Module II References

On naming

Lexicon Branding case studies — lexiconbranding.com Free, short. Read 2 or 3 case studies (BlackBerry, Swiffer, Sonos). David Placek's team is the most respected naming agency in the world. Useful for seeing how a professional thinks about the trade-offs.

Paul Graham — "Founder Visa" and various essays on naming — paulgraham.com PG has scattered thoughts on naming across many essays. Search "name" inside his archive. The best single insight: a good name forbids the wrong directions.

The Information Architecture book by Peter Morville — too long for Module 2, but the chapters on labeling are useful if you want to understand naming at the systems level. Skim chapters 4-5 if you're 16+ and curious.

On the one-sentence offer

Andy Raskin — "The Greatest Sales Deck I've Ever Seen" — search Medium About a 10-minute read. The post is about a sales deck, but the structure he describes is the one-sentence offer expanded into a deck. Useful frame for understanding how offer sentences scale into pitches.

April Dunford — "Obviously Awesome" book About positioning. Most relevant chapters are 1-3. Apr Dunford makes the same point as Lesson 2 with more depth and more examples. The book is 150 pages, half a Saturday read.

On the exclusion principle

Basecamp's "Rework" book — basecamp.com/books/rework Free chapters online; full book is short. The chapters "Build half a product, not a half-assed product" and "Decisions are progress" are the canonical references for what to leave out.

Steve Jobs at WWDC 1997 — YouTube, "Steve Jobs Customer Experience Apple WWDC 1997" 3-minute clip. The famous "focus is saying no" moment. Most-quoted product talk in tech.

Marc Andreessen — "It's Time to Build" — a16z.com/2020/04/18/its-time-to-build The essay is about America building generally, but the section on "focus over breadth" applies to your product.

On pricing

patio11 (Patrick McKenzie) blog — kalzumeus.com Most-respected solo-builder pricing writer alive. Specific posts to read: "Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valued" (not pricing per se but the underlying principles), and his posts on charging more.

Jason Cohen — "Smart Bear" blog archive — blog.asmartbear.com Posts from 2008-2013 on charging for software, freemium failures, pricing experiments. Older but still right.

"Don't Just Roll the Dice" by Neil Davidson — free PDF, search the title 50 pages. The single best free intro to software pricing. Half a Saturday read.

On positioning more broadly

April Dunford again — "Sales Pitch" book Sequel to "Obviously Awesome." Useful in Module 5 (launch day) when you write your launch post.

Lochhead, Peterson, Maeda — "Play Bigger" About "category design" — creating a new category instead of competing in an existing one. Most relevant for ambitious learners (16+) who want their product to be more than a feature in someone else's category.

What NOT to read in Module 2

• Don't read "10 ways to come up with the perfect name" listicles. They're noise.
• Don't read about A/B testing prices. You don't have the volume for that. Pick a price and ship.
• Don't read business plan templates. Wright doesn't do business plans. The offer card is the artifact.
• Don't read "design thinking" frameworks. They're not wrong, just slow. Module 2 is built to be fast.

— Coach Lin (Module 2, Wright)