Finding the right name for your product can be hard. So it was for me. At the same time, it's incredibly important. Your product name is often the first thing your customers see of your product and can have a tremendous impact on its success.

In today’s issue, I want to make your life easier and tell you what the ideal steps are to find a good name for your product.

1. Empathy first

Many people are just wildly brainstorming first before they even really understand their product's features, benefits, and unique selling points (USPs). Understand these as a first step. Then, make sure you also understand your target audience. What interests them, what their preferences are, and so on.

Having all this knowledge first will make sure, that you have enough empathy to hatch in your customers’ shoes, which is needed so that they resonate with that naming.

2. Brainstorming

Now the fun part. Start with a brainstorming session. Aim to create a long list of potential names that capture the essence, functionality, or benefit of your product. Consider using word associations, metaphors, and variations on keywords related to your product. I often also ask ChatGPT to list certain words in the field/topic of my product. This helps to connect certain words or get ideas on possible names. If you have a team, you could also do a brainstorming workshop. Having a few brainstorming partners can incentivize your ideation a lot!

Techniques and methods you can use to brainstorm:

• Mind Mapping

• Rapid Ideation

• 5 Whys Method

• Word Banking

Tools you can use to brainstorm:

• Pen and paper

• Miro

• Figjam

You may already have an existing setup for that, and that’s fine! Use whatever suits you best here.

3. Shortlist

Once you have a compact list, begin the process of shortlisting. Remove names that are difficult to pronounce, spell, or remember. Conduct a preliminary trademark search for each shortlisted name to avoid legal complications. This is more important for any company or SaaS name, but not too much of an issue for small-sized digital products such as templates. Analyze the remaining names for their emotional impact, relevance, and potential market appeal to the criteria mentioned in the empathy part above.

4. Availability

In the digital business landscape, your product's name often doubles as its domain name. Check the availability of domain names corresponding to your shortlisted product names. It's increasingly challenging to find short, memorable domains, so be prepared to be creative with suffixes or slight modifications.

I use special TLDs like .design, .co, .supply, .studio, etc for my ventures, since most .com is already taken. Maybe this helps you to find yours. If a .com is available, go with that, it's still the best option.

Wrap up

Finding the perfect name for your digital product is a meticulous process that needs creativity, market research, and strategic thinking to succeed.

Don't go too fast. Analyze your audience and product first. Once you have all the basics for brainstorming, ideate as many names as possible, reduce the list, and research domain options.

Once you find a suitable name, you will see that it will only do good for your product.