Explain Your Product Without Buzz Words

A good product description is clear and factual. Customers with no prior knowledge must understand what it will do for them and how it will work.

Align both your customers' and team's understanding by focusing on these four questions:

1. What does your product do?
2. Who is it designed for?
3. How does it work?
4. Why is it valuable?

Consider being part of a product marketing team for an HR SaaS company, tasked with promoting a recruitment reference checking feature known as “Y-Recruit”. The present explanation is full of marketing jargon is confusing to customers and staff alike:

Y-Recruit is an automated pre-screening employment SaaS tool that automates the people journey. Uncover data-driven, actionable insights with automated background reference checks to hire at scale. It is an AI-ready operating system that improves and accelerates decisions for organisations of all sizes.

Let’s simplify with our four questions:

What does your product do?

Aim to describe its core capabilities, interactions with people, data and things in a jargon-free, factual manner. Avoid marketing promises. People unfamiliar with the industry should understand it

Example:

Y-Recruit automates reference checks for hires by sending and tracking online surveys to referees, eliminating manual phone calls.

Who is it designed for?

Specify the primary and secondary user groups, addressing their specific challenges and requirements.

Example:

Y-Recruit aids HR and hiring professionals by enabling referees to easily give feedback and candidates to track progress and address delays.

How does it work?

Provide a straightforward explanation of how the product functions and who is able to use it. Mention any unique technology or methods understandable to non-experts.

Example:

Y-Recruit functions in five steps:

1. Employer selects a customisable survey template and sets reminder frequency.
2. Candidate provides referee details.
3. Referees receive and complete the email-linked survey.
4. AI fraud detection flags dishonest responses.
5. Employer reviews and finalises recruitment role.

Why is it valuable?

Highlight the unique positive impact your product has on people, operations or outcomes. Be specific about the problems it solves or the advantages it brings.

Example:

Y-Recruit enables confident, scalable hiring by automating reference checks and providing reliable data through standardized templates, enhancing the experience for candidates and referees while positively representing the employer's brand.

Further Reading

• Lou Downe (2020). ‘Principle 2. Clearly Explain its Purpose’ in Good Services - How to design services that work.