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14 Comments

Idea validation: crowdsourced product name vote

Hello!

A recent goal I set for myself is to get better at idea generation, and I'd like to hear your feedback on something that's come to mind: a "Tinder' for product naming!

The core of it would be that a user can see a feed of "Products" where the Creator of that Product can include a list of potential names, and then other users would be able to simply swipe right or left for what they like.

This seems like it could be a neat tool for the indie hackers crowd, but I'd think Creators could also distribute links to their product as well for more voting.

What do you think?

  1. 2

    I love naming things, I find it super fun. If that makes me your target audience, then voting is not enough for me. I want to provide my name ideas and feel proud when someone goes with it!

    1. 1

      I like the idea of users providing suggestions as well! Thanks!

    2. 1

      This is my comment

  2. 2

    The best name is not always the most agreeable.

  3. 2

    I like the idea.

    And the same works for choosing a logo once you have several choices. Actually I have posted “pick logo a, b, c” on linkedIn and those posts tend to become quite viral.

    As a founder, I would probably use it. If you do it and need feedback, count on me

    1. 2

      Thanks for the feedback! The logo concept also sounds really interesting! I will keep you in mind if there's something to demo!

  4. 1

    A couple (anecdotal) data points:

    1. One of my family friends works as a marketing consultant for small businesses, and she sent all her friends an email with 30 potential names and had us vote on them. I found it fun to be a part of that process.
    2. Check out the subreddit r/INeedAName
      Hopefully these give you at least some validation that people are trying to solve this problem and using other (potentially less efficient/fun) means of solving it.

    However I'm wary for a couple reasons. First, similar to Tinder, the point of the app is to stop using it as soon as possible. And the number of people who need product names is way smaller than the number of people who want to use Tinder. So I'd be concerned that the influx of people who want a product name would be too slow to keep any of the voters engaged, but I could easily be proven wrong with more data.

    And second, it sounds like you're describing something akin to ProductHunt in that creators post a product idea and consumers like us vote on them, and this entire concept can be created on a subreddit. For these two reasons, I'm wondering if there's an angle here where you could target someone like the marketing consultant I mentioned, who would pre-load a bunch of name options and then share it in their own network to get feedback. The benefits to them would be that they'd get increased engagement and conversions since the app easier to use than responding to an email, and the benefits to you would be that you're using other people's network to spread your idea (kind of like how Calendly grew).

    Hopefully I didn't ramble too much, just wanted to share my thoughts. Good luck!

    1. 1

      Wow, thanks for the detailed response! I do like the angle of targeting marketing consultants and building something for them. I'll have to think about that a bit more!

  5. 1

    How would you incentivise users to do the voting. I think this will be critical to make the app work.
    In Tinder you have the direct incentive to be able to "find love" with every swipe and thats the incentive for both parties in this marketplace.

    1. 1

      I agree, this is a critical part of making it work. I haven't solved that bit yet - I need to do some more thinking. I'll need to research other apps with this component.

  6. 1

    So can't anyone "steal" that idea?

    1. 4

      Can’t anyone steal almost any idea? I wouldn’t discourage him fornthis reason

  7. 1

    This might make it a little safer for the creator to test out many different ideas.

    Will creators be able to post it in any stage of product building I.e. just off of a description or would they need more than that?

    Also what will be the incentive for the voters to vote on ideas?

    1. 1

      I haven't considered restrictions on which stage a product needs to be in. I think creators could potentially include however much detail they want - maybe screenshots of mockups or as little as a description to gauge reactions.

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