How do you avoid jargon and technical terms in your product strategy communication and presentation?

Working with hundreds of product teams, one of the most important and challenging jobs is building a common language and shared understanding. Product leaders and managers must help build, strengthen, and demonstrate the importance of a common language. In addition, they must ensure that teams possess and use a common language that corresponds with their organization’s greater language set. Otherwise, it’s possible that workgroups or individuals will interpret key terminology differently from one another. It will be like playing the telephone game at an organizational level. As phrases move from mouth to mouth, their meanings will change. Five interpretations later, no one will know what anything means.

Before building any presentation, the first step would be to understand who the audience are who will attend this presentation. The main reason is to be able to tailor the presentation to the audience. What I usually do is the following:- 1) I build a master deck of what I want to say on product strategy 2) Depending on who will atted the presentation, I adapt the presentation based on What I want this audience to focus on What their interest are What are the expressions familiar to them How I want them to support my strategy What are the 1 main outcome and 2 suboutcomes that I need this audience to remember long after they the presentation. 3) Rehearse the presentation on one of these audiences that is a close friends

Understanding your audience's level of technical knowledge is crucial. Tailor your language and explanations accordingly. Speak the language of your audience to let them understand what you’re telling them.

To avoid jargon and technical terms in product strategy communication and presentations, it is important to first understand the audience. Tailor the language and tone of your communication to match their level of understanding and familiarity with the subject matter. Use simple and concise language, avoiding acronyms or industry-specific terms that may confuse or alienate your audience. It can also be helpful to provide real-world examples, analogies, or visuals to make complex concepts more relatable and accessible.

As a Senior Product Leader, I believe knowing your audience is not enough. You should read the room. A good Product Manager has to be quick on his feet to present the same information at 10,000 feet or at a granular level based on his audience's momentary needs. For example, I was once at DMEXCO with one of my CXOs and we were trying to get a meeting with an elusive decision-maker. Had meticulously prepared a 30-minute presentation for him. Fortunately, I found him in one of the stalls and made the move without my CXO. The client put me on the spot and said "You have 30 seconds. Start.". As a PM, I improvised and gave him a customized elevator pitch that got us an exclusive 2 hours meeting with him on-the-spot and subsequently the contract.

A common pitfall is to use adverbs and adjectives in place of a number. For example rather than say, "We expect to grow our user base significantly over the next quarter", instead say, "We expect to grow our user base by 150% over the next quarter". By using words like "greatly", "significantly", or "increase" without quantifying how much, it leaves a lot of ambiguity in terms of how stakeholders interpret your plans. Moreover makes it impossible to measure your resulting performance if you never clearly defined your goals in a quantifiable manner in the first place.

Use simple language: Avoid using complex terms that might be unfamiliar to your audience. Instead, use clear and concise language that is easy to understand.

Yes Absolutely right The globe is following politicians ? Parivartan should take place by comments and educational format as Pawan articulated Best Dinesh

Crafting a clear and concise product strategy communication involves using plain English to enhance understanding. Choose an active voice, shorter words, and concrete examples to ensure your message resonates with all stakeholders. By avoiding technical jargon and opting for simplicity, you create an inclusive dialogue that engages your audience effectively. This approach facilitates better alignment and collaboration, driving success in your product endeavors.

When you're in an environment, you feel like everyone understands your niche language. Newsflash: Most don't. Focus on making your messages broadly understandable.

Here are my ways to “explain things out in your product strategy “ - Provide context: If you must use a technical term, explain it in simple terms or provide a relevant example. - Use analogies and metaphors: These can help to illustrate complex concepts in a more relatable way. - Avoid acronyms: If you must use an acronym, spell it out the first time you use it.

You may encounter situations where avoiding acronyms or technical terms is not possible. Therefore, ensure to translate them at each stage of your product presentation. If necessary, provide a lexicon alongside.

Spelling out acronyms is always helpful, especially the first time they are present in any text. Assuming you will present your strategy verbally at some point, it's easy to explain a term that's not clear to stakeholders outside your team/immediate area. This however, doesn't resolve the issue where your presentation will be distributed and read by people who weren't present when you explained it to everyone. In this scenario, it's always good to have a glossary of some sort documented. For example, I always have a glossary of terms documented in Confluence/Google Docs that everyone has access to in order for everyone to get familiar with our wonderful, unavoidable jargon!

