Brand strategy, story naming, identity, and messaging for an AI-powered productivity startup
Background
The working hypothesis is that distractions reduce productivity, and there’s no way to avoid them in an information/notification-filled world.
The new productivity SaaS product is designed to be the user’s attention gatekeeper, distraction antidote, and focus enhancer.
Challenge
AI tools and assistants are popping up like mushrooms after the rain (even though, without meaningful differentiation, most fade into the background).
Objective
Name, position, and develop an authentic brand for an AI startup that specializes in eliminating noise and helping users become more productive.
Discovery
The main objective of the preliminary research is to understand the project, the product, and the patron.
Specifically: desired outcomes, challenges, target market, customer profiles, competitive analysis, selling proposition, friction map, priority hypothesis, quick-win insight, and roadmap.
Interviews
1. Five in-depth interviews with the founder to understand the vision and extract the essence
2. A dozen interview sessions with potential users (and users of similar products) to understand their underlying needs, wants, and motivators
3. SWOT and competitive analysis to identify market gaps and opportunities
Customer
A closely knit community (mostly male, 28–45) of knowledge workers, technophiles, and productivity junkies who use advanced workflow, personal productivity, and time management (personal or enterprise) tools to manage their work and personal lives. The Productive Man—a self-coined moniker—happens to the world, not the other way around.
Living the Productive Man (PM) lifestyle that scratches the tech itch, adds excitement during the workday, and provides a topic of conversation at dinner parties. The PM likes to spend time with like-minded PMs in the community. He/she seeks learning and takes risks to get and stay ahead. He’s proud to be accountable and requires as much control as possible in his pursuit of personal exceptionalism. The PM believes anyone who resists tech symbiosis is at a disadvantage. Seeing time management and freedom as two sides of the same thing and not subscribing to the work-life balance ethos, he prefers tech integration in exchange for time freedom.
GSuite, Microsoft, Slack, Github, Todoist, Asana, Monday, Notion, Craft, Reflect, Clay (or other personal CRM), Sanebox, Opal, RescueTime, Chat GPT, Salesforce, Hubspot, GitHub, Notion (personal and enterprise); Sunsama, Akiflow, and other advanced personal productivity tools.
Personality
Analytical, practical, methodical
Interests
Tech that makes humans better
Ideology
Anything that can be and should be optimized
Before
Spending time on time-saving tools that require more time to adopt
After
Able to focus on work, be more productive, and excel professionally
Want
Accomplish more without wasting time
Need
Derive use from multiple tools without getting distracted
Goal
More tasks but the same timeframe
Mission
Achieve the optimal version of oneself
Objective
Get and stay ahead of peers using hacks to achieve more with less
Challenge
An increasing number of useful but distracting tools that consume attention
The solution
Reclaiming one’s attention by eliminating distractions with a single tool
Doesn’t want
Another complicated tool
Ideal experience
Being able to focus on creative work at will
Target Consumer: Nate, male, 25–38, sales and CS rep.
Journey: Nate was exposed to Flow from other users or through a campaign, found it useful, interesting, better, or more engaging, and shared it with others in the community (network effect).
Target Customer: Tom, male, late 35–53, project manager, C-level, CxOs, other managers, and founders.
Journey: Tom noticed people on the team trying and sharing a product that increases their productivity, and after comparing it with existing tools, he purchased Flow licenses for the team.
SWOT
Opportunities
Develop and lead the AI productivity niche
Strengths
Focus on a narrow niche and the founder’s experience with the subject matter
Weakness
Not first to the broader market (AI assistants exist)
Threats
Low barrier to entry
Brand
The delivery included strategic brand components as well as a brand (design, style, and communication) guide.
What is Flow
An empathy-driven, voice-first, rational productivity assistant whose goal is to eliminate mental barriers and help users achieve the state of flow.
Product
An AI assistant that integrates with advanced tools, learns from interactions, and continuously adjusts to the user’s workflow while maintaining data security.
Positioning
Flow is the first emotionally intelligent productivity assistant.
The first AI to understand your needs, learn from your habits, and help you achieve the most productive version of yourself.
How it makes me look
Sophisticated, effective, and future-thinking
How it makes me feel
Productive, efficient, and in control of my attention and time
What it does for me
Removes distractions, saves time, and helps focus
How I describe it
An assistant that understands my workflow, eliminates distractions, and helps me be more productive
Name
The name was inspired by a book, titled Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi).
The book explores the productive and focused state of mind that people strive to attain and struggle to maintain. Capturing and harnessing the elusive state of flow is the problem the yet-to-be-named startup promises to solve.
Purpose
Flow’s purpose is to help people reach the near-meditative state of focus and efficiency (aka the state of flow) by managing distractions and optimizing workflows.
Tagline
No one knows your workflow better than Flow
Mission
Declutter the mind and enrich the world with the fruits of focus.
Message
Less distraction, more action
Values
1. Lean is better, and simple is supreme
2. Technology helps us become better
3. Less interruption, more action
Principles
Innovation, EQ, simplicity
Flow’s guiding rule for brand, communication, and experience decisions: Does it contribute to attaining or maintaining Flow?
Identity
Flow the brand vs Flow the assistant
One of the questions posed during customer interviews was how users addressed Siri and Google Assistant. The overwhelming respondents said that Siri is a she, and Google is an it. (A name and a voice were enough to anthropomorphize an assistant.) Since Flow’s identity plays a major part in its differentiation, we added additional layers to her identity to make her distinct, personable, and relatable.
A combination of Gwynne Shotwell (a COO that gets things done), Sam from the movie Her (empathy), and Joan from MadMen (an executive assistant who takes care of mundane tasks with authority)
Noun: intelligence
Adjective: focused
Verb: consolidating
Delivery
Brand guide
Website content