Your inspiration album is useless without context. 

Homebuilders and interior designers know this.

Clients will send a picture or upload an album with comments like “we love this.”

This interaction does more harm than good.

Why?

It’s not specific enough.

The client may be “in love” with the color scheme in the photo they share. 

That’s what they see. Their distorted view fixated on a single element.

But others don’t see it.

Not without direction.

The builder may look at the picture and identify a style of window. 

The interior designer may think they adore the lighting. 

“We love this” is not enough detail. 

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These assumptive flaws happen every single day in the business world as well.

Just yesterday, a potential client told me they were looking for someone who can provide “strategic value.” My kneejerk response was to say, “that’s us, we provide strategic value, there is a fit between us!”. 

But I was wrong.

Instead, ask “when you say strategic value, what do you mean?”

In this case, they meant a deep pocketbook to fund growth. To me, strategic value means operational improvements, strategic horsepower, and wisdom from a board of directors that has “been there, done that.”

We saw different things in the same photo.

When you share the photo, tell your team where to focus.

When you use the jargon, tell your team what it means to you.