David Placek (00:00:00): Your brand name, nothing's going to be used more often or for longer than that name. Design will change, messaging will change, products will change, but that name is there. Lenny Rachitsky (00:00:09): What's a name that you came up with that you had to fight super hard for, that the client just hated? David Placek (00:00:14): When we presented Sonos, it was rejected because it's not entertainment-like. We argued about that because I said, "This is outside looking in, but I don't see you as an entertainment company." Humans do like to be comfortable. Part of our job here is to help people to give the confidence going bigger and being uncomfortable. Lenny Rachitsky (00:00:32): There's a quote that I found of yours, "If your team is comfortable with the name, chances are you don't have the name yet." David Placek (00:00:37): We look for polarization. We look for tension in a team arguing about these things. Polarization is a sign of strength in the word. Most clients, they come to a naming project absolutely believing with full confidence that they're going to know it when they see it, and the truth is it almost never happens. Lenny Rachitsky (00:00:57): Most people listening to this are founders, a lot of PMs on product teams. Let's say they have a couple of weeks, got to come up with a name. What should they do? (00:01:05): Today, my guest is David Placek. David is the founder of Lexicon Branding, which pioneered the field of brand naming, and invented a few names that you may have heard of including Powerbook, Pentium, Blackberry, Swiffer, the Impossible Burger. Also, Vercel, Windsurf, CapCut, and Azure. In our conversation, David opens up about the very specific process that he and his team go through to find winning names, including a simple exercise that you can do with you and your team to help you find the right name in just a few weeks. We also talk about why a great name is worth spending your time on, why you won't know a grea...