Alphabet Soup

I recently started a new job, and while getting the lay of the land regarding my role and responsibilities, I have made a commitment to myself and the new clients I will work with in the future. It’s time to dump the alphabet soup and begin communicating in a way that sets a different tone. I am talking about the acronym conundrum. How many conversations have you been a part of where the other person rattles off terms like SAAS, CRM, SEO, MVP, etc.? If a certain acronym doesn’t register with someone in your audience, there is a good chance that individual will not take the time to stop you and ask what it means. It is not fair to assume that an otherwise super intelligent business professional has been exposed to a silicon valley start-up culture.

A couple of years ago I was asked by a friend to come in late on a project to help out. One of the people on the team created quite a few documents and presentations. He was a well meaning cofounder but had a propensity to pepper every document with a horrid amount of soup. I think in some cases it gave the unfortunate appearance of someone trying to appear connected and start-up tech savvy.

In preparing for my awesome new job, I am deep into a sea of research. As I consume content designed for different audiences, I find a great deal of soup. Part of my new job will be to create educational content. I think my best effort will get to the point in a way that doesn’t require the reader to do a Google search to understand its meaning.

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