Tandem’s software consultants often work with stakeholders who don’t have a tech background. Here are six tips for how to clearly communicate technical principles to anyone:
- Give context using examples of past work. If you’re talking with a stakeholder you’ve worked with in the past, it can help to draw upon that experience when trying to communicate something new.
- Tie the technical concept into real-life experiences. Demonstrate how the concept translates to real-life experiences and objects. For example, selecting options throughout the course of a wizard is similar to combining individual ingredients to create an entirely new dish.
- Tell a story about the user of the software. Paint a vivid picture of who will be using the software and how they’ll use it to give your stakeholder a better grasp of the user’s experience with the product.
- Connect the technical concept to a business result. Your stakeholder may have industry-specific terms that they use daily. Frame the concept using one of these terms to provide clarity in a way they can best understand.
- Explain how the concept might work in a well-known product. Compare the concept to a well-known object, like a tablet, to draw a connection between tangible benchmarks and the product you are working on. Highlighting the commonalities can break things down into more digestible pieces.
- Show, don’t tell. If words fail, try communicating visually: share your screen, pair, or work on a related example together.
