Wright
Lesson 01 of 04 · Module II · Coach Lin · 1 min read

The three jobs of a name

A name does three jobs at once, in the same instant:

  1. Tells the right customer this is for them. "Linear" tells engineering teams instantly. "Spotify" tells music listeners instantly. The right customer hears it and thinks "oh, that's me."

  2. Tells the wrong customer this is not for them. They hear the name, picture the wrong product in their head, and move on. That is a feature, not a bug. The product that tries to be for everyone is the product that's for no one.

  3. Tells you what to build and what to refuse. Every day for the next eleven modules, you'll be tempted to add features. The name is your handrail. Feature doesn't fit the name, you don't build it.

A name that does all three is a strong name. A name that only labels the product is a weak name.

Now look at what weak names do, and why they fail.