You’ve spent 20 minutes explaining why the database migration is critical. You’ve covered the schema changes, the foreign key constraints, the indexing strategy. You’ve even drawn a diagram.
And then the project manager says: “So… is this going to make the website faster?”
Most IT professionals have been there. You understand the technology inside and out. You know exactly why something matters. But the moment you try to explain it to someone outside tech, the words that come out sound like a foreign language. Even to you.
Here’s the thing: translating technical concepts for non-technical people has become the skill that separates people who stay stuck from those who get promoted, lead projects, and eventually shape strategy. Stanford’s research on technical communication confirms what most IT pros learn the hard way—executives and business leaders genuinely appreciate tech people who can communicate clearly. It’s rare, and it translates directly into career advancement.
The good news? This is a learnable skill, like any other soft skill that drives career growth. You don’t need to be naturally charismatic or born with the “gift of gab.” You just need the right frameworks and practice.
Why Technical Explanations Fail
Before we fix the problem, let’s understand what’s actually going wrong.
The Curse of Knowledge
Once you understand how something works, it becomes nearly impossible to remember what it was like not to know. Psychologists call this “the curse of knowledge,” and it’s the root cause of most failed technical explanations.
You say “API” without thinking because you use APIs every day. But to someone in marketing, those three letters might as well be hieroglyphics. Worse, they might not tell you they’re lost. It can feel embarrassing to admit you don’t understand something, so they nod along while mentally checking out. (If you’re new to IT, the same thing might happen to you when senior engineers talk—and that’s okay. Everyone starts somewhere.)
This isn’t a failure of intelligence on their part. It’s a failure of communication on yours.
The Feature Trap
Technical people love features. We get excited about elegant solutions, clever optimizations, and technical capabilities. So when explaining our work, we naturally lead with what’s cool or interesting to us.
The problem? Non-technical stakeholders don’t care about features. They care about outcomes.
“We implemented a distributed caching layer using Redis with a TTL-based invalidation strategy” means nothing to them. “The system will now handle ten times more users without slowing down” is something they can actually work with.
Jargon as a Crutch
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: sometimes we use jargon because it makes us feel smart or establishes our expertise. Sometimes we’re too lazy to find simpler words. And sometimes we genuinely don’t know how to explain concepts without the technical vocabulary.
None of these reasons serve your audience. If people can’t understand you, it doesn’t matter how accurate or sophisticated your explanation is—you’ve failed to communicate.
The Translation Framework
Think of explaining technical concepts like translating between languages. A good translator doesn’t swap words directly. They capture meaning, context, and intention in a way that makes sense to the listener.
Here’s a framework that works:
Step 1: Identify What They Actually Need to Know
Before opening your mouth, ask yourself: what decision or action does this explanation need to enable? (Side note: if you’re working toward IT certifications, this kind of audience-first thinking also helps you explain your credentials to hiring managers who may not know what CompTIA A+ or CCNA actually means.)
Your CTO doesn’t need to understand the implementation details of your authentication refactor. They need to know whether it reduces security risk, how much effort it takes, and whether it might break anything. This outcome-focused thinking also comes up constantly when you’re preparing for technical presentations.
Your product manager doesn’t need to understand database normalization. They need to know whether the data model supports the features they want to build.
Start from what they need, not from what you want to explain.
Step 2: Find the Right Analogy
Analogies are the single most powerful tool for explaining technical concepts. They take something unfamiliar and connect it to something your audience already understands.
The key is matching the analogy to your specific audience. A car analogy works great for someone who tinkers with vehicles. A kitchen analogy works better for someone who loves cooking. The more specific to their world, the better it lands.
Here are some battle-tested analogies for common technical concepts:
APIs: “An API is like a waiter at a restaurant. You don’t go into the kitchen to get your food—you tell the waiter what you want, and they handle getting it from the kitchen and bringing it back. The API does the same thing between different software systems.”
RAM vs. Storage: “RAM is like your desk—it’s where you put things you’re actively working on. Storage is like your filing cabinet—it holds everything you’re not using right now. A bigger desk lets you work on more things at once. A bigger filing cabinet lets you keep more stuff, but you still have to pull it out to use it.”
The Cloud: “Instead of owning a generator to power your house, you just plug into the electrical grid and pay for what you use. Cloud computing works the same way—instead of buying and maintaining your own servers, you rent computing power and pay for what you need.”
Encryption: “Imagine putting your message in a lockbox where only the person with the right key can open it. Even if someone intercepts the box, they can’t read what’s inside without that specific key.”
Caching: “It’s like keeping frequently used phone numbers on speed dial instead of looking them up in the phone book every time. The information is the same, but accessing it is much faster.”
Technical Debt: “It’s like taking shortcuts when building a house. Maybe you skip proper insulation to finish faster. The house still stands, but eventually you’ll pay more to fix heating bills and rot than you saved by rushing. Every shortcut in code creates a similar ‘debt’ that compounds over time.”
