FlipView is live

The new website for FlipView is live.

Due to the past learnings and the great feedback received, the software’s functionality has matured and morphed throughout my journey, and so for it to have risk in the title far too narrowly described what it does. As such the original name and brand, after 18 months, really didn’t fit anymore. It’s taken about 6 months to come up with something that I think works and to complete the re-branding process.

First-off was the difficult task of choosing a new name. For your amusement, some suggestions from friends and family below, in order of the most random ones first….

• Gremlins – because everything could be going well, but then midnight hits and it could get ugly. Clearly, Gremlins is taken. A shame...that was close.
• Cherry Tree, because the survey tool has decision trees in it. My wife is German. Germans love their trees.
• Grapefruit – primarily because limes, apples, and oranges were successful in the past. Lemons are no good clearly.
• Revelate - because it reveals, but this sounded to me like the title of an Ozzy Osborne album.
• Percolator - as one client mentioned, the tool allows lots of ideas to percolate to the top.
• Lumin8 – because it can shine a light on things that matter.
• Foresightly – because this word is closely associated with strategic planning and risk and reminded me of a brand that I really liked (inslightly).
• FlipView – because there are lots of flip icons on the dashboard. FlipView also works subtly because of the way information comes from the ground up within an organisation, it can flip a view of the exec level that might be entrenched (or provide a new perspective).

So FlipView it is, with the tagline “rethinking strategy and risk”.

Just because you have found a name that sounds great and doesn’t represent a piece of fruit not already taken, doesn’t mean you are done. You still have to find a matching URL, company name and trademark.

What I found fascinating is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a URL that is affordable, as anything that is vaguely popular is taken. This is why we have lots of domains with the suffix -ly. Including a 4 (for/fore) or an 8 (ate) in the domain name is also popular, as is adding another word on the end to form a compound noun (i.e. adding “hub”). The shorter the URL in general, the more expensive.

You might ask, does it really matter? Personally, I liked the Risk Dashboard. I was sad to see it go. However, my experience was that having the word “risk” in the name of a product didn’t bother some, but most found it negative. If engagement is a big part of the tool’s purpose, it had to change.

So with the help of some family, friends, clients and professionals, FlipView it is.

The updated logo and website can be found here - www.flipview.co.nz