Your new site is going to use CSS, Javascript, Ajax, Web Standards, PHP, a p-38 space modulator, and a flux capacitor. What the hell does this mean? Who cares. Clients certainly don't. Too many times in my career I've set in meetings with people who have overheard the latest web-jargon and inflict it on clients in an attempt to wow them with these buzz words. Like the pre-loaders on the web that say "loading xml, buffering, connecting to mysql server, etc" these terms are basically meaningless to a great many clients.

Experience has led me to believe that those of the jargon-laden tribe are much like the magicians of old. Watch this hand while I bill you with the other. Granted, the use of web-jargon was extremely useful to IT sales departments in the early 90s. I'm relatively certain a great many projects were sold simply based on the merits of this perceived knowledge of the new and scary place called the interweb.

Early in my career I would sit in meetings with my boss at the time and visibly flinch when the latest buzz-word was thrown out (often completely out of context). The client's eyes would glaze over, and they would nod in faux-understanding, as to not appear uninformed. The biggest downside to this was the client really didn't know what they were being sold, and the team really didn't understand what we were to deliver. This almost always led to scope-creep and blown budgets.

Fortunately for all of us, clients are much more savvy now. They've lived with the internet for a bit, and unfortunately, probably been burned by jargonizers (my word) a few times. The happy place this can lead to is one of clear and honest communication with our clients. We can confidently sell clients actual products with actual results. I've found that the best way to deliver a solid project is not to spit out the latest term, but to instead work with the client to determine their real business goals, and then use whatever technology is appropriate to accomplish those goals. We need to think of the buzzwords, not as buzzwords, but as a way to communicate with the people producing the project. When we're speaking to the client, we need to speak client. If not, we're just talking to ourselves.

Mel Hogan has worked with some of the world’s largest brands, including Yahoo!, Microsoft, Hilton Hotels and Harley Davidson Motorcycles, just to name a few. He has used his experience to gain solid understanding of large brand strategy as it applies to online and advertising. Learn more about Mel.

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