27 Workplace Buzzwords You Need in Your Next Meeting

Ever feel like you’re trying to explain something but can’t find the right words? A buzzword might be just what you need. There are tons of widely understood buzzwords, and when used appropriately, they can make what you’re saying easier to understand. Below is a list of meeting buzzwords to use at your next meeting to keep things less complicated and more conversational.

• What is a meeting buzzword?
• 27 meeting buzzwords
• Why are meeting buzzwords important?

What is a meeting buzzword?

Meeting buzzwords are words and phrases commonly used in business settings to describe concepts or reference ideas. They’re easy to understand and require little context to convey ideas. Some buzzwords have meanings that can have several applications, so they’re often used across industries. Because these words have widespread use, in many cases, they can replace complex jargon and give your meetings a more conversational tone.

27 meeting buzzwords

Looking to add more buzzwords to your meeting lingo? Below is a list of 27 words and phrases commonly used in workplace settings. You don’t have to use all these words at once – there is such a thing as too many buzzwords. Instead, start with just a few words and phrases at a time. Occasionally working them into your presentations can make them tasteful additions to your meetings.

• Agile 
• Alignment
• Ballpark
• Bandwidth
• Big data
• Content is king
• Deep dive
• Drill down
• Ecosystem
• Freemium
• Hard stop
• Holistic
• Hyperlocal
• Impact
• Incentivize
• Logistics
• Low-hanging fruit
• Move the needle
• Pain point
• Ping
• Quick win
• Retargeting
• Sustainability
• Touchpoint
• Unpack
• User-generated content
• Visibility

1 Agile 

The term “agile” refers to how well your organization and stakeholders can evaluate and adapt to changing situations.

Example: The upcoming merger will require us to be more agile in our business operations.

2 Alignment

Alignment refers to how a team strategy or action dovetails with your vision, goals, or standards. Productivity and wellness specialist Melissa Steginus has previously used this term seamlessly in conversations with Fellow. When naming questions to ask before setting a goal, she listed the following that we’ll use as our example here.

Example: “Does this matter to me? Why or why not? What do I want my workday/lifestyle to look like? What are my core values? How does X align with this? What impact will this make on my business? Did today matter?”

3 Ballpark

In business, a ballpark is a broad estimate that stands in for an accurate figure. You might hear it come up when discussing negotiations, deals, and proposals.

Example: The salary for our data analyst position will be in the ballpark of $50,000 to $55,000.

4 Bandwidth

A spinoff of its original description of a system’s internet capacity, “bandwidth” as a buzzword refers to someone’s capacity to handle a task.

Example: Typically, I’d assign this project to the recruiting team, but they don’t have the bandwidth for it right now.

5 Big data

“Big data” describes a large amount of information a company regularly collects, whether emails, phone numbers, or sales reports. You’ll typically use this data to analyze your organization’s customer reach, financial position, or something else.

Example: Starting next month, we’ll use a new processing program to store and manage our big data.

6 Content is king

The phrase “content is king” emphasizes the importance of regularly producing high-quality content to get customers interested in your products. You’ll hear it used in marketing and advertising to refer to social media posts, blog articles, email newsletters, and more.

Example: We need to increase the number of Instagram posts we’re pushing out every week. Remember, “Content is king.”

7 Deep dive

A deep dive is a thorough exploration, discussion, or review of a certain topic. You might request a deep dive when you ask your team for ideas around a new project.

Example: Let’s do a deep dive into our sales reports to identify the 10 products our millennial customers love the most.

8 Drill down

To “drill down” means to move from broadly viewing information to closely examining it. This phrase can also involve breaking something down into smaller parts to identify an underlying issue.

Example: We just received data from last month’s surveys. We should drill these results down to understand which groups are driving certain sales trends and why.

9 Ecosystem

In nature, an ecosystem refers to a physical environment, the organisms within that area, and the ways they interact with each other. The same concept applies to a workforce ecosystem. This buzzword refers to the many elements that contribute to an organization’s performance – your team, their collaboration, your company culture, and more.

Example: To create a healthier work ecosystem, we’re setting up quarterly wellbeing check-ins between employees and managers.

10 Freemium

A combination of “free” and “premium,” “freemium” is a free version of something offered to customers to sample the product’s full version.

Example: For the month of April, we’re offering a freemium pricing strategy to allow our prospects to try our deluxe plan.

11 Hard stop

A hard stop is the point when an event or work on a task must immediately cease. Budget restraints and time limits are examples of hard stops in business.

