The Art of Writing One-Sentence

Product Descriptions
Dave Bailey Follow
Apr 12, 2017 · 4 min read

A look back at early interviews with Facebook and Uber CEOs illustrates an ingenious way to
communicate hard-to-describe products.

Photo by Wynand van Poortvliet on Unsplash

As a founder, I spend countless hours refining my elevator pitch and practising it every
chance I got. I learned that ‘leading with the need’ is an extremely effective way to
position your product, by showing how it solves an important problem for your
customers.

It’s a shame that most customers don’t hear about my product from me. Like 50 percent
of startup founders, I rely on word of mouth to promote my product. The catch is that my
potential customers don’t hear my well-practiced elevator pitch. Worse still, those
who’ve tried — and liked — the product don’t have a full 30 seconds to explain how the
product works in detail to those who haven’t. I’m lucky if they take more than three
seconds to describe it.

How customers talk about your product

Your product will only come up in conversations when it’s perceived as being relevant to
that conversation. Here’s a typical word-of-mouth scenario:

1. Something triggers your customer to remember your product — for example,

somebody describes the need that your product addresses.

2. Your customer introduces your product tentatively, with a question: ‘Have you heard
about product X?’

3. Without much setup, your customer jumps headfirst into a simplified description of
how the product works — typically in a single sentence.

4. If the description resonates, great. If not, your customer will justify why they think
it’s relevant to the conversation and move on.

I wanted to know why some one-sentence descriptions sound like genius ideas while
others flop. As I researched how successful founders presented their products before
they were well-known, I discovered something interesting.

Viral products tend to have a ‘lead feature’

In this early interview, before Facebook’s IPO, Mark Zuckerberg describes Facebook as:

‘Something where you can type someone’s name and

find out a bunch of information about them.’

Mark Zuckerberg One-Sentence Facebook Description

Mark is simply describing one of Facebook’s features — the ability to view the profiles of
real people. There is no talk of ‘social networks’ or helping the world to connect to each
other. Just a simple and practical description of a key product feature.

In 2011, Travis Kalanick described Uber (at the 21:15 mark) as a mobile app where:

‘You push a button and in five minutes a Mercedes

picks you up and takes you where you want to go.’

Travis Kalanick's One-Sentence Uber Description

Travis doesn’t lead with buzzwords like platform and marketplace. Instead, he focuses on
just one button and uses vividly specific language to make the outcome extremely
appealing. Today, Uber has simplified it even further, to: ‘Tap a button, get a ride.’

The format of both descriptions is the same: “You do X and Y happens.” X is the input
and Y is the output. This input-output pair matches our intuition about how software
works.

Simplifying the product to a straightforward input and desirable output creates the sense
that it’s an ingenious idea.
Facebook and Uber have many features, yet Mark and Travis elevate a single feature
above the others, making the product easy to understand, easy to remember, and, most
importantly, easy to talk about.

How to identify your ‘lead feature’

A product’s features are often highly interconnected, making it hard to know which one
to choose. I’ve found it helpful to think through the user experience chronologically.
Find the first unique feature that’s highly desirable to the user, and describe it in terms of
inputs and outputs.

If you choose a feature without a clear input, you risk confusing the user. Focusing on a
feature that other products also have invites the terror-inducing question of, ‘Why is it
different from X?’ For example, Facebook allows users to share photos with friends, but if
Mark led with this feature, it would beg the question: ‘Why can’t I just use email?’

I’d argue that even the most complex SaaS platforms can be simplified with an
illustrative lead feature. But what if your product is the exception?

In that case, it’s not a good idea to rely on word of mouth to grow your business. If you
find it hard to describe your product, imagine how hard it will be for your customers. If
this happens, a salesforce might be a more reliable channel.

Tactical or strategic?
It’s easy to mistake a one-line description as just another communications tactic.
However, crafting this sentence is one of the most strategic decisions a founder can
make. If you want your product to be shared by word of mouth, then you must accept
that it will likely pass from person to person as a single sentence.

Figuring out this sentence can focus your product development on the inputs and
outputs that really matter. Seize the opportunity to craft and test single sentences early
— before you build something that’s too hard to describe.

. . .

About me:
I’m Dave and I coach CEOs of Series A+ tech companies. Over the last 10 years, I’ve co-
founded three VC-backed tech companies, invested in dozens of early-stage startups as a
VC and Angel investor, and mentored hundreds of startups as a mentor at Google and
Techstars. For more info, visit Dave-Bailey.com.
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