Turns out the name I like, The Experience Architects, isn’t original. It’s the name of a chapter in a book on innovation written by IDEO GM Tom Kelley back in 2005. I own the book so it’s likely that the term was floating somewhere in my subconscious and surfaced when I was trying to encapsulate my ideas around a title. It’s also a job title at IDEO,  the high-end experience design consultancy. So, early on, my start-up has hit its first glitch. And it is a common one.

Naming things is hard. I’ve been paid to create business and product names over the years and it is a big challenge. A great name must be unique, memorable, protectable and compelling. For a business it also really cannot be a common word or phrase. When you add in the need to own the name as a dot com URL you really narrow the field. Buying your URL has become a start-up expense for many businesses and it can get expensive.

Because my start-up is a project rather than a typical business, my title needs are a little different. The need to find a new title has worked out however because it helped solve another issue that came up. I was given input by a publishing insider that using the words ’social media’ in the title and sub-title was a problem as there are a rash of books out there on the subject. This jibed with my thinking as I’m increasingly realizing that social media is just a piece of the revolution, albeit a significant one. So right now my draft title and sub-title is: Real Time: Redesigning Your Business for a Socially Connected World.

Disclaimer: This title is subject to change at any time!