I'd love more insight into how other PMMs and companies determine the names of products and feature sets within a product. As a SaaS platform, my company rolls out new features that each received a smaller "launch" and can be upsold by sales therefore need a unique name. Product marketing is officially in charge of naming each feature, but product and sales are involved as well. Product marketing researches naming ideas against competitors, SEO, industry terms, etc but will still face some pushback from other departments. How much weight do you place on their opinions on feature names and how do you present your justification for product/feature names?
Hi Melanie! We typically work with product initially to understand the product/feature set within the product at a deep level. We get a detailed demo, have the opportunity to ask questions, see how the product fits within the rest of our offering, etc. Product's opinion of naming usually gives us a starting place, and from there PMM brainstorms potential alternatives and discusses as a team to narrow down to one/a few options. We then present back to product leadership and our execs (include a sales leader), along with our justification. Justification can include things like 1. how the name reflects the capabilities of the product 2. differentiation from what's in the market 3. how this product/name aligns with our other products/features and any impact to the cohesiveness of our solution set. This process usually allows us to land on a name that everyone is good with.