Engineer speak vs. business speak

Lesson Details:

Video Transcription – In this video let's talk about a really common thing that every engineer has to go through when they're transitioning from an engineering person to a like business person and this is your engineer speak air quotes versus business speak in air quotes and there are two different Englishes and there's two different ways you communicate engineers when we're all day when we're in our product we really like to geek out about the technical aspects of what we're doing the details but nobody cares about when the stuff when we're in the muck of things nobody wants to listen to it is really boring and it's actually probably confusing to most people they're just not and we probably go you know we probably just keep talking and talking and people just not the nod and just probably they make they make a smile but like they just wonder when it when it when is the other person I'm gonna stop talking about the stuff that I already I already stopped understanding five minutes ago so if you're a beginner business person and will put air quotes around business person and you're talking to people about your business don't be too excitable calm down I know I've been there before it's very easy to get excited especially about stuff you're really passionate about and stuff you work on but take it easy take a breath and what you really have to do instead of talking about the details talk in a high-level but clear be clear most of all and be brief and communicate the value of what you're working on for example if you're working on some website don't bore people with explaining to them that they can make accounts they can create a profile they can post a picture guess what those are all things people actually don't want to do okay those are things that are boring it was the actual value of your company and you can actually explain the value of your company in one sentence be really mindful of the listener if you lose them if they get confused there's no more point to have that conversation so always kind of way being their mind and think like are they following me is this interesting for them is this clear stop often look at their face see what it looks like if it looks like they're bored stop ask questions let them ask questions and leave the conversation and participate and leave the conversation as well so let's do a little exercise what I like for you to do whatever the business idea that you're working on explain it in only one sentence for example maybe it's something super complicated like imagine explaining uber on day one it the founder probably explains it oh my god there's taxis and there's different taxis and all that stuff but now it's just you know now we explain things with it's an uber for anything so if you have a delivery oh it's an uber for groceries it's an uber for tutors if if I'm looking for tutors nearby it's an uber for friends if I'm looking for friends nearby or something like that so maybe try to really cut the explanation of your whatever your business is try to cut it it doesn't have to be an uber it can be an Airbnb for something else it can be a different well-known startup concept for something else so that it becomes really easy for you to communicate it to people in ways that they already familiar with and in marketing copywriters also always reference almost to a point of nausea the example of Steve Jobs when he introduced the iPhone he could have talked for hours about every feature and every chip in it and every wire and how it's so small but it has like such powerful computing inside it but he didn't nobody cares about the powerful computing of it that much what people care about is that it gives you it's a whole world at your fingertips and that's exactly what it is that's exactly the only thing he said so how can you explain this amazing revolutionary new device it's a world at your fingertips so the better you understand your business the better you'll be able to explain it that clearly like what's the main point of your business for the iPhone it's literally if you think of your phone it gives you the it's the world at your fingertips and if you don't see that picture it when it went when the batter when the battery is that it's just a useless brick but when the batteries on it literally gives you everything every person you want to get access to every piece of information it's literally the world at your fingertips so try to explain your business take it out of your engineering speak and into this beautiful business speak and if you posted in the discussion I'll be able to give you feedback on your new air quotes quote unquote business speak business explanation.