Founders explain products badly because they’re too close to it — they reach for the category word, the buzz adjective, and the feature list, none of which tell a stranger what the thing does. These prompts force layered explanations: one line, one paragraph, one minute, three minutes — same product, different depth, jargon stripped at each level. Pair with the landing page copy prompts when you take the winning version live.
Best for
- Pitches and demo intros
- About pages and landing hero sections
- Sales emails and outbound
- Onboarding and welcome screens
- Investor updates
- Job listings (where candidates need the 30-second version)
1. One-line elevator pitch
My product: {description in 3 sentences}.
Target user: {persona}.
Write 8 one-line elevator pitches, each ≤18 words.
Use a mix of these formats:
- "X for Y who need Z"
- "the X that does Y without Z"
- "X but for Y"
- "X like {familiar reference}, except {key difference}"
- Plain English ("we help Y do Z faster")
Constraints: no "AI-powered", no "platform", no "next-gen".
Mark your top 3 and say why each works for a different audience.2. Audience-rewrite — same product, three readers
Write 3 versions of my product's one-paragraph explanation, tailored to:
(a) a designer
(b) a developer
(c) a marketer
Each ≤50 words.
Use language and reference points each audience already knows.
For each version, name 1 word you swapped that the other two audiences wouldn't get.3. Explain to a smart 14-year-old
Explain {product} to a smart 14-year-old.
Constraints:
- No jargon (replace any technical term with a plain one)
- One analogy that connects to teen daily life (school, group chat, sports, games)
- ≤100 words
- End with one line they could repeat to a friend
Output: the explanation, then the analogy you used, then what you swapped out.4. Explain in one tweet
Compress {product} into one tweet (≤280 characters).
Must include: what, who for, key outcome.
No hashtags, no emoji, no link.
Mention competitor or category only if it saves words.
Output 3 variants and rank by how shareable each is to a non-customer.5. Explain in a 3-minute spoken pitch
Write a 3-minute (~400 words) spoken pitch for {product}.
Structure:
- 60s problem scene (one user, one moment of pain)
- 60s my insight (the thing competitors miss)
- 60s how it works (the simplest demo arc)
- 60s proof + next step
Constraints:
- Conversational, contraction-friendly
- Read aloud — no sentence longer than 20 words
- One number, one named user, one named outcome6. Explain without the category word
Explain {product} without using its category name (e.g., don't say "CRM", "newsletter platform", "AI assistant").
Describe what it actually does for the user.
≤80 words.
Then explain why the category word was hiding the real value.
This is the version to use when the category is crowded or generic.7. Explain via before-and-after
Write a before / after / how-we-bridge explanation of {product}.
3 paragraphs, 50 words each.
Concrete examples, not abstract claims.
The "before" must describe a real workflow with named tools and pain points.
The "after" must describe the same workflow, end-to-end.
The bridge paragraph must name the 1 thing that changes the outcome.8. Explain via one specific user’s day
Write a 200-word "day in the life of a user" piece showing {product} in context.
Pick a specific persona: {audience}.
Be concrete:
- Time of day
- What they were doing before
- The moment {product} enters
- What changed in their next action
- The downstream effect by end of day
Tone: third-person, narrative. No marketing voice.9. Explain to a skeptical investor
Write a 150-word pitch to a skeptical investor for {product}.
Lead with the market insight nobody else has — phrased as a sentence.
Body: why now (3 sentences max), how we win (3 sentences max).
End with 1 piece of traction evidence (a number with a denominator, not just a number).
Banned: "$100B market", "TAM", "10x", "category-defining".
If the insight isn't sharp enough, output the insight on its own line at the top and say "this needs work".10. Explain via “we’re NOT X”
Write 5 short paragraphs in the format "We're not X".
X is a common misconception about my category.
Each paragraph: 50 words.
Each ends with "We're actually {plain-English description}".
Pick the 5 X's that customers actually confuse us with, not strawmen.
For each, name 1 feature that proves the difference.11. Explain via the “moment of value”
Describe the single moment in a user's experience where {product} delivers its value.
Constraints:
- 100 words
- Past tense, narrative
- Include: what they clicked, what they saw, how long it took, how they felt 5 minutes later
- No screenshots, no product features named directly
This is the explanation to use in onboarding, sales demos, and the hero section. It must work without showing the product.12. Explain via the test you can fail
Write a "would this be a fit?" qualifier for {product}.
Format: 5 yes/no questions a prospect can self-score on.
Above the questions: 2 sentences naming who this is for.
Below: scoring guide — 5 yeses = strong fit, 3-4 = maybe, ≤2 = not for you.
Constraints:
- Each question must be a real disqualifier (we'd actually decline the sale)
- No vanity questions ("are you ambitious?")
- The "not for you" outcome must be honest — point them somewhere elseCommon mistakes
- Jargon explanations that need 3 more jargon words to understand
- Category-bloat (“the AI-powered next-gen platform that empowers teams to…”)
- Skipping the “for whom” anchor — every explanation needs a named user
- Listing features when the reader asked what the product does
- Writing one explanation and reusing it for every audience (investor copy in onboarding kills activation)