Anatomy of a Clusterf**k III

Sometimes even when people trust each other, information can still get garbled through faults in communication.

Very frequently, professionals in a given field will begin using a very specific jargon. For instance, the term “unique” means something very different to a web analyst than it does to a fashion designer. These shortcuts in language serve a really important purpose within a profession, and the specificity and unity on that jargon is a key feature of any given culture.

When two professions need to work together, in an inter-disciplenary way, it is very easy to miscommunicate important findings, purely through mistakes in language. Sometimes, something as simple as messing up the difference between ‘pageviews’, ‘visits’, ‘visitors’ and ‘unique visitors’ can have massive impacts on perceptions.

At the root of many clusterfucks is not the unwillingness to communicate, but rather, the relative diffuculty that is involved in communicating.

A good general practice, when presenting anything, is to take the time to ensure that people understand what you’re about to say and why it’s important.