How My Band Chose a Name for Our Record

Using Technology to Solve a Real-World Problem

It’s a perennial problem. You take four people (all with plenty of ideas) and put them into a band. Four people see four bands.

(Or eight, or sixteen, or thirty-two over time. . . given moods, and other fluctuations).

How do you get these people to agree to disagree to the happy degree where that dissatisfaction can manifest as action?

Esp. when you’re trying to get something done, like name your record?

I suggest Survey Monkey.

Here’s what we did:

• I made a list of ten phrases taken from the lyrics of the songs, all of which seemed to “sound like” a title. (Well, actually nine + Eponymous.)

• I made a Survey from said list. For each question, I simply listed the potential title, followed by the option to click “Like” or “Dislike.”

• I sent this to all four members of the band, and asked them to please complete the survey.

• Two emerged which all four members liked!

• I then created another survey with a single question: “Which Do you Prefer?” and I listed the two unanimously-liked titles as the selections.

• Three out of Four preferred a specific title, and then I sent out another message: “We’ve made a selection. The title of our Record is ______.”

Since all four members had already determined that they liked both options, there was no being upset when the majority preferred one over the other. And thus, a record was born.