Writing

As a junior lawyer, I had to learn how to make it easy for supervisors to review my work. In case it helps, here's a step-by-step guide (with an example): 1️⃣Make it clear what the matter / document is and when input is needed. 2️⃣ Set out the context and approach to preparing the deliverable What needs to be reviewed, how was it prepared, and what’s the timeline? If you're attaching a document, include the live link to your file management platform (e.g. iManage or Sharepoint) as well as a static version. 3️⃣ Set out the next steps and your ask Make it clear what your supervisor needs to review. Set this out at the top of your email and proactively provide some recommendations. You can also follow up in person to make sure deadlines aren't missed. 4️⃣ Explain how the draft is marked up Make it easy to navigate with specific questions (either in the document or extracted in the email). If there are mark ups against a particular document / version, identify what that is. 5️⃣ Summarise your inputs Let them know what your draft reflects, and attach the relevant inputs so they can see everything in one place. This will give your supervisor confidence that you've captured everything, and make it easier for them to check your work. 6️⃣ Flag key aspects / assumptions If there are key assumptions / principles that have a big impact on how your draft is prepared, it's helpful to set them out in the email as a point of focus. Try to also set out the relevant clause / section / reference where possible. Is there anything else that you'd add? What else have you found helpful in making drafts easier to review, either as a junior lawyer or a supervisor? ------ Btw, if you're a junior lawyer looking for practical career advice - check out the free how-to guides on my website. You can also stay updated by sending a connection / follow. #legalprofession #lawyers #lawstudents #lawfirms

If your paper is getting rejected, it isn’t necessarily the science that’s the problem (it’s likely the journal fit that’s off!). Here’s how you can be be strategic about journal selection. How do I choose the right scientific journal? ↳ Analyze your citation list and target relevant publications. Can impact factor really determine journal quality? ↳ Look beyond numbers, focus on specialized audience fit. How to avoid predatory journal publication traps? ↳ Verify journal reputation before submitting your research. Will editors help improve my manuscript? ↳ Follow author guidelines meticulously. Navigating the academic publication landscape can feel like traversing a complex maze. As a professor, I've learned that selecting the right journal is both an art and a science. Here's a game-changing approach I've developed: 1. Conduct a citation audit: Count journals you've referenced most frequently. These are likely your ideal publication targets. 2. Beyond Impact Factor: Don't get fixated on numbers. A lower-ranked journal with a specialized audience might be more valuable than a high-impact generic publication. 3. Beware of predatory journals: If an unsolicited email promises quick publication for a fee, run! Legitimate open-access journals conduct rigorous peer review. 4. Craft a strategic cover letter: Suggest credible reviewers, highlight your paper's novelty, and demonstrate professionalism. 5. Patience is key: Most journals reject approximately 50% of submissions. Don't be discouraged - each submission is a learning opportunity. Pro tip: Always read and follow the journal's specific author guidelines. This shows you're a detail-oriented, professional researcher. Have you ever struggled with selecting the right scientific journal for your research? What challenges have you encountered? #science #scientist #ScientificCommunication #publishing #phd #professor #research #postgraduate

🌎 Designing Cross-Cultural And Multi-Lingual UX. Guidelines on how to stress test our designs, how to define a localization strategy and how to deal with currencies, dates, word order, pluralization, colors and gender pronouns. ⦿ Translation: “We adapt our message to resonate in other markets”. ⦿ Localization: “We adapt user experience to local expectations”. ⦿ Internationalization: “We adapt our codebase to work in other markets”. ✅ English-language users make up about 26% of users. ✅ Top written languages: Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese. ✅ Most users prefer content in their native language(s). ✅ French texts are on average 20% longer than English ones. ✅ Japanese texts are on average 30–60% shorter. 🚫 Flags aren’t languages: avoid them for language selection. 🚫 Language direction ≠ design direction (“F” vs. Zig-Zag pattern). 🚫 Not everybody has first/middle names: “Full name” is better. ✅ Always reserve at least 30% room for longer translations. ✅ Stress test your UI for translation with pseudolocalization. ✅ Plan for line wrap, truncation, very short and very long labels. ✅ Adjust numbers, dates, times, formats, units, addresses. ✅ Adjust currency, spelling, input masks, placeholders. ✅ Always conduct UX research with local users. When localizing an interface, we need to work beyond translation. We need to be respectful of cultural differences. E.g. in Arabic we would often need to increase the spacing between lines. For Chinese market, we need to increase the density of information. German sites require a vast amount of detail to communicate that a topic is well-thought-out. Stress test your design. Avoid assumptions. Work with local content designers. Spend time in the country to better understand the market. Have local help on the ground. And test repeatedly with local users as an ongoing part of the design process. You’ll be surprised by some findings, but you’ll also learn to adapt and scale to be effective — whatever market is going to come up next. Useful resources: UX Design Across Different Cultures, by Jenny Shen https://lnkd.in/eNiyVqiH UX Localization Handbook, by Phrase https://lnkd.in/eKN7usSA A Complete Guide To UX Localization, by Michal Kessel Shitrit 🎗️ https://lnkd.in/eaQJt-bU Designing Multi-Lingual UX, by yours truly https://lnkd.in/eR3GnwXQ Flags Are Not Languages, by James Offer https://lnkd.in/eaySNFGa IBM Globalization Checklists https://lnkd.in/ewNzysqv Books: ⦿ Cross-Cultural Design (https://lnkd.in/e8KswErf) by Senongo Akpem ⦿ The Culture Map (https://lnkd.in/edfyMqhN) by Erin Meyer ⦿ UX Writing & Microcopy (https://lnkd.in/e_ZFu374) by Kinneret Yifrah

