Outcome: your product has a name people can say and remember, a simple public website, and mockups showing what comes next.
Part 1: Brand name
A brand is what people think of when they hear your name. Start with the name.
A good name is:
- Short. Two or three syllables.
- Easy to say and spell, also for people who speak another language.
- Free to use. Search for it. Check the domain name and social handles. Check trade-mark databases in your country. This is not legal advice. Ask an adviser before launch.
- Honest. It does not promise what you cannot do.
Write three candidates. Ask five people which they remember a day later. Pick one. Write one sentence for why.
Then write a brand sheet of one page: the name, a one-sentence promise, three words for the tone of voice (for example “friendly, plain, practical”), two colours and one font. Put it in your repo.
Part 2: Product website
Your website is the front door. Keep version one small:
- Home page. What it is, who it is for, one call to action.
- How it works. Three steps, with pictures if you have them.
- Price or offer. Even if it says “free pilot”.
- Contact and policies. Privacy notice and terms. Link them in the footer.
Rules:
- Use plain words. Short sentences.
- Make it work on a phone and on a laptop.
- No trackers you do not need. Do not collect personal data you cannot protect.
- Keep the source in git. Publish from git with a free static host.
- Use real text, with good colour contrast, so everyone can read it.
An AI agent can build the pages from your brand sheet and your epic. You write the words that make promises. You check them.
Part 3: Mockups of the next version
A mockup is a drawing of a screen before it is built. It can be a sketch on paper, a free design tool or simple HTML.
Draw the three screens that matter most in your next version. For each, write:
- Who uses it and why.
- What they do on it.
- Which epic it belongs to.
- What is still unknown.
Link each mockup to an epic. A mockup with no epic is decoration.
Exercises
- Choose a brand name and write the brand sheet.
- Publish a simple website.
- Draw three next-version mockups, linked to epics.
- Test the site with one person who has not seen it. Watch silently. Write what confused them.
Self-check
- I can say my product name and promise in one breath.
- The website loads on a phone.
- The privacy notice exists and is linked.
- Every mockup links to an epic.
- I said how I used AI for the site and the mockups.
