The Secret Language of Innovation
Is it possible that your mission is not supported because people just don’t understand what it is and why it is valuable?
Is it possible that your mission is not supported because people just don’t understand what it is and why it is valuable?
We all make up words.
When words become long and cumbersome, we compress them with acronyms.
Here is an example of how I do this and risk losing people in my teaching.
“To get to our #MASSIVE we need to begin with an MVP. The MVP and the #MASSIVE need to have a common UVP.”
Each word and acronym was selected for good reason, but it may as well be ancient Sanskrit for most people. What I could say is:
“As we bring our big vision to life, we begin by providing customers with the simplest version of the product that can test why we think it is valuable.
Hopefully you find that simpler to understand.
What Do You Do… Specifically?
Here is an experiment. Describe what you do to a crowd. Afterwards, ask different groups to explain back what you do. It is frightening how this can yield as many different descriptions as the number of people you ask.
Have you masked what you do behind a secret language?
Can you show people? Demo?
Do you need to help us understand why that is valuable?
Scientists struggle with this.
“Marine bio-fouling for non-paintable polymers.”
It isn’t bad but does the new listener understand ‘bio-fouling’ and ‘polymers’? Instead we could hold up an intricate object and say:
“This sensor is as easy to manufacture as any other piece of plastic, but our special coating makes the environment around it behave like it is copper. Because of this, it will not get coated with gunk when immersed into the sea.”
How Is It Going? Board Papers and Updates
Secret languages can go crazy in board papers and updates. The lingo of the company can hide the insights and the temptation to show how busy we have been with more data is overwhelming. Few people read long board packs and those that do rarely have the time to extract meaning.
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Words.
They can start a revolution or bore people to sleep.