We analyzed 4 million recruiting emails sent through Gem. Most get opened. But only 22.6% get replies. Half those replies are "thanks, but no thanks." We dug into what actually works. Here are 8 factors that drive REAL responses: 1. Strategic timing beats everything else - 8am gets 68% open rates. 4pm hits 67.3%. 10am lands at 67% - Most recruiters blast at 9am when inboxes are flooded - Avoiding peak times alone can boost your opens by 7-10% 2. Weekend outreach is criminally underused - Saturday/Sunday emails get ≥66% open rates consistently - Why? Empty inboxes. Zero competition. Candidates actually have time - Yet few recruiters send on weekends. Their loss is your gain 3. Keep messages between 101-150 words - Shorter feels spammy. Longer gets skimmed - You need exactly 10 sentences to nail the essentials - Every word beyond 150 drops performance 4. Generic templates kill response rates - Generic templates: 22% reply rate - Personalized outreach: 47% increased response rate - Even adding name + company to subject lines boosts opens by 5% 5. Subject lines need 3-9 words - Include company name + job title for highest opens - "Senior Engineer Role at [Company]" beats clever wordplay - 11+ words can work if genuinely intriguing, but why risk it? 6. The 4-stage sequence is optimal - One-off emails are dead. Send exactly 4 follow-up messages - You'll see 68% higher "interested" rates with proper sequencing - After stage 4, engagement completely flatlines. Stop there 7. Get the hiring manager involved - Having the hiring manager send ONE follow-up boosts reply rates by 50%+ - Yet most recruiters don't use this tactic - Weekend advantage: Minimal competition for attention 8. Leadership involvement is a cheat code - Role-specific timing (tech vs non-tech) matters - Technical roles: 3 of 4 best send times are weekends - Engineers check email differently than salespeople. Adjust accordingly TAKEAWAY: These aren't opinions. This is what 4 million emails tell us. Most recruiting teams are stuck in 2019 playbooks wondering why their reply rates won't budge. Meanwhile, recruiters who implement these 8 factors see dramatically better results. The data is right there. The patterns are clear. The only question is: will you actually change how you operate? Or will you keep sending the same tired emails at 9am on Tuesday? Your call.

Top takeaways from my chat with Grant Lee (CEO of Gamma): 1. The first 30 seconds of using your product should be so good it earns the next 30 seconds. When Gamma wasn’t growing, they stopped everything and spent three months perfecting just the first 30 seconds of using their product. They made it so compelling that new users would immediately tell their friends. This single change transformed their growth trajectory. 2. Focus on one simple promise, not many features. Think of it like throwing eggs to someone: they can catch one, but if you throw five at once, they’ll drop them all. Your users are selfish, vain, and lazy—you have 30 seconds to show value before they leave. Gamma focused on “create a slide in seconds” rather than listing 10 features. 3. Don’t spend on ads until over half your growth comes from word of mouth. If you try to buy growth before your product spreads organically, you’re wasting money filling a leaky bucket. 4. Work with hundreds of small creators instead of a few big influencers. Rather than blowing your budget on five or six well-known influencers who treat it like just another ad read, find thousands of micro-influencers whose audiences genuinely care about tools like yours. Teachers sharing with teachers, consultants with consultants—these tight communities create authentic word of mouth that spreads fast. 5. Spend time personally onboarding each early creator like they’re joining your team. Don’t just send influencers a script. Jump on calls, walk them through the product, help them understand what makes it special, and let them tell your story in their own voice. This investment turns them into genuine advocates who post about you repeatedly instead of treating it like any other sponsorship. 6. Hire painfully slowly and only exceptional people. Gamma serves 50 million users with just 50 people and makes a profit. All 10 original employees are still there five years later. They never set headcount goals because that makes you hire to hit a number instead of hiring only when you find someone exceptional. When someone is exceptional, give them more responsibility, not less—top performers want harder challenges. 7. Test prototypes with 20 people on UserTesting before investing in a big project. Use platforms like Voicepanel or UserTesting to watch real people try your prototype. They’ll show you problems you never see because you’re too close to your product. Gamma goes from idea to results in a single day—morning idea, afternoon testing, evening results. This saves months of building things nobody wants. 8. Choose problems you’ll care about for 10 years. Before worrying about technology or tactics, ask if this problem matters enough to you personally that you’d dedicate a decade to solving it. Founders who are missionaries rather than mercenaries build better products because their authentic commitment shows through to customers and attracts people who want to build alongside you for the long term.

