Stop Speaking Lorem Ipsum: How to Improve Project Communications Through Vocabulary Building

In over 7 years of web project work, wearing hats of every shade and color, one issue has plagued almost (if not every) project I've been a part of: miscommunication. It happens with clients. It happens internally. As I grew in my career and took on more of a client-facing and leadership role, I started to understand the pattern—everyone had a different technical background, and therefore a different technical vocabulary! From different CMS platforms calling the same things by a different name (content types? post types? templates?!), to clients and agencies developing their own terms or shorthand for things (mocks, wires, templates!), my project teams were often not speaking the same language, with the clients or with each other. And it led to late nights and long weekends making adjustments no one knew were needed because we'd all thought we'd been clear.

In order to combat this nightmarish, yet avoidable situation, I've gone back to my content, UX and even elementary teacher roots and developed a list of key concepts that often leave teams frustrated in the 11th hour when they suddenly realize they've been talking apples to someone expecting oranges. I've outlined a few different types of approaches to getting on the same page with your project team (clients/stakeholders included) from the very beginning.

This session is for anyone working on a web project who wants to improve understanding through shared language (no prior management or other web experience required). Attendees will walk away with some tips and tricks for ensuring they are able to avoid aggravating miscommunications that are better suited to RomComs than the workplace.