Living in a Buzzword World
The value of learning the lingo of business
I have a pretty high tolerance for business jargon probably due to my affinity for technical and specialized languages, part of a larger fascination with language in general. I like figuring out what a particular group of people mean by a particular term and how that overlaps or contrasts with what outsiders think the term means. I love how the way language is used can reveal hints about people’s mental models and ways of thinking, and it can also open doors to communication and even mindset shifts. Language is powerful stuff!
But where technical jargon (like, for example, medical terms) serves to hone language into a clear, precise tool, business speak too often works to muddle the issues with vagueness and misdirection. There are too many people inventing or appropriating terms to shield themselves with a veneer of intelligence and insight when in fact they don’t have any particularly interesting or useful ideas or knowledge. This seems to be particularly true in the world of tech, which has become enormously big business in an incredibly short time and so there is a lot of money and power at stake — the word “argot” which originally referred to the slang of criminals seems an especially apt description in this case.
Buzzwords like innovate, agility, disruption, pivot, and other similar words can absolutely be part of a legitimate business strategy, but they aren’t a strategy in and of themselves any more than “live, laugh, love” is a life philosophy. If you want to be innovative, great, that’s a goal (if a pretty vague one), but you still need a plan to get there, and crucially you need to be clear about exactly what innovation means in your particular context. You need to answer a bunch of questions like: Why do you want to be innovative? What would happen if you stopped innovating? How will you know when you’ve successfully innovated? What would an innovative work culture look like? What are the costs and other risks of innovation? What resources do you need to be innovative? What’s the gap between what you need and what you currently have? How will you bridge that gap? How might innovation look differently in one, five, or ten years? What evidence do you have for your answers and what is based on assumptions? And so on.
As a designer, even if I can understand the need to master design lingo (which wow, is a lot in and of itself), why should I care about buzzwords like innovation? Because if that’s the business goal, I need to make design decisions that help us get there and it’s absolutely key that I explain my design decisions — especially when I’m trying to get support (“buy in”) from executives and anyone else in the company with a vested interest (“stakeholders”) — in terms of how they help get us there. I also need to evaluate my designs (and others), user feedback, etc. within that frame of reference. But I can’t do that until I understand what that vague word “innovate” (or whatever the buzzword du jour is) means in a very concrete way.
It’s been my real-word experience that once I understand what the goal means and what the business strategy is to reach it, my work suddenly becomes enormously easier. I have to muddle through far less decision fatigue because I have a framework for making decisions instead of just struggling through every. single. choice. My presentations suddenly get more interesting to non-designers. My work is more highly valued. Collaborations become easier. OK, ok, it may not be a total panacea, but it is extremely helpful on so many fronts.
For example, let’s say you’re working with a client or in a company that says they want to be more agile (that is nimble and responsive to changing circumstances, not necessarily related to uppercase “A” Agile, the software development method). Generally being agile requires relatively small teams with a high degree of autonomy, access to reliable and up to date information about current conditions, sufficient time and resources to analyze that information, and the skills necessary to convert that information into constantly evolving strategies. Do you have those things? What would it take to get those things? Before implementing such a culture company-wide, could you run a pilot program with a single team to refine your approach?
Another buzzword that frequently pops up in these kind of discussions is the phrase “experimental mindset.” Being experimental is extremely risky, but the rewards can be very enticing. How much risk is the company willing to take? How many failures will be tolerated before giving up and changing tacks? If the answer is “very little” you’re not going to succeed in being experimental. Maybe that’s OK! Not everyone needs to be experimental to succeed. But if the company is dead set on being experimental, they need a clear strategy supported by practicable plans for how to change.
As designers I think we have a lot to add to these kind of conversations, but only if we take the time to create a shared understanding of what these buzzwords actually mean. Use your user research skills and interview everyone in your company you can get your hands on to find out more about the buzzwords you hear floating around. Use your information architecture skills and build a controlled vocabulary. Use your presentation skills to share what you learned. You have the power!