Want to write like a CEO? Cut the fluff. The best leaders communicate with: ✅ Clarity ✅ Brevity ✅ Impact They don’t send long, rambling emails. They don’t hide behind corporate jargon. They get to the point fast. I have written four books and have advised 300+ CEOs on their communications. Here’s the 5-part writing framework top executives use: 1 – The Subject Line Should Say It All Before you write anything, ask: ➡️ What’s the ONE thing I need them to know? ➡️ What’s the ONE action I need them to take? If you can’t answer this, don’t send it yet. 2 – Lead with the Bottom Line Busy people don’t have time for long intros. 💡 Start with the main point, not the backstory. ❌ “Hope you’re doing well! I wanted to reach out because we’ve been working on…” ✅ “Here’s the update: [Key message in one line].” 3 – Cut the Fluff High-level executives don’t read wordy emails. They scan. ✂ Remove “just,” “I think,” and “wanted to.” ✅ “We should move forward.” ✅ “The results show a 20% increase.” 4 – Be Direct, Not Rude Great leaders are clear, not cold. 🚫 “Per our last discussion, I believe this approach might be beneficial.” ✅ “Let’s move forward with this approach. Thoughts?” 5 – Always End with a Clear Ask ❌ “Let me know what you think.” ✅ “Can you approve this by Thursday?” 6 – Add Warmth Charismatic people are both competent and warm. If you follow 1-5, you may come across as competent but it may be hard to connect. Therefore, add some warmth at the end. ❌ “Looking forward to your response.” ✅ “Appreciate your time on this—excited to hear your thoughts!” 📌 Follow me Oliver Aust for daily strategies on leadership communications.

Beneath the flashy apps, the structure of how #money moves has barely changed in decades. Now a new generation of technologies — AI, autonomous agents, programmable money — is challenging the set-up. Account: — The account has always been the foundation of the financial system. From traditional bank accounts to e-wallets, or crypto addresses, the core idea is unchanged: hold value, identify, access. — Embedded #finance has evolved the concept by facilitating movement across platforms, embedded in ecosystems. At the same time, programmable money is redefining the meaning: if a digital token can carry logic, then the account becomes less of a container and more of a policy engine. — The next step is to move from a passive to an adaptive status with context-based adjustments: re-distributing funds in anticipation of bills, reacting to calendar events, restricting spending based on behavioural insights. #Payments: — Payments have always been a reactive event. Even innovations like contactless, QR codes or the invisible checkout haven’t changed the sequence (systems responding to users) but rather the speed. — AI agents now change the game: intelligence decision-making layers are turning transactions into proactive events (i.e. software that not only knows your monthly cash flow but also takes spending decisions based on real-time data). Funding: — Money in and money out has long been about connecting pipes - bank transfers, card networks, ACH files, payment gateways. It’s operational, fragmented, and often opaque. Funding mechanics determine how liquidity enters and exits the system. — The emergence of real-time payment rails, open banking, and smart orchestration engines means we’re moving from hardwired pipes to dynamic routing. Funding becomes a real-time optimisation process: choosing the best rails, timing, and method based on cost, speed, and context. — Scenarios: autonomous wallets that “self-fund” based on anticipated needs, systems that pull funds from different accounts just-in-time to maximise yield and minimise idle capital or programmable disbursements that release funds conditionally (e.g., milestone-based payments or usage-tied incentives). Settlement and reconciliation: — Batch-based, manual processes are being replaced with distributed ledgers and real-time messaging standards. —Settlement is becoming instant, even programmable - with smart contracts that move funds the moment conditions are met. Reconciliation is becoming real-time, as systems compare ledgers on the fly, flag inconsistencies, and auto-resolve differences. And clearing is becoming transparent, with parties able to see positions and exposures in near real time. The next wave of financial infrastructure goes far beyond faster rails. It will be all about real-time, data-based, #AI-powered intelligence. Opinions: my own, Graphic source: PYMNTS Intelligence 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫: https://lnkd.in/dkqhnxdg

