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20 Buzzwords That Need to Die

Please stop saying these things.

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By Jessica Roy 5/23/12 9:33am

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This reporter used to work in the social marketing industry, a space that is inhabited in part by suited up biz dev types who love to toss around meaningless, jargony words. We were well-known within our office as being the no. 1 hater of buzzwords. It got so bad that our coworkers would purposefully Skype us “SYNERGY!” just to piss us off.

But today, we are finally taking a stand.

Today, we are declaring: death to all buzzwords! Or at least the 20 you will find in the following slideshow. Let’s nimbly dive in and do some mindsharing, shall we?
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PIVOT

"Pivoting" is just a nicer way of saying that your original idea failed and you need to scrap it entirely to focus on something new. (flickr.com/pivotconf)
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SYNERGY

Even "collaboration" is better than this. (flickr.com/davefayram)
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INNOVATE

As the Wall Street Journal noted today, this word is being used so much its actual meaning has become irrelevant. (flickr.com/seth1492)
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OPTIMIZATION

We can't help but think of early aughts-style slide decks when we hear this word. (flickr.com/hongxing128)
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GURU

You are not a guru. This is a guru. (flickr.com/secretlondon)
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ITERATE

Note: this slide deck is meaningless. (flickr.com/u-suke)
Update: A tipster wrote in, "I agree that the biz use of iterate is dumb, your photo is in a technical context where it has meaning." Our apologies, these buzzwords are messing with our head.
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CLIENT-CENTRIC

We get it. You love us. Now please go iterate or something. (agiletestware.com)
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MINDSHARE

Put your heads together, guys! (flickr.com/halighalie)
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VALUE-ADDED

This is an artistic rendering of a meaningless concept. (flickr.com/pshegubj)
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SHIPPING

Facebook engineers are notorious for overusing "shipping." If you are not on a boat or physically taking your product to the post office, you are not "shipping" anything. (flickr.com/epsos)
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SCALABLE

We question the value-add of this doodle. (flickr.com/sixmilliondollardan)
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DISRUPTIVE

Relatedly, using the term "disruptive" will result in removal from Betabeat HQ. (flickr.com/bdunnette)
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LEAN

If your startup has three people in it, it is not "lean," it is a handful of friends hanging out on their computers. (flickr.com/andyarthur)
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DELIVERABLES

Why can't we just call deliverables what they are? Proposals, spreadsheets, reports -- all deliverables. Use your words, people! (flickr.com/ivanwalsh)
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BIG DATA

The term "data" should automatically set off your BS detector. (flickr.com/t_gregorious)
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TURNKEY

We do not want to hear this word unless we are watching House Hunters. (flickr.com/bobcatrock)
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ACTIONABLE

Are not all items on your to do list actionable by definition? (flickr.com/simondee)
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HACK

'Hacking,' in its purest form, means putting something cool together--not realizing your friend is still logged into Facebook on your computer and posting a dumb status message. (flickr.com/copyfighting)
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CLOUD

This word jumped the shark the second California's 101 freeway became overrun with cloud computing billboards. (flickr.com/rafaeldesigner)
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THOUGHT LEADER

This is our least favorite of all. Just because you have a blog doesn't make you a 'thought leader.' (flickr.com/kalidoskopika)

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