​Read online​

Welcome to this week's issue of Unpacking Meaning. If you received this from a friend and enjoy it, ​subscribe here.

Three weeks ago, two cofounders launched Dia—a new AI-first browser (I'm loving it). They also move away from Arc, a beloved browser with millions of users and a passionate tech community. And it wasn't failing.

So why kill it?

The answer starts with a Sunday afternoon in January 2024. Miller was living in Paris, about to board a flight, when he casually tweeted about Arc Search, a mobile browser prototype they'd built "just for funsies." Instead of returning search results as a list of links, it generated a custom webpage that answered your query directly.

That tweet triggered the strongest reaction they'd ever seen. Users loved the simplicity of a browser that did one novel thing exceptionally well. But more importantly, it revealed something profound about their own product strategy.

Arc Search worked because it wasn't trying to be Arc with AI bolted on. It was built from the ground up around a different philosophy entirely. And that's when Miller and Agrawal realized they had a choice: retrofit their existing browser with AI, or rebuild everything around what AI could actually do.

They chose to rebuild.

One variable.

One big move.

What this teaches us about messaging

The difference between Arc's positioning and Dia's positioning isn't just in the words, it's in the conviction behind them.

Arc positioned itself as "a better browser for power users." That's incremental thinking. It's forgettable. Any browser competitor could make the same claim.

Dia's positioning is fundamentally different: "A browser that knows what you're working on and helps you do it." This is being different, not just better. It's rooted in a clear point of view about how browsers should work, not just how they could be improved.

That distinction matters because standout messaging comes from standout thinking.

The Browser Company didn't just build a better browser. They built their POV about what browsers should become, and that POV became their message.

Most SaaS teams skip this step entirely.

They copy competitors' messaging and add their own features on top. But when you're building incrementally, your messaging becomes incremental too. And incremental messaging is invisible.

The power of subtraction

When Dia launched, they could have led with something like "AI-powered browsing with advanced contextual understanding and seamless workflow integration." Instead, they went with "Ask Dia, get the answer, skip the tabs."

That's the power of subtraction in action.

Most SaaS messaging fails because teams are terrified of leaving something out. So they include every feature, benefit, and use case. But clarity comes from cutting, not adding.

​As they say in a recent podcast: “Keep it extremely simple, extremely focused. Change one thing and have the one thing the thing you talk about.” The Browser Company focused on one core behavior and let everything else follow. That single focus became both their product strategy and their message.

When you try to say everything, you end up saying nothing memorable. When you say one thing with conviction, everything else becomes supporting evidence.

A message-market fit case study in the making

What The Browser Company really demonstrates is finding message-market fit: the right message, to the right audience, in the right language, at the right time.

It doesn't happen by accident. It happens when you have a clear POV about what's broken in your space, simplify ruthlessly around one core insight, and change strategically, one lever at a time.

This level of deliberate thinking and action gives you clarity. And clarity compounds.

Once the company committed to building Dia as a separate product, everything accelerated. The messaging became clearer because the strategy became clearer. The product became more focused because the vision became more focused.

The inverse is also true. When your strategy is muddy, your messaging becomes muddy. When you're trying to be everything to everyone, you end up being nothing to no one.

How to find your One Big Move

Ask yourself:

• What’s the one thing you believe about your category that your competitors don’t?
• What’s the single shift your product makes in how users work?
• Can you say it in a sentence?
• Can someone else repeat it after hearing it once?

Then strip everything else away.

Take your homepage. Remove every benefit, feature, and tagline that doesn’t support that One Big Move.

What’s left should feel scary in its simplicity. If it doesn’t, keep cutting.

Only from that place do you earn the right to add back what matters.

Great messaging doesn’t come from adding answers. It comes from standing behind one that matters.

If yours still feels scattered or safe, maybe it’s time to rethink your foundation.

P.S. This is exactly the kind of clarity work we do with SaaS teams at Conversion Alchemy. If your messaging feels scattered or generic, let's fix it. Book a discovery call and we'll help you find your One Big Move.

DISCOVERY

Lots of stuff to share this week, here we go!

1) Episode 37 of The Message-Market Fit podcast is out!

​

I had an great chat with Mike Taylor, CEO and co-founder of AskRally.com. This is part 2 /2 of our mini-series on synthetic research, and it's packed with insights! Here's what you'll learn:

• How to balance synthetic research with traditional market research approaches
• How to create detailed AI personas based on your target audience
• How Mike calibrates AI to match real-world human biases
• How synthetic research can actually increase your empathy for customers

And way way more.

​Check it out here. And if you find it valuable, would you consider subscribing and leaving a rating? 🙏

2) How we cut 50+ hours from every client project using AI (without losing the craft)

In our latest case study playbook with Team-GPT, I break down how we built a shared AI-powered workspace that holds everything (research, positioning, messaging frameworks) so every team member writes from the same strategic spine.

Take a look, you’ll see the exact process I use, plus the prompts that turn “messaging strategy” from a fuzzy idea into a repeatable, team-wide system for copy that actually moves people.

​Read how we did it →​

3) Ever wonder why so many startup messages sound smart but don’t actually move anyone?

I joined Mary Scott on “Stuck: Time to Improv” to break down the real messaging gap, or why founders default to product-first copy, and what it actually takes to get on the same wavelength as your audience.

​

We get practical. I unpack my “messaging matrix” (no jargon, just a sharp tool for real decisions), and we talk about how founders can use customer research—even AI, if that’s all you’ve got—to stop guessing and start connecting. Plus, I share a bit of my own path from software engineering to copywriting, and what that shift taught me about how people really make choices.

It’s a quick listen—just 10 minutes. Worth your coffee break. Check it out here.

4) Is prompt engineering dead?

The new trend around AI seems to now be "Context engineering". This article is a good guide on what that is. Personally, I think we're talking about the same stuff. Ok, prompt engineering might strictly be very technical sometimes, but at the basis, the idea is the same: to get good results from any LLM, you need to give it enough and the right information. That is context.

Only then you can have a conversation with the model and get great results, almost naturally.

RESONANCE

John Wooden, Wooden

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Chris

Chris Silvestri Founder & conversion alchemist

🙌🏻 Let’s be friends (unless you’re a stalker)​

When you're ready, here's a few ways I can help

Not sure where to start? Take our free message-market fit scorecard.​