In many cases PM has to be a 'bridge' between tech team and non tech stakeholders So PM has to be creative and learn to explain tech things with simple words, in many cases it does not has to be 100% detailed and correct translation> but more of an explanatory thing. So just be creative, and imagine explaining hard thig to your non-tech mom)

When using technical terms or jargon, it’s important to define and explain them clearly for better understanding. For instance, if using terms like **API (Application Programming Interface)**, don’t just mention it—explain that an API allows different software applications to communicate and share data, which is crucial for integrating systems. Similarly, if referencing **CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)**, clarify that it's the cost associated with acquiring a new customer and is key for evaluating the efficiency of marketing strategies. By providing these explanations, all stakeholders, regardless of their technical background, can understand how these terms impact product strategy, fostering better collaboration and decision-making.

Wherever possible, 'show' rather than 'tell'. While infographics and videos are great for communicating results but when communicating about a product, nothing beats hands-on experience. Interactive self-service demos engage the audience fully - there's no room for zoning out. The 'self-service' aspect means that the user drives the experience. They get to fiddle with it, go off script, ask questions, and figure out how to do things. It's a great way to get customers to see possibilities with your product - they get to be involved in the solution you'll develop for them right from the get go. When they 'own' the solution this way, user adoption starts out high. Also, it probably works better with their nuanced inputs anyway. Win win!

Stories are a powerful medium to get your point across. For instance, take something as simple as customer demographics - age, gender, occupation, etc., While demographics speak everything you need to know about your customer, it's still difficult for the audience to relate to the customer. Hence product managers use User personas instead of demographics. They construct stories around these demographics and build several user personas with which the audience can relate. In a similar fashion, wherever applicable, replace the technical jargon and boring data with relatable instances and stories to get your point across.

To revolutionize product strategy communication, use dynamic methods that engage and captivate. Start with **interactive storytelling** on platforms like Prezi for clickable, immersive narratives. Incorporate **gamification** to make strategy sessions interactive and enjoyable. Create **living infographics** that update with real-time data and develop **immersive role-playing scenarios** for hands-on user experience. Combine **data-driven storyboards** with **real-time analytics dashboards** for live insights, and host **innovation workshops** for collaborative brainstorming. These approaches turn communication into an engaging experience, fostering deeper connections and lasting impact.

To avoid jargon and technical terms, seek feedback from peers, mentors, experts, and potential users. They can help identify confusing jargon and provide insights on clarity and relevance. Use their feedback to revise your communication and presentation iteratively until it's clear and effective. For example, ask colleagues to review your materials and provide specific examples of unclear terms. Engage potential users to ensure your message resonates with your target audience. Repeating this process helps refine your content for maximum impact.

To refine product strategy communication, adopt a feedback-driven approach. Gather input from a diverse audience—peers, mentors, industry experts, and potential users—to assess the clarity and impact of the presentation. Encourage them to identify any confusing jargon or technical terms. Use this feedback to simplify and enhance the message, making it more engaging and persuasive. Iteratively refine the communication based on these insights, ensuring it resonates effectively. Additionally, consider incorporating real-world scenarios or case studies to further illustrate and validate the strategy.

Practice and refine your communication and presentation to avoid jargon. Rehearse in front of a mirror, record yourself, or present to colleagues to improve your delivery. Focus on your voice, tone, pace, gestures, eye contact, and posture. Anticipate potential questions and prepare responses to build confidence. Continuous refinement based on practice and feedback ensures clarity and effectiveness. For instance, simulate real audience scenarios to better prepare for actual presentations, making your message clear and engaging.

I focus on benefits (value), the core of my presentation, to ensure my audience sees how their needs are met, making them more likely to listen and engage. Ans then I end with a small mention of key features (=technical jargon) to provide necessary details. This way, everyone wins: I capture their attention, they find ways to cover their needs with my benefits, and my product becomes more appealing. My presentation won't be dull, and it's more likely to result in sales.

Key mantra for Product Managers is to keep communication crisp and concise. Overloading presentations with excessive jargon hinders effective idea selling. Follow below guidelines for effective Product Strategy communication esp. for Executive buy-in: One, use patterns in communication as human mind recognizes and retains information better this way. Present thoughts and concepts in groups of three making them more memorable and effective. Two, respect Executive time by providing Executive Summary or TL;DR for lengthy document and email to quickly grasp main points without delving into details. Three, read your audience. Skilled PM can improvise same information at different abstractions of 10,000 feet or granular level instinctively.

In the past year, I've used AI to tailor messaging and build communication personas. This allows me to take my verbose, detailed content and generate multiple versions tailored to each audience's role, tech level, and style. Without this, effective cross-functional communication would be impossible. The key is understanding your audience deeply and letting AI handle the heavy lifting of translation. This ensures your core ideas come through clearly, avoiding jargon overload. Though we're still early, AI-generated communication is an absolute requirement now.