TSN #4 - Top 13 Tech Terms & How To Explain Them To Your Boss

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I understand that some tech terms are used so frequently that you might feel uncomfortable asking for a definition, especially during a conversation.

Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. Whether for your personal use or to pitch a new project to your boss, I’m providing you with a "boss-friendly" list of tech language explanations here.

We will cover the 13 most common terms, divided into three phases based on when you might encounter them:

• Ideation phase

• Pre-build phase

• Build phase

No tl;dr this time, bookmark for later, you’ll find it useful.

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Ideation Phase

1. Web App / Mobile App / PWA (Progressive Web App)

   • Why It's Important: What are we building, and how are the customers going to use it? Get this right early on, as it significantly impacts the budget. A web app plus mobile is the most expensive solution.

   • How to Explain to Your Boss: "Which one, boss? The computer browser only (web app), the one you download from the App Store (mobile app), or the one that runs on your phone without downloading (PWA)?"

2. User Persona

   • Why It's Important: Helps you understand the target audience's needs, behaviors, and goals. The deliverable is usually a written document or a Miro board.

   • How to Explain to Your Boss: "We can’t build an app for everyone. Instead, let’s design it around the one most fitting person who will use our app and their needs, behaviors, goals, and expectations."

   • Example.

3. UI Flows

   • Why It's Important: Visualizes the user's journey through the product, ensuring a seamless experience.

   • How to Explain to Your Boss: "Essentially an explanation of what each button does and where it takes you in the app. Crucial for designers before they start designing the interface."

   • Example.

4. Responsive Design

   • Why It's Important: If the design is responsive, it will adapt to various screen sizes (iPad, Phone, Mac etc.).

   • How to Explain to Your Boss: "Responsive design guarantees you will be able to use the app on your computer but also on your phone or tablet and it will not look weird"

   • Example.

Pre-Build Phase

1. Technical Specification

   • Why It's Important: Outlines the technical requirements and components needed to build the product, usually a written document.

   • How to Explain to Your Boss: "This ensures that developers will know what technology to select for our performance and capability expectations. Let’s say, payment gate connection is a technical requirement"

   • Example.

2. Non-Technical Specification

   • Why It's Important: Describes the product's features and business objectives without technical jargon, usually a written document.

   • How to Explain to Your Boss: "This tells designers and developer what are the features of the app. Let’s say, we want our user to be able to pay via Apple Pay, this is a non technical requirement"

   • Example.

3. Wireframe

   • Why It's Important: Visualises the basic structure of the product, providing a foundation for design and development. Usually done in Figma and can be shown to your Boss.

   • How to Explain to Your Boss: "Wireframes help the team plan the layout and functionality of our product on a screen. You will see the deliverable and be able to test it, but you won’t like the look of it because there is no visual design applied to wireframes."

   • Example.

4. Roadmap

   • Why It's Important: Outlines the steps and timeline for developing and launching the product. MVP 1 to MVP X

   • How to Explain to Your Boss: "A roadmap keeps all stakeholders aligned and informed about the project timeline and key milestones, but more importantly shows us which features we focus on first."

   • Example.

Build Phase

1. Front-End Development

   • Why It's Important: Ensures the user interface is visually appealing and functional, whether coded or built using no-code tools.

   • How to Explain to Your Boss: "This is the part which you see on screen and what you interact with"

2. Back-End Development

   • Why It's Important: Manages data, user authentication, and application logic, whether custom-coded or using no-code platforms.

   • How to Explain to Your Boss: "This is the more complicated part which you do not see. It is essentially a giant Excel sheet with all the data. It must be secure and well maintained"

3. Middle Layer (Middleware)

   • Why It's Important: Acts as a bridge between the front end and back end, ensuring smooth data flow.

   • How to Explain to Your Boss: "Middleware is where the logic between front- and back-end lays. When you click something on screen, the logic validates it and pulls data from back-end to display to you.

4. API (Application Programming Interface)

   • Why It's Important: Facilitates seamless integration and functionality between different software systems and different data stores.

   • How to Explain to Your Boss: "APIs enable our product to download or send data to other applications. If an app has an API we can connect to it, if it doesn’t it will be expensive"

5. Agile Sprint vs. Waterfall

   • Why It's Important: Helps in choosing the right development methodology for the project. 14 days sprints vs. feature based dev.

   • How to Explain to Your Boss: "This is the way in which deliverables will be completed, either feature by feature on a timeline or in 14 day sprints. Understand both as a development management approach"

Any of those above did not work? Just ask your boss to call me, I’ll handle it!

All for this week. Monday is around the corner, go get them!

- Slavo