Naming a New Product Concept for SPYPOINT's E-Commerce Platform

CONTENT DESIGN · NAMING · UX WRITING

CONTEXT 

Company: SPYPOINT / VOSKER
Platform: E-commerce (Salesforce)
Audience: Hunters

TL;DR

SPYPOINT needed a name for a brand new product concept — transmission plans that could exist independently of a camera. The internal name ("floating plans") couldn't go public. Constraints: avoid "activate" (already used for cameras), stay non-technical for a hunting audience, and work equally well in French and English.

I rejected "prepaid plans" because it described how a plan was bought, not how it worked. The real distinction was whether a plan was attached to a camera or not — so I named them linked and unlinked plans. The pair creates an intuitive mental model, implies the relationship can change, and translates cleanly as forfait lié and forfait non-lié. The naming shipped across the entire product with no iteration after launch.

THE PROBLEM

SPYPOINT trail cameras require a transmission plan to send images. Historically, plans could only be purchased alongside a camera — they were always attached to a specific device. A platform migration to Salesforce made it possible to sell plans as standalone products for the first time.

This unlocked real value for power users: someone managing 20 cameras could now buy plans in advance, hold them in reserve, and link them to any camera as needed — mixing and matching plan tiers across their setup. But it created an immediate content problem: there was no language to describe this new state. A plan that exists but isn't attached to a camera had no name.

The internal working name was "floating plans" — intuitive inside the team, but not something that could ship to customers.

THE CONSTRAINTS 

Several factors shaped what a name could and couldn't be:

1. Avoid the word "activate"
This word was already used when activating cameras. Reusing it for plans would create confusion across the product.
2. Non-technical audience
SPYPOINT's goal is to make technology accessible to everyday users. Hunters and outdoorspeople shouldn't need a glossary.
3. Must work in French and English equally
Any name had to sound natural and modern in both languages — not just translate cleanly, but feel right.
4. Explain the concept, not just label it
The name itself needed to communicate that a plan could exist unattached — and become attached when ready.

THE PROCESS 

The first candidate considered was "prepaid plans" — already common in telecom. But this framing missed the point. All SPYPOINT plans are prepaid in some sense; what made this new was not how a plan was purchased, but how it related to a camera. The emphasis had to shift from the transaction to the relationship between the plan and the device.

This reframe was the key insight: the name should describe the plan's state, not its purchase method.

Prepaid plans → Linked / unlinked plans

The word "linked" does two things at once: it signals that a plan has a relationship with a camera, and it implies that relationship can be changed. "Unlinked" naturally communicates the opposite — a plan that exists independently, waiting to be assigned. Together, the pair creates a simple mental model without requiring explanation.

The bilingual test confirmed the choice. Forfait lié and forfait non-lié carry the same clarity and modern register in French that "linked" and "unlinked" do in English — something "forfait payé d'avance" could not achieve with the same elegance.

WRITING THE FLOW 

Once the name was established, the language had to hold up at every step of the purchase and linking experience — from the product page through to the confirmation.

1. Plan product page

Introduced the linked/unlinked distinction clearly, helping users understand the new flexibility before committing.

2. Plan selection
Copy guided users to choose whether to purchase a plan only, or link it to a camera immediately at checkout.

3. Checkout
Language reinforced what the user was buying — a linked or unlinked plan — without adding friction.

4. Confirmation
Email confirmed the plan's status: linked to a specific camera, or held as unlinked and ready to assign.



An unlinked plan sitting in a user's account, with a banner prompting them to link it to a camera.

The same view with a linked plan — the "Link to camera" dropdown shows the camera the plan is linked to.


The "unlinked plan" language surfaces across the web app as well as in the subscriptions page — here is a banner on the main camera screen in the webapp, encouraging the user to make use of an unlinked plan sitting in their account.
The terminology in the webapp: a user selecting an unlinked plan to link to their camera.

OUTCOME

Linked/unlinked plans shipped as a new product line. The naming was adopted across the full product: the e-commerce flow, the app, support documentation, and marketing — in both English and French. The concept of a "linked" plan became the standard way SPYPOINT communicates how plans and cameras relate to each other.

Because the feature was net-new, no baseline existed to measure naming comprehension against. The most meaningful signal was adoption: the name required no iteration after launch and has remained consistent across the product.

The full scope of the naming system: three distinct user paths — activating a camera, buying a camera with an unlinked plan, and buying a plan only — all built around the linked/unlinked framework.