Avoiding Jargon in Project Briefs

No one is waking up at 7am, sipping coffee, thinking, “Wow, I really hope someone explains holistic wealth architecture today.” People want clarity. They want content that feels like a conversation, not a lecture. They want to understand what you’re saying the first time they read it. Write like you're talking to a real person. Not trying to win a Pulitzer. - Use short sentences. - Cut the jargon. - Sound like someone they’d trust with their money, not someone who spends weekends writing whitepapers for fun. Confused clients don’t ask for clarification. They move on. Here’s how to make your content clearer: 1. Ask yourself: Would my mom understand this? If the answer is “probably not,” simplify it until she would. No shade to your mom, she’s just a great clarity filter. 2. Use the “friend test.” Read it out loud. If it sounds weird or overly stiff, imagine explaining it to a friend at lunch. Rewrite it like that. 3. Replace jargon with real words. Say “retirement income you won’t outlive” instead of “longevity risk mitigation strategy.” Your clients are not Googling your vocabulary. 4. Stick to one idea per sentence. If your sentence is doing cartwheels and dragging a comma parade behind it, break it up. 5. Format like you actually want them to read it. Use line breaks. Add white space. Make it skimmable. No one wants to read a block of text the size of a mortgage document. Writing clearly isn’t dumbing it down. It’s respecting your audience enough to make content easy to understand. What’s the worst jargon-filled phrase you’ve seen in the wild? Let’s roast it.

While project management jargon is appropriate in certain settings, I recommend using it with caution. For those outside of project management, it may create: 🔹 Loss of Clarity: Our stakeholders come from diverse backgrounds, and not all of them are well-versed in t project management terminology. Using jargon can lead to confusion, misunderstanding, and even frustration. 🔹 Alienation: When we speak in project management jargon, we can unintentionally create an "us" and "them" environment. 🔹 Misalignment: Project management jargon can sometimes be ambiguous, and different people might interpret the same term differently. 🔹 Loss of Credibility: While we might understand every bit of jargon we use, its excessive use might lead stakeholders to doubt our intentions or expertise. Instead of impressing them, we risk coming across as disconnected from their needs and concerns. Instead: ✅ Choose Wisely: When communicating with stakeholders, opt for language that is clear, concise, and easy to understand. ✅ Educate Gradually: If there are certain terms crucial to the conversation, take the time to educate stakeholders about their meanings. ✅ Listen Actively: Pay attention to how stakeholders respond to your communication. If you notice confusion or hesitation, take a step back and rephrase your message in simpler terms. ✅ Empathize: Put yourself in the shoes of your stakeholders. Use language that promotes transparency and inclusion. #projectmanagement #inclusion #collaboration

One of the biggest problems I find when helping companies such as Meta, Apple, and Intel with their written comms is excessive jargon use. The dictionary says that jargon is “special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand.” Kind of like wearing a three-piece tuxedo to a backyard barbecue. The wearer thinks they’re dapper and dandy. Everyone else thinks it’s desperate and overkill. Let’s unpack the four biggest problems with jargon: 1. Jargon Self-Defeats If your goal is to move your reader from "I need to understand this" to "I understand this," jargon is like throwing hurdles in their way. It defeats the very purpose of writing, which is to convey ideas clearly. 2. Jargon Annoys & Reduces Engagement Jargon makes users feel excluded and irritated. This not only stops them from reading but also discourages sharing or discussing the content, leading to missed business and innovation opportunities. 3. Jargon Kills Productivity When people don’t understand what they’re reading in a business setting, they either give up, spend too much time trying to figure it out, or disrupt someone else to ask for help. 4. Jargon Lowest Trust In 2016, the SEC fined Merril Lynch $10 million for misleading investors in their writing. Excessive jargon use can come off as "We're hiding something, or we would put it in plain language." Now that we’ve established why jargon is so problematic, let’s look at 8 ways to avoid it: 1. Tailor your language to the audience's expertise. 2. Use simple, common words when possible. 3. Define specialized terms clearly. 4. Have an outsider review your writing. 5. Use analogies and examples to bring complex ideas to life. 6. Spell out acronyms on first use. 7. Provide concrete details instead of vague jargon. 8. Edit ruthlessly, focusing on clear communication over impressive language. Conclusion: Don’t be the person wearing a fancy three-piece suit at a backyard barbecue. P.S. Ok, let’s have some fun. Craft your most ridiculous jargon-filled sentence and drop it in the comments section. I’ll go first: “In our quest to synergistically leverage cutting-edge lexical optimization protocols, we must hyper-contextualize our mission-critical verbosity reduction initiatives, thereby quantum-leaping our linguistic ROI while simultaneously future-proofing our omni-channel communication matrix against disruptive jargon-centric paradigms in the ever-evolving logosphere of next-gen ideation exchanges.” 😂😂😂

In evaluation work, we sometimes use language that sounds impressive, but it can alienate the very people who need the information the most (Yes, I am sometimes guilty as charged. I am learning.) It’s like explaining how a wheel turns by describing rotational frictional forces instead of saying, "It spins." Keep it clear, simple, and relatable. The simpler your language, the more people will understand the message and value of your work—and that’s the real goal. Clear writing in short sentences matters in evaluation reports. Whether it's communicating findings to stakeholders, writing reports for funders, or providing feedback to project teams, the goal is to ensure your message is understood, not buried under layers of jargon. Imagine explaining an evaluation approach to someone by saying: "Unbeknownst to the study participants, the evaluators employed a quasi-experimental design with stratified random sampling to ascertain the overarching outcomes, thereby mitigating extraneous variables that could ostensibly confound the derived data." Simple: "We used a structured approach to get unbiased results by ensuring participants didn’t know how we grouped them." (Save the technical part for an Appendix some may agree or provide details when asked.) It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that fancier words make the work sound more important. But, unbeknownst to those who do, it often obscures the real point. In evaluation, clarity trumps complexity. In short: the simpler the message, the more powerful it is.

I am working in a warehouse where English is a second language for many teammates. English is my only language. Turns out the communication gap was mine to close. A few (humbling) highlights: I once said, “Let’s hit the ground running.” One guy looked at me, pointed to the floor, and asked, “Where are we running?” I told the team to “break down that pallet” and came back to find the actual pallet boards stacked on the floor. What I’ve learned (and what actually works): Ditch the jargon. Use concrete, simple phrasing: “Cancel line 3,” “Wrap 8 pallets,” “Stage at Door 6.” Avoid idioms, acronyms, and double meanings. One action per sentence. Show, don’t just say. Write it, draw it, label it. Use whiteboards, sample labels, aisle maps, photos, and bilingual signs. Pictures beat paragraphs. Close the loop. Ask someone to repeat the plan or demo step one. Encourage questions and blame the instructions, not the person: “If this isn’t clear, that’s on me.” Moral: Clarity isn’t about “talking slower”—it’s about leading better. In a multilingual operation, respect looks like instructions that anyone can follow the first time. When we simplify, visualize, and verify, quality goes up, safety improves, and the team wins. #leadership #operations #warehousing #communication #clarity #continuousimprovement