The LinkedIn connection flow needed words that did not sound scary or vague.
The working screen needed to explain why the connection mattered. The simple version was that it could improve recommendations by adding people the user already knew.
We tried several lines. Some were direct. Some sounded too much like marketing. One version asked people to sync LinkedIn connections. Another described installing a browser extension.
The wording mattered because the action involved personal data. A button should not make the request sound smaller than it is.
People needed to know what they were connecting, what the product would use, and what they would get back. The flow also needed a clear next step if the connection failed or if somebody chose not to do it.
Goodword was being built around relationships rather than lead lists. That made the distinction important. Importing connections was not permission to treat every person as a sales prospect.
The private product record has implementation detail that is not part of this article. There are no connection counts, provider terms, or user data here.
The public-safe work was product copy and sequence. Explain the benefit. Name the source. Ask for permission. Give the person a way to continue.
We also had to decide when to show the request. Asking during the first minute can block somebody before they understand the product. Asking later can leave the product without enough context to be useful.
Each version of the copy had to fit the actual flow. If the next step opened an extension, the words needed to say so. If processing continued after the connection, the screen needed a state for that wait. The message could not promise an immediate result when the system still had work to do.
That Thursday was mostly spent working through the words on the screen.
The feature was technical. The immediate task was writing one clear sentence about it.