The AI Singapore Practitioner Handbook recommends using domain-specific analogies whenever possible—if you’re talking to someone in finance, financial analogies will land better than construction metaphors.
Step 3: Lead with the “So What”
Journalists call this the “inverted pyramid”—start with the most important information, then add supporting details. Technical people tend to do the opposite: we build up to our conclusion like we’re writing a proof.
Flip it around.
Instead of: “We’ve been analyzing the database query performance, and we found that the joins on the user table are causing full table scans because the indexes weren’t optimized for our query patterns, which means we need to add composite indexes and potentially denormalize some data—so response times should improve by about 60%.”
Try: “We can make the dashboard 60% faster. The fix involves some database optimization work that should take about a week.”
If they want the technical details, they’ll ask. Most of the time, they won’t.
Step 4: Use Visuals When Words Fail
You’re probably already good at this. IT people love whiteboards and diagrams. But there’s a difference between a diagram that helps you think through a problem and one that helps someone else understand it.
Simple beats comprehensive. A box-and-arrow diagram with five elements communicates better than an elaborate architecture diagram with thirty components. Research on visual learning suggests that visual explanations can improve understanding by up to 400% compared to verbal explanations alone.
When creating visuals for non-technical audiences:
- Limit to 5-7 elements maximum
- Use colors to distinguish categories, not to look pretty
- Label everything in plain language
- Include a brief caption explaining what they’re looking at
Step 5: Check for Understanding (Without Being Condescending)
Here’s where most technical explanations silently fail. People nod, you assume understanding, and everyone walks away with different conclusions.
Checking for understanding is essential, but the wrong approach sounds condescending: “Does that make sense?” puts people on the spot and implies you think they might not get it.
Better approaches:
- “What questions do you have?” (Assumes they have questions, which is more inviting)
- “How does that fit with what you were thinking?” (Opens dialogue)
- “Let me pause here—is there anything I should clarify before moving on?”
- “Want me to walk through an example?”
The best technique: ask them to summarize what they heard. “Just to make sure I explained that clearly—what’s your understanding of what needs to happen next?” This reveals gaps without anyone losing face.
Practical Scenarios
Let’s apply these principles to situations you’ll actually face.
Explaining Why a Project Will Take Longer Than Expected
What not to say: “We discovered that the legacy authentication system uses deprecated OAuth 1.0 flows with custom session management that’s incompatible with our new microservices architecture, requiring us to build an adapter layer and migrate existing sessions.”
What to say: “We found that the old login system and the new system speak different languages, essentially. We need to build a translator between them, which adds about two weeks. The alternative would be forcing all users to log in again, which seemed worse.”
If they push for details: “The technical issue is that authentication protocols have evolved significantly. Think of it like trying to connect a vintage stereo system to modern Bluetooth speakers—the core function is the same, but the connection method is completely different.”
Explaining a Security Risk
If you’re working in cybersecurity or even just touching security-adjacent work, you’ll need to explain risks to non-technical decision-makers regularly.
What not to say: “The SQL injection vulnerability in the user input sanitization could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary database queries, potentially leading to data exfiltration or privilege escalation.”
What to say: “We found a security hole that could let someone with bad intentions access our customer database. The risk is real, but the fix is straightforward and we can have it done by end of week.”
If they want more: “Right now, there’s a way for someone to trick our system by typing special characters into a form field. Instead of treating their input as just text, the system accidentally treats it as commands. It’s like if someone figured out that saying a specific phrase at a drive-through made the register open automatically.”
Explaining Why You’re Recommending an Expensive Tool
What not to say: “The enterprise platform provides automated CI/CD pipelines with built-in IaC support, container orchestration, and observability tooling that would take our team months to build and maintain ourselves.”
What to say: “This tool handles a lot of repetitive work our team currently does manually. We estimated it would take three engineers about four months to build something equivalent in-house, and then we’d have to maintain it forever. At $50K per year, it pays for itself in about six weeks.”
Key principle: Always connect cost to business value. Non-technical stakeholders understand ROI. This framing also helps when you’re negotiating salary—speak their language.
Explaining Why You Can’t “Just Add” a Feature
What not to say: “That would require significant refactoring of the data model and could introduce cascading changes across our service boundaries.”
What to say: “It’s definitely possible, but the way our system is currently structured, that feature touches a lot of different areas. It’s less like adding a room to a house and more like changing the plumbing—you have to be careful not to break things in places you didn’t expect.”
Follow up: “We have a few options: we can do it right, which takes about a month; we can do a simpler version that covers 80% of what you need in about a week; or we can do a quick fix that might cause problems later. What matters most—timeline or completeness?”
Giving options shows you’re being collaborative, not just blocking requests.
When You’re Losing Them
Even with the best preparation, you’ll sometimes see eyes glazing over mid-explanation. That’s not failure. That’s feedback. Here’s how to recover:
Recognize the Signs
- Breaking eye contact
- Checking phone or laptop
- Short responses (“Right,” “Okay,” “Mm-hmm”)
- Questions that suggest they missed earlier points
- Looking at others in the room for help
Call It Out (Gently)
“I feel like I might be getting too into the weeds here—should I back up a bit?” This is disarming because you’re taking responsibility. Most people will appreciate the reset.