Example: We’ve only booked this room until 10:00, so this meeting will have a hard stop at 9:55.

12 Holistic

A “holistic” approach involves looking at every nook and cranny of a situation before problem-solving or making decisions. Holistic approaches entail considering all possible actions to ensure they meet a standard that benefits your entire organization. They consider your individual departments, your social responsibility, and more.

Example: We’ve asked our team leads to look at data from our all departments. This way, we can take a holistic approach to improving our business model.

13 Hyperlocal

A hyperlocal matter focuses on a small and specific community of people.

Example: The marketing team launched a hyperlocal campaign to target 21-year-olds in our area.

14 Impact

Your organization’s impact is the influence or effect it has on its customers or the outside community. Many organizations try to maximize their impact and positively affect their surrounding areas.

Example: Our content team is interviewing a few top clients to showcase the impact we have on our local business community.

15 Incentivize

To “incentivize” an approach involves offering something to people in exchange for an action.

Example: We’re incentivizing our reward program to offer customers a 30-day free trial when they enroll in our 12-month program.

16 Logistics

“Logistics” refers to your company’s core competencies, especially the way it coordinates and manages its resources. It traditionally describes the process of acquiring and distributing resources, but it can also include hiring new employees, analyzing budgets, and more. In its present-day use, it can really encompass all of your organization’s behind-the-scenes functions.

Example: We’ve hired a new assistant to help with all the logistics of planning and executing this project.

17 Low-hanging fruit

In business, “low-hanging fruit” describes opportunities that require little effort or investment but still produce excellent results. They’re borderline freebies, and they can lead to easy profits or achievements.

Example: The students at the local university are low-hanging fruit for testing our new coffee blend.

18 Move the needle

“Moving the needle” refers to notably shifting your organization’s impact and influence. When you move the needle, you distinguish your company and its products to a noticeable extent.

Example: We’re going heavy on paid online ads to really move the needle on sales.

19 Pain point

A pain point is a recurring problem or a weakness in a business. Customers can also have pain points – in fact, many breakthrough products and services started as solutions to pain points.

Example: We’ve found that high monthly subscription fees are a pain point among our customers. We’re introducing one-time payments to solve that.

20 Ping

A ping is a brief communication used to contact a colleague and bring them new information, check in, or submit a request. Typically, it’s an email or through another communication tool, but it can also be a quick phone call or text message.

Example: When you finish that task, just ping me and I’ll review it.

21 Quick win

A quick win is a task or project that’s easy to complete but still produces profitable results.

Examples: Selling 100 water bottles at this marathon should be a quick win.

22 Retargeting

Retargeting is an online advertising strategy that aims to re-engage previously engaged customers. For example, let’s say a customer added a few items to their cart and entered their email but never actually bought anything. A retargeting email might remind them of what’s in their cart and include a discount code to make a purchase more likely.

Example: We’re expanding our marketing to retarget customers 24 hours after they browse our product listings.

23 Sustainability

Sustainability has two meanings. It can describe whether your organization can repeat a standard time and again without issue. But more commonly, it now refers to keeping your organization’s practices eco-friendly.

Example: We locally source all our raw materials to cut how much fossil fuel we use to get them shipped to us. We care about sustainability!

24 Touchpoint

A touchpoint is a place where a potential or existing customer could interact with your business. That could include your website, an ad, an in-person visit, and more.

Example: Having a live representative speak with customers instead of using an automated system introduces more touchpoints.

25 Unpack

To unpack an idea or concept means to explore or examine each of its components to better understand the whole idea.

Example: Let’s unpack the ideas we discussed last week to figure out how we can implement them into our everyday operations.

26 User-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) is any media that your customers or other people outside your organization create about your products or services. Social media posts that include your products are a common example.

Example: We want to share more user-generated content, so we’re asking customers to send videos of them trying out our products. We’ll then post them to our social media pages.

27 Visibility

Visibility describes how much potential customers notice an organization or product. Greater visibility means more people are paying attention.

Example: This marketing campaign should increase the visibility of our member services for the next few months.

Why are meeting buzzwords important?

Incorporating business buzzwords into your meetings can help you break down complex ideas in easily understandable ways. They can make your meetings more conversational and casual 

(though you can use them at formal meetings!) and encourage your employees to participate more.

Simplifying your meetings

Buzzwords are fun to use (seriously, who doesn’t feel like a business whiz after using them?) and bring clarity to meetings. And you now have another 27 buzzwords you can use in your presentations! And during your meetings, Fellow can keep things moving with its tools for meeting agendas, action items, notetaking, and plenty more.