Speak the Same Language as Your Audience
Back when I was in college, I remember one of my physics professors telling me that you can tell how intelligent a person is on a topic by how easy they can explain their expertise. This particular professor is (or at least used to be) a researcher in subatomic particles and understood that in order to be helpful to a student like me, he couldn’t talk about his subject area the same way he would to a peer.
This seemingly random memory has popped back in my head in response to an interview I gave over the weekend for the Female Entrepreneur Roadmap, an initiative started by The Mentor Method and Esteem Logic. I was asked a question about…something…I can’t actually remember the question itself, but I remember my answer. The conversation shifted toward how I try to help non-technical founders, and as I began speaking, this concept of “the language barrier” jumped to the forefront of my brain.
I’ve been in tech for my entire career. I speak tech. I speak developer, designer, stakeholder, lean, agile, whatever buzzword you’d like to use, I can communicate with my peers. Non-technical founders are not, as I’ve discovered, included in this group. They aren’t peers. They aren’t developers, designers, lean, or agile. In fact, when I give my presentation on “Getting it Built,” that’s their first exposure to many of these terms and concepts.
What’s the point in all this? My point is simple: when someone asks for help in an area that you’re well-versed in, put the extra effort to speak in their language. There are so many barriers to entry in every field, and if someone genuinely wants to learn from you, speaking in the “native tongue” just adds another big wall to climb.
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