Watch your language!
"More demos, less memos!" proclaimed our esteemed leader in the company's all-hands meeting. The irony wasn't lost on me. After spending the last year and a half promoting a writing culture—one of the reasons I was initially excited about joining the company—we were suddenly pivoting away from putting ideas in writing. The Miscommunication Problem But the reality was more complex. We still needed to compile product roadmaps for our cross-functional partners, identifying critical projects and technical debt to deliver on our goals and keep the business running. Of course, we had to present our plans to senior leadership. "Let's just highlight the top projects in our roadmap presentation, just to give them a flavor of what we'll be working on for the next six months!" my boss said, handing me a slide template with three squares—each meant to describe highly complex projects using no more than 15 words in 20-point font. Red flags and alarms started sou...