One skill separates great communicators from average ones: Perspective-taking. The ability to see things from someone else’s point of view. But most people do it wrong. Here’s how to do it right, especially when you’re leading or being led: When you’re the boss, persuading down: You’re trying to convince Maria on your team to do something different. She’s pushing back. Your instinct might be to assert your authority. But that’s a mistake. Here’s why… Research shows: The more powerful you feel, the worse your perspective-taking becomes. More power = less understanding. So if you want to persuade Maria, don’t lean into your title. Do the opposite: dial your power down, just briefly. Try this: Before the next conversation, remind yourself: Maria has power too. I need her buy-in. Maybe she sees something I don’t. Lower your feelings of power to raise your perspective. From that place, ask: → What does she see that I’m missing? → What might be in her way? → What’s a win-win outcome? That shift changes the entire dynamic. Instead of steamrolling, you’re collaborating. And that’s how you earn trust and results. Now flip it. You’re the employee persuading your boss. It’s a high-stakes moment. You’re nervous. So do you appeal to emotion? No. Drop the feelings. Focus on interests. Here’s the key question: “What’s in it for them?” Not how you feel. Not your big dream. → Will it save time? → Improve performance? → Help them hit their goals? Make it about their world, not yours. Why? Because every boss has a mental shortcut: → Does this employee make my life easier or harder? Be the person who brings clarity, ideas, and upside. Not complaints, drama, or friction. In summary: → Persuading down? Dial down your power to see clearer. → Persuading up? Focus on their interests, not your emotions. Perspective-taking is a superpower, if you learn how to use it. Now practice, practice, practice.

What if I told you your cover letter's first and last sentences determine whether you get interviews? Recently, I was reviewing cover letters with a client who couldn't figure out why she wasn't getting callbacks for marketing positions. After looking at her application materials, the problem became immediately clear. "Your cover letter is killing your chances." Her opening line was the classic "Please accept my resume for consideration of the Marketing Manager position within your organization" — and she never actually asked for an interview at the end. So, how do you write cover letters that actually get read? Use these powerful techniques instead: S — Use a sticky hook Forget "To Whom It May Concern" or "I'm writing to apply for..." Instead, try one of these attention-grabbing marketing-focused openers: "If your company is struggling to generate qualified leads despite increasing ad spend, I have the solution you've been looking for." "Innovation. Growth. ROI. If these marketing priorities align with your vision for the Digital Marketing position, we should talk." "Do you need a content strategist who can double your organic traffic and boost conversion rates by 35% within six months?" W — What's in it for the employer? Hiring managers are reading your letter thinking, "Can this person drive results?" Make it clear from the start that you understand their marketing challenges and can provide measurable solutions. I — Information This is where you provide brief, compelling evidence of your marketing qualifications and accomplishments. For example: "By implementing a targeted social media campaign for XYZ Corp, I increased engagement by 78% and drove $125K in new revenue within 90 days." F — Fast segue Transition smoothly to your request for an interview. For example: "With this proven marketing expertise in mind, I would welcome the opportunity to discuss how I can contribute to your customer acquisition strategy." T — To-Do Here's the #1 cover letter secret that DOUBLES your chances of getting interviews: actually ASK for the interview! "I'm excited about the Marketing Director position with ABC Inc. and would appreciate the opportunity to discuss how my experience driving successful campaigns can deliver similar results for your brand. Please call me at (number) to schedule an interview at your convenience." By simply asking for the interview, you've shown initiative and clarified what you want — something most candidates completely overlook. What cover letter techniques have worked for you? Have you tried asking directly for the interview?

In my 14yrs career in engineering working for Big Tech companies such as Google and Uber, there is no other skill I used more than writing. And no, I don’t mean writing code. I mean English writing. Emails, Design Docs, Presentations, Feedback, Code Reviews, you name it. Here's how I make my written communication clear, effective, and punchy. 👇 Written communication can sometimes be daunting, especially for non-native speakers—like me. That’s why I wanted to share  the 6 questions that I use when writing anything. This helps me communicate more effectively and connect with my audience better. 1. Who is my target audience? Identify the specific group or individuals you are speaking to. Knowing your audience assists you in customizing your writing to meet their requirements and interests. 2. What is my main objective or purpose? Clarify the primary goal of your writing. Whether it's to inform, persuade, entertain, or educate, knowing your objective guides your content. 3. What key points do I want to convey? Identify the main idea or key points you want to communicate. This will help you stay focused and make sure your message is clear and logical. 4. Why should the reader care about this? Consider the value or benefit your writing offers to the reader. Highlight how it addresses their needs or solves a problem. 5. Is my writing clear, concise, and organized? Make sure your content is clear and easy to understand. Keep the flow logical and avoid using complex language or jargon that might confuse the reader. 6. Can I make my writing shorter? The answer is always yes. So make sure to edit edit edit. Brevity saves time for both the writer and the reader. What else would you add to this list? How does your writing process look like? ♻️ Please repost if you found this useful