I work with exceptional people, but all too often great products have failed to deliver for the target audience and inventor. Disappointment often comes from a failure to clearly express the benefit: Which means that …
I’ve read countless press articles, blogs, LinkedIn posts and sat through interminable stacks of PowerPoint slides. Having endured tedium and confusion, I’ve created hints for clear messages, strong audience engagement.
- The Golden Rule: Don’t tell me what it is OR how it works – I know you are clever. Tell me how whatever-it-is will help me. “Why should I be interested?”. If I want to know the detail, I’ll ask.
- Check your material: Any sentence containing more than one word with four syllables or more is probably gibberish. For example, “[We have] democratized communications channels like voice, text, chat, video, and email by virtualizing the world’s communications infrastructure through APIs that are simple enough for any developer to use, yet robust enough to power the world’s most demanding applications.” What does all that mean in the real world?
- Don’t talk to yourself : You know what your acronyms mean. Does your audience? “[Our] applications are based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and HTTP, and comply with 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), 3GPP2, IETF, and Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) specifications such as Multimedia Telephony (MMTel), OMA SIMPLE Presence and instant messaging, and OMA Converged IP Messaging (CPM).” Thanks for that, I’m really happy for you. Even after spelling out most of the acronyms I still don’t have a clue what that sentence means or why anyone would be interested