More on The Brain Dump

In my last blog post, I gave a link to my May newsletter article on the "brain dump" which is where technical people fall into dumping all their technical knowledge onto unsuspecting bystanders. Part of that is the fact that they use technical words instead of common language and, in the end, users don't understand what they're saying. That last blog post is at this link:    http://wp.me/pyRVq-wK

Ironically, I just received an e-mail from a customer asking a group of us to be more cautious about this. The customer's users have mentioned that the technical people are giving too much technical information and speaking too technically, overall. Since this message was sent to the entire group that is working on the technical solution, I know it is not just personally meant for me. On the other hand, I'm just as liable to fall into this as the next person. Sometimes, even for those of us aware of the issue and who work to communicate in better ways with all those they work with, it is still possible to fall into this trap.

One specific area that is quite tricky is the issue of terminology. Within various products and areas of our industry, there are certain words we use to describe what we're doing. Sometimes, the software we work with has specific words used for its various parts. However, when we work with users, especially those new to a specific piece of software, they might not understand those terms. It's up to us to find ways to describe what we're doing that gives them the right picture so that they can understand. Otherwise, their acceptance (or non-acceptance) is meaningless. If they don't understand what they're accepting or rejecting, we will end up revisiting the issue yet again.

The other day, I found myself talking about "phrases" and I got the impression that that wasn't the way to get my vision across to the users I was working with. I do also have pictures I've created to show them what I'm proposing we do. However, when I explained the pictures, I told them the pictures were full of "phrases" which has a specific meaning in the software we're using but which I'm not sure what particularly descriptive to them. Thus, I must probably find a new way to describe my pictures. My pictures are apparently not quite worth 1000 words, after all, as they seem to need some amount of explanation.

In the end, no matter how much you work at this, each group of users will have different terminology, different backgrounds and different ways of understanding what you're saying. Too often, what they hear isn't what you meant. The trick is to always pay close attention in order to pick up on this so that you can try to address the issue. This is where experience comes in. Anyone at any level can become a better listener but, until you've practiced it for awhile, it's not that easy to pick up on the nuances.

Gloria Metrick
GeoMetrick Enterprises
http://www.GeoMetrick.com/