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Business communication, messaging.

How to turn a friendly message into a professional one

A fintech case study
Networking at events. How to organize meaningful communication

In every IT project, there comes a moment when a project manager writes a short message to a client to “work things out on a human level.”

A friend of mine, the founder of a large fintech project, recently showed me a conversation with a client and asked, “Did we overdo the human touch?”

Let’s break down this case: how can you turn such a message into business language without losing the essence?

The original message from project manager Masha to the client:

Hi Alex,

So, Fred and I took another look at the API task yesterday, and it seems like it’s all set up pretty poorly. We can fix it, but it will take a couple of days and require some additional budget, as it’s not a quick fix. We’ll also need to understand who on your team originally set it up — it might be easier to rebuild it from scratch. What do you think?

Rewriting it in a professional tone:

Good afternoon, Alexander,

We have reviewed the current API integration and identified significant architectural limitations affecting its stability.

A revision is possible; however, it will require two working days and additional resources.
Please confirm your readiness to proceed with the additional budget.
It would also be helpful to clarify who on your side was previously responsible for the solution’s architecture — a refactoring approach may be more optimal.

We look forward to your feedback.
What we did:

We removed informal language (“poorly done,” “fix it”).

We added a clear structure: problem → solution → implications → request.

We preserved the essence — but now the message can be confidently forwarded to a colleague, investor, or lawyer.

This approach is a great way to train your business communication skills.

Try it yourself:
take a message from your work chat or a note and turn it into a professional message. This is especially valuable in fintech, where any misunderstanding can be costly.
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Leonid Bugaev
is an expert in business communications, a corporate trainer, speaker, and conference moderator. He is the author of the books “Mobile Marketing”, “Mobile Networking” and "People Like Me: 99 Rules for Building Connections That Actually Matter."

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