Technical teams move quickly, and their language tends to speed up with them. New verbs appear without much thought. A noun becomes an action, someone repeats it, and soon it feels normal. The issue is that this shorthand rarely stays internal. It shows up in specs, comments, and user facing documentation, where clarity drops and others are left to interpret the meaning.
Why It Matters for Product Teams
When product teams turn technical nouns into verbs, the action becomes vague and depends on context not everyone shares. Engineers, designers, and PMs interpret these improvised verbs differently, which leads to misalignment and slower decisions. The problem grows when this language reaches end users. They meet unfamiliar verbs and guess the meaning, which creates hesitation and mistakes. Clear verbs give everyone a shared understanding.
How to Apply It
Use established, concrete verbs instead of turning technical nouns into improvised ones. If the noun describes a tool, system, or place, describe the action you want the reader to take with it. Spell out the real task. Replace shortcuts with verbs that carry meaning.
Examples
Not Effective: Sandbox the new environment before deploying.
Effective: Test the new environment in a sandbox before deploying.
Not Effective: SSH into the server and health-check it.
Effective: Connect to the server using SSH and check its health.
Clear verbs reduce ambiguity. They help readers understand what to do without interpreting jargon.
