Developer English guide
English Idioms Used in Tech Teams
Idioms are fixed expressions whose meaning cannot be guessed from the individual words. They're everywhere in English tech conversations, and not knowing them can make meetings and Slack threads confusing. This guide covers the most common ones, grouped by the situations where you'll hear them.
Scope and planning
These idioms come up when discussing project scope, timelines, estimates, and technical decisions.
“boil the ocean”
To try to do something so large or complex that it is practically impossible. Used as a warning against over-scoping.
“We only have two weeks. Let's not boil the ocean — pick the three features that matter most.”
“low hanging fruit”
Tasks or improvements that are easy to achieve and deliver quick wins.
“Before we tackle the big migration, let's fix the low hanging fruit: the slow queries on the dashboard.”
“bite off more than you can chew”
To take on more work or responsibility than you can realistically handle.
“We bit off more than we could chew by committing to three new features in one sprint.”
“move the goalposts”
To change the requirements or criteria for success after work has already started.
“The client keeps moving the goalposts. We agreed on the scope two weeks ago and now they want a mobile app too.”
“kick the can down the road”
To postpone dealing with a problem rather than solving it now.
“Skipping the tech debt conversation again is just kicking the can down the road. It will be harder to fix in six months.”
“reinvent the wheel”
To waste time building something that already exists instead of using an existing solution.
“Don't reinvent the wheel — there are three well-maintained open-source libraries that already do this.”
“ballpark figure”
A rough estimate, not a precise number.
“I can't give you an exact timeline yet, but as a ballpark figure, it's probably two to three weeks of work.”
“under the hood”
The internal workings of a system, not visible to end users.
“The UI looks the same but we completely replaced the rendering engine under the hood.”
Roles and workload
You'll hear these when talking about responsibilities, workload, and how people are performing on the team.
“wear many hats”
To have multiple roles or responsibilities at the same time.
“At a startup you often wear many hats: I'm writing code in the morning and talking to clients in the afternoon.”
“pull your weight”
To contribute your fair share of work to the team.
“The team is stretched thin right now. Everyone needs to pull their weight to hit the deadline.”
“in the weeds”
Deeply focused on details, or overwhelmed by the complexity of a task.
“I've been in the weeds on this bug all day. I might need a second pair of eyes.”
“put out fires”
To spend time dealing with urgent problems rather than planned work.
“We planned to finish the feature this week but ended up putting out fires after the production outage.”
“spinning plates”
Juggling many tasks or responsibilities at the same time.
“I'm spinning plates right now: two active PRs, an incident to investigate, and a client call in an hour.”
“hit the ground running”
To start a new project or role quickly and effectively, without needing time to warm up.
“The new engineer hit the ground running — she shipped her first feature in her second week.”
“drop the ball”
To fail to follow through on a responsibility or task.
“I dropped the ball on the code review — it sat unread for three days. Sorry about that.”
Communication and alignment
Common in meetings, standups, Slack, and any situation involving coordination between people.
“on the same page”
Having the same understanding or expectations about something.
“Before we start writing code, let's make sure we're all on the same page about the requirements.”
“touch base”
To make brief contact with someone to share information or check in.
“I'll touch base with the design team tomorrow to make sure the mockups are ready.”
“circle back”
To return to a topic or conversation later.
“That's a good point, but it's out of scope for today. Let's circle back to it in the next planning session.”
“take it offline”
To move a detailed or sensitive conversation out of the current meeting and handle it privately.
“This discussion is getting too detailed for the standup. Let's take it offline and sync after.”
“in the loop”
Kept informed about what is happening. The opposite is 'out of the loop'.
“Keep the product manager in the loop — she needs to know if the timeline shifts.”
“throw it over the wall”
To hand off work to another team without proper context or collaboration.
“The design team threw the specs over the wall the day before the sprint started. We had no time to ask questions.”
“deep dive”
A thorough, detailed investigation or analysis of a topic.
“Can we schedule a deep dive into the performance issues? I need at least an hour with the right people in the room.”
“move the needle”
To make a meaningful, measurable impact on a key metric or goal.
“We've shipped a lot of small improvements, but none of them really moved the needle on user retention.”
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