David Plasik

Faced with intangible product Codium, the team used flow metaphors, found the compound 'Windsurf', persuaded the client, and the company fully rebranded to that winning name.

He lists three valid reasons to rebrand: placeholder startup name, strategic product pivot, or signalling new capabilities after a merger.

David works only with teams that aspire to win rather than merely avoid loss and urges internal champions to lead decisively despite conservative bosses.

Research shows compound names unlock extra associations—one plus one equals three—making them more powerful than single-word options.

A distinctive name used repeatedly builds cumulative advantage as customer exposure compounds over time.

.com addresses now act like area codes, so secure the right name first and add modifiers or buy the URL later.

Instead of asking opinions, ask what a name could do for the company to unlock richer feedback.

Leaders must overcome the human bias for comfortable, familiar names and back bold, unfamiliar choices.

When the product is intangible, the first step is making it tangible by anchoring naming exploration in real-world metaphors of its core experience.

David urges starting naming discussions with how the company behaves now and wants to behave in the future rather than classic positioning talk.

Facing founder resistance, David repeatedly argued for the palindrome ‘Sonos’, flew back unbilled, and ultimately secured consensus on the now-iconic name.

Combining familiar fragments 'ver' and 'sell' produced an easy-to-process name that an innovative, confident team quickly embraced.

Microsoft sought a cloud descriptor but, after David proposed the bolder 'Azure', they adopted it and the name grew into a brand worth around $100 billion.

Internal disagreement signals a bold, energetic name worth pursuing rather than a safe consensus pick.

He creates separate teams with intentionally different product contexts to spark diverse, breakthrough name ideas for the same brief.

Names should initiate a marketplace story, not merely state what the product is.

Because the brain prefers easily processed information, the team prioritises short, simple names to avoid cognitive friction and drive recall.

Projects move through identify, invent, and implement stages, culminating in prototypes and rationales that sell selected names up the chain.