20. Translation is a great way to improve the original text
The French scientist Blaise Pascal once wrote to his friend: “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” Writing concisely is not easy and takes time. I understand it better than anyone else. My thoughts run wild, jumping in front of one another, making it hard to listen to me and read my texts. To train my ability to write succinctly, I decided to produce a series of short texts under 1000 characters. This is how The Tales of a Product Owner were born. First drafts usually turn out much longer, so I try to reduce word count without reducing content. Each Tale consists of two paragraphs. In the first paragraph I share a personal story, followed by a conclusion in the second paragraph. I always thought that the parallel between the two paragraphs was obvious, but how wrong was I!
I decided to localize the Tales with the help of a translator, who started asking questions. And that was when I came to realize that in an attempt to make my texts shorter, I often ruined the logic. In some Tales, the two paragraphs were very poorly linked to each other. This doesn’t mean I’m going to stop keeping them as short as possible, but I will definitely pay more attention to the logic.
Tales of a Product Owner: concentrated wisdom about project management, team creation and UX. New tale every Tuesday and Thursday!
