what resonates, then sharpen it.
  • Lead with why it matters, not the what, because the what only speaks to other geeks.
  • Steve Jobs had told the iPhone story at least 10,000 times before going on stage.
  • To stress-test a story, study infomercials. They set up the pain, exaggerate it, then make the product easy to buy and return. Borrow the technique but keep the claims true Fadell1:05:02.
• Rewrite the message for each adopter group and each new region. Source: Tony Fadell, Apple, Nest, Build Collective39:40
  • Early adopters, later adopters and laggards need different language.
  • In a new market with no installed base, work with trusted early adopters to start word of mouth.
  • Apple ran its US iPod marketing in Europe, it resonated with no one, and sales stalled until the messaging changed.

2.6 Where they disagree

Some tactics only fit certain products, audiences or categories.

• A familiar word helps, but it can box you in.
  • Pok Pok is testing a move away from "Montessori" because it pigeonholes them into Montessori and homeschool families Melissa Cash, Pok Pok24:00.
  • If the name itself means nothing, make a benefit-led URL that redirects to the app, such as flightcheatcode.com Dawson Gibbs, Evo Marketing12:13.
  • It gives clean organic attribution when paid ads, agencies and in-house creators all run at once. It was used for Jetpack and SMB Market, and is not needed for known brands like Polymarket Gibbs12:13.
• Go broad or go specific depends on the audience.
  • For people outside tech, tell a story about agency, not technology. Wabi frames it as setting software free and turning consumers into creators Eugenia Kuyda, Wabi39:00.
  • For a modular tool, write a specific value prop for each kind of team Weber Wong, FLORA34:55.
  • Wabi's short Instagram videos consistently get half a million to a million views.
  • Weber says copywriting is expressing to someone else, unlike poetry, which is about expressing yourself.
• Benefits suit most pages, but a values story suits buyers who care about values.
  • Beckett Simonon added a panel on sustainability and craftsmanship so values-driven buyers have a reason to purchase Beckett Simonon.
  • It increased sales by 5% and delivered an annualized return on investment of 237%.
• Do not always say "AI", even if you use it.
  • In a category hostile to AI, Margins keeps AI use minimal and does not label features as AI Paul Warren, Margins56:15.
  • Readers ask how to turn AI off, and Paul says an obviously AI feature called AI gets the app cancelled. He expects sentiment to shift once AI is common enough to go unnamed.