Conversation summary
Annie Gilchrist talks with Harry Ashbridge, Monzo’s former Head of Writing & Customer Experience, about naming Lissom and making clear writing part of the bank’s culture.
When Lissom was still called Klara, Annie and the team struggled to find a name that expressed what they were building. They had tried lists and workshops, but the options never quite landed.
Harry, who helped them through the naming process, argues that the problem often begins before the first name is suggested: without an agreed brief, everyone is judging something different.
Harry was the first writer at Monzo and built its writing team. He and Annie discuss how a name can work with a company’s identity, why Lissom felt right, and what Monzo taught him about making clear writing part of everyday work. The interview below follows the recording’s sequence, edited for clarity and length.
Edited interview
Start with the brief, not a list
Annie
We tried hard to name the company ourselves and kept getting stuck. When people start naming a business, where do you see them go wrong?
Harry
Often they go straight to names. They make a list, then rank it, but there is no shared answer to what the name is for or what each option is being measured against. Everyone brings their own criteria. Naming will always have a subjective element, but you can reduce some of it by agreeing what the name needs to do.
Another difficulty is attachment. A team may love its original name even though it cannot keep it, or fall for a new option before the legal checks. You need to stay open-minded and take several options forward, particularly in crowded areas where short, positive-sounding names may already be taken.
A process for naming
Annie
What do you put in place before the creative work begins?
Harry
First, be clear about who is informed and who actually makes the decision. A smaller decision-making group is usually easier than asking a large group to agree on a name they all love.
Then understand the business: what it stands for, who its audience is, what its brand and visual identity need to convey, and how it sits among others in the category.
From there you can agree constraints. Should the name feel technical or organic, literal or abstract? What should it suggest, and what can the rest of the identity do instead? Once those questions are settled, generate ideas widely, see which directions people respond to, and build a shortlist.
The first brainstorm is useful input, not necessarily the finished answer.
Annie
That last step was where we struggled. We could fill a room with Post-its, but going from those ideas to a thoughtful shortlist needed another kind of work.
From Klara to Lissom
Annie
We had picked Klara early because we liked it. We thought people would not confuse us with Klarna because we worked in a different market. Then I arrived at Money20/20 and my badge identified me as Klarna’s CEO. That made the need for a more distinctive name rather clear.
Lissom means smooth, graceful or free-flowing. Why did it make your shortlist?
Harry
It fitted the constraints. You wanted something fairly short and easy to say, without the hard, technical feel you saw elsewhere in the category. The company was trying to take awkwardness out of a process, so a word suggesting smoothness made sense. Even if someone does not know its meaning, the sound of Lissom has that flowing quality.
It also gives you room. A very literal name can describe one product so closely that it becomes limiting when a company changes. Lissom does not say you sell one particular thing. It suggests the kind of experience you want to deliver, which can remain relevant as the business evolves.
Writing needs more than guidelines
Annie
Monzo has a recognisable way of writing. How did you develop that across the business?
Harry
I am proud of the writing guidelines, but a set of guidelines is only a starting point. How a company writes comes from its culture and values. Monzo cared about being clear, transparent and customer-centred, so the writing had to express that. A document alone could not make it happen at scale.
We put writers into different parts of the business, where they could write, coach people and help teams make decisions. We worked with colleagues in risk and compliance, included writing training in onboarding, and put guidance into the tools people used. Those people and processes mattered as much as the published guide.
Everyone writes for the brand
Harry
The writing team was not there to own every word. Anyone who works on a laptop writes as part of their job. If they can do that more effectively, it helps their work and makes clear writing more likely for customers too.
A distinctive marketing voice is not enough if the rest of the customer experience sounds like another organisation. We wanted the website and the terms and conditions to feel as though they came from a company with the same values. Consistency across ordinary writing is the harder and more important part.
Annie
So the name, the writing and the visual identity are not separate exercises?
Harry
They should come from the same understanding of who you are. It is easier to find a name and a way of writing that fit when they grow out of something true about the company, rather than a personality you try to impose on it.
Names in the wild
Annie
To finish, what is a brand name you think works particularly well?
Harry
I am a fan of PostHog. The name, the hedgehog mascot, its visual identity and its irreverent writing style all belong together. It stands out, but it also feels consistent with the company and the people it is talking to. That kind of fit is a high bar.