All the buzzwords. Explained!
None of us want to suffer the embarrassment of not knowing all the buzzwords in the biz. Now you don’t need to!
Design Thinking, Lean Startup, AI, Lean Innovation, Service Design, Growth Hacking, OKR and whatnot are words we are bound to encounter when we are in the business of making stuff that works for people.
Blah blah, but with substance
To achieve what we try to do, we need to understand what the %&$# people are talking about. Buzzwords are thrown around like ping pong balls in this biz, also at conferences like Y, whether we try to avoid it or not. It can be exhausting, confusing, stressful and frankly annoying. There you are, trying to make new, cool and useful services, and you are met with this wall of Blah blah.
The thing is, the Blah blah actually has substance (some of it anyway), but the words are not always intuitive. They need to be learned.
The wave of relief
Jostein is one of the founding fathers of Netlife Design. He kicked off the Y conference 2019 by sending a noticeable wave of relief down the 700 chairs in the room. Before the inevitable buzzword bonanza at Y Oslo had a chance to overwhelm us all, he provided us with the list of words we need to know, followed by what they actually mean. Here are some of them, with a few editor’s notes:
- Innovation: This means significant positive change. When you innovate, you are solving important problems.
Editor´s note: When Jostein started talking about visiting the innovation zoo, he lost me. I prefer regular zoos. Preferrably with penguins.
- MVP: Minimum viable product. This is what you should have launched before spending too much money and time before learning anything.
Editor’s note: When I entered the biz I heard everyone use this word, and I quickly started using it myself because I understood the meaning, just not what the actual letters meant. Can you imagine my a-ha moment the day someone explained it to me?
- Lean: A slimmer, more well trimmed way to do things.
Editor’s note: Well, well, well, so Lean isn’t just a word for a certain body type accepted by the beauty tyranny police?
- Agile: When business people and developers work together daily througout the project.
- Design thinking: A process where you empathize, define, prototype, test and ideate.
Editor’s note: Yeah, Jostein showed a model on the screen, along with a picture of mother Theresa and a guy from Apple and a few others, I think I got the message but it’s hard to replicate.
- Growth hacking: This is a fun one. It means no less than attracting and converting users and customers, trying and failing until you succeed.
Editor’s note: I hear what you say, Jostein, but how do you actually do it? I guess I’ll find out during these two days at Y.
Jostein Magnussen
Jostein is one of the founders of Netlife. He has been working with customer experience and innovation for big and small companies the last 19 years. Jostein is a sought-after speaker who engage and provoke his audience.
