In product oriented businesses you need to name things all the time.
I find the best names for products are the ones that occur to you
spontaneously and that you like right away. If it’s a name you wonder
about, it never gets better. It’s a lot like naming children.
them “story units.” The name is simple an descriptive. I find it hard
to even talk about these yellow units without using the name. I simply
don’t know what else to call them. We’re rolling out a self-service ad product that Jonah and Chris call
“boost.” I’m not aware that there was ever a formal naming discussion
around this; it just is. We’ve struggled with what to call our reporting dashboard used by
publishers and advertisers. We currently use the term “viral
dashboard;” I don’t love this like I love the other two examples I’ve
mentioned. However the alternatives, such as “viral cockpit,” were
confusing or complex. A name needs to be simple and obvious. It needs
to immediately let a person know what something is. I suppose this was why Facebook called their “check in” product “check
in.” Something unique would probably have confused people. I also believe that if customers start calling something by a name in
a large enough volume and consistency, you need to just accept it.
I.e. “tweet” Up until the age of about 23, I went by “Jonathan.” People were
consistently calling me “Jon,” and I was consistently correcting them.
I realized this was distancing me from people who wanted to be
familiar. It was awkward for the first year. However, 10 years later, it just
feels natural. It’s still weird when people from college call me
Jonathan.
