I bounce between gigs and industries, so I learn jargon fast. I keep a small term sheet in a notes app. I spend 10 minutes scanning SOPs and recent tickets. I mirror wording from templates and client docs.
I ask a teammate to sanity-check my terms. I repeat them in context during standups and in comments. If I mix terms, I flag it and adjust. Curious, flexible, and collaborative beats guessing alone.
I do a quick scrape of docs/tickets and sort terms by frequency. Day 1 target: learn the top 20, use each twice in context. I keep a running list and track unknowns per meeting, aiming to get under 2 by day 3. Sanity-check with one SME. What’s your per-day target?
Last onboarding. I copied two client emails into a doc and bolded recurring terms. Then I rewrote my first status using only their wording. Takeaway: I keep a tiny “phrase bank” with exact sentences and acronyms decoded at the top of my notes. I also ask one person to spot-check.