How to Talk to Developers
A field guide and a working AI translator for marketers and developers who want to speak the same language. Describe what you need in plain terms and get a brief that is ready to build.
Translate your request into a developer-ready brief.
Three modes, powered by real AI. Turn a request into a developer-ready brief, decode developer-speak into plain language, or find the clearest way to say what you mean.
// Feed it a vague request. Get a brief a developer can actually build.
Nothing you type is stored. This is for fun. Mostly.
Developer terms, decoded for marketers
The words that fly around every standup. Here is a taste. The full dictionary has 153+ terms, each with a developer definition and a plain-English one.
API
The way two systems talk to each other. When your site shows live inventory or pushes a form into your CRM, an API is doing the handoff. "Is there an API?" means "can we connect this to that?"
Staging
A private dress-rehearsal copy of the site that looks and works like the real one, where you preview and approve changes before they go live. Always review on staging, not production.
Cache
A saved copy that makes things load fast. The flip side: if you updated the site and still see the old version, the cache is probably showing you yesterday. "Clear your cache" usually fixes it.
Scope creep
When "just one small addition" keeps happening until the project is twice the size and past deadline. Not evil, just unmanaged. The fix is naming new asks as new work.
MVP
The leanest launchable version: enough to be useful and start learning, without every bell and whistle. The point is to ship, measure, and improve, not to perfect in a vacuum.
Technical debt
The buildup of quick fixes and shortcuts that make future changes slower and riskier. Like financial debt: a little is fine and strategic, too much and every new feature costs more.
The CLEAR request
Five letters you can remember mid-Slack-message. Hit all five and you have written a request a developer can actually start.
What are we working on?
Where is it? The page, URL, or the specific element.
What should happen or change?
Who are we trying to help here?
What screenshot or example shows what you mean?
“Make the hero better.”
“On the homepage hero, first-time visitors miss our demo CTA. Can we give it more visual hierarchy without changing the layout much? Reference attached.”
FAQ
Questions marketers ask about working with developers
The practical stuff teams want to know before the next handoff.
How do I write a request a developer can actually build?
Give four things: what you want, where it lives, what should change, and who it is for, plus a reference like a screenshot or link. That is the CLEAR framework on this page. A request with those details can be scoped and started without a round of back-and-forth. Vague adjectives like "better" or "pop" cannot.
What does "make it pop" mean to a developer?
On its own, nothing actionable. "Pop" is a feeling, not a spec, so a developer has to guess at color, size, contrast, motion, or hierarchy. Translate it into one concrete change, for example "increase the CTA contrast and make the headline larger," and it becomes something that can be built and reviewed.
Why does a "quick change" take longer than I expect?
Because small visible changes often touch shared code, responsive layouts, and edge cases underneath. What looks like a five-minute tweak can mean updating several places and testing each one. It is rarely padding. Naming the real scope up front keeps timelines honest on both sides.
What do terms like staging, cache, and API actually mean?
Staging is a private copy of the site where you preview changes before they go live. Cache is a saved copy that makes pages load fast but can show you an old version. An API is how two systems talk to each other. The dictionary explains 150+ of these in plain English, with a developer definition and a what-it-means-for-you definition.
How can marketing teams and developers communicate better?
Shift from describing the solution to describing the outcome and context: the goal, the audience, the page, and a reference. Let the developer choose the implementation. Clear, outcome-first requests cut rework and speed up delivery. If you would rather skip the translation layer entirely, that is what we do.
Or skip the translation layer
STRS Dev plugs into your marketing team and turns strategy, campaigns, and the occasional late-night Slack message into websites that actually get built. We speak both languages, so you never have to translate.