Pivot to What Matters
“Let me cut to what actually affects you…” Sometimes you just need to skip ahead to the part they care about.
Ask What Would Help
“Would it be more useful if I explained the timeline, the risks, or the cost implications?” Letting them guide the conversation ensures you’re covering what matters to them, not what matters to you.
Building This Skill Over Time
Like any skill, technical translation improves with deliberate practice. Here are some approaches that work:
Practice with the “Mom Test”
Can you explain your current project to a parent or grandparent who isn’t technical? If you can make them understand and care about what you’re doing, you can explain it to anyone. This forces you to strip away jargon and focus on fundamental concepts. (This exercise is especially useful if you’re transitioning into IT from a non-technical background and still building confidence in your technical identity.)
Collect Analogies
When you find an analogy that works well, write it down. Build a personal library of explanations for common technical concepts. Stanford’s communication tips recommend refining and reusing analogies that land well rather than inventing new ones each time.
Get Feedback
After important meetings, ask a trusted colleague: “Did that explanation make sense? What could I have said more clearly?” Most people won’t offer this feedback unsolicited, but they’ll share it if asked. The same approach helps when you’re working on behavioral interview skills.
Study Good Explainers
Pay attention to how tech journalists, science communicators, and technical YouTubers explain complex topics. What techniques do they use? Channels like 3Blue1Brown and Kurzgesagt are masters at making complicated subjects accessible through visual explanation and narrative.
Write for Non-Technical Audiences
Maintain a blog, contribute to company newsletters, or just write explanations for yourself. The discipline of writing forces clarity in ways that speaking doesn’t. If you can’t write a concept simply, you probably don’t fully understand it yourself. This is also a great habit if you’re building a home lab and want to document what you learn.
Why This Matters for Your Career
At the end of the day, your technical skills might get you hired, but communication skills determine how far you go. According to research cited by The Training Associates, over half of strategic initiatives fail due to communication issues between technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Companies need people who can bridge that gap. If you can explain technical trade-offs to executives, translate business requirements into technical specifications, and help non-technical colleagues understand technology well enough to make informed decisions, you become invaluable.
This is exactly how IT professionals move from “just another developer” to “the person leadership trusts.” It’s how you earn a seat at the table when strategy gets discussed. And it’s how you build the influence to actually shape the direction of projects and products. If you’re considering a move into IT management, communication is the single biggest skill gap most technical people need to close.
The technical skills will always be essential, but they’re increasingly becoming table stakes. What sets senior professionals apart is the ability to make that technical knowledge accessible and actionable for everyone around them.
Quick Reference: The Translation Checklist
Before your next explanation to a non-technical audience, run through this checklist:
- What decision or action does this explanation need to enable?
- What analogies will work for this specific person’s background?
- Am I leading with the “so what” instead of the backstory?
- Have I eliminated jargon (or clearly defined any that remains)?
- Would a simple visual help more than words?
- How will I check for understanding without being condescending?
- What questions are they most likely to have?
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I explain technical concepts without dumbing them down?
Simplification isn’t the same as dumbing down. Dumbing down implies removing important information or being condescending. Good simplification preserves the essential meaning while removing unnecessary complexity. As one Stanford researcher puts it, simplification is intellectual heavy lifting—it forces you to identify what truly matters.
What if someone asks a technical follow-up I don’t expect?
It’s completely fine to say “Let me think about how to explain that clearly” or “That’s a good question—I want to give you an accurate answer, so let me get back to you.” Admitting uncertainty builds trust more than fumbling through an explanation you’re not confident about. The same principle applies when answering interview questions you don’t immediately know the answer to.
How much technical detail should I include?
Start with zero technical detail and add only what’s necessary for understanding. The 10-7 rule suggests identifying the most essential 10% of your message and repeating it about seven times during your explanation. Most technical explanations include far too much detail, not too little.
What if someone seems offended that I’m simplifying for them?
Rarely happens if you frame it as “let me explain how I think about this” rather than “let me explain this simply for you.” Focus on making your communication clear, not on their technical level. Everyone appreciates clarity.
How do I handle explaining things in meetings where some people are technical and some aren’t?
Start with the high-level business impact for everyone, then offer to go deeper: “I can walk through the technical details if that would be helpful—or we can cover that separately with whoever needs it.” This respects everyone’s time while making the detailed explanation available.
Moving Forward
The ability to explain technical concepts clearly is one of the most transferable skills you can develop. It makes you better at job interviews, helps you work with difficult users, strengthens your documentation, and positions you for leadership roles.
Start small. Pick one conversation this week where you’d normally use jargon and challenge yourself to explain the concept without it. Notice what works and what doesn’t. Adjust your approach.
Over time, this becomes second nature. And when it does, you’ll find doors opening that you didn’t even know were there.