On the importance of extremely clear communication
I do a lot of editing of written materials at Stripe, and I still find myself leaning on the – it must be a cliche at this stage – how would you explain this to your friend in a bar? You wouldn’t in this day and age as we’re not allowed to go to bars. But how would you explain it to your friends over Zoom, say. And people somehow adopt a voice that is full of complex filler or corporate jargon when writing in a corporate environment. And then if you ask them, “What does Stripe Radar actually do?” Oh, “It prevents fraud for businesses.” Why don’t you just say that. And so I found that as a really useful device.
Another device I tend to use is, I get people to read something and then just like, tell me everything they can remember for it. And then basically delete everything they can’t remember. I mean, not literally, but I think people… Most things tend to be too long and not edited tightly enough.
