How can you explain technical concepts to non-technical people?

It's always important to know who you're talking to. As a speaker, we need to be open-minded and self-aware of how we communicate, and acknowledge that we are not our audience. Sometimes, we might think too highly of ourselves; we assume the audience is also of that level. We end up using words and concepts which are too foreign and unfriendly, and we lose their attention. Other times the opposite might happen; we assume our audience isn't as smart as they actually are. This ends up in us simplifying things down too much, which also loses the audience's attention. End of the day, a good speaker knows themselves and who they are talking to, they don't make assumptions without thinking.

I prefer a 4 dimensional approach 1. Understand your audience. Before explaining any technical background ask a few questions to get a sense of their familiarity with technology as a whole and the subject matter in particular 2. Always keep the end goal in sight. Why are you explaining what you are explaining to this audience? It's easy to get embroiled in the jargon and miss the end goal of why this was needed in the first place. 3. Keep technical terms to a minimum and establish them first along with their day-to-day analogies e.g. Bandwidth as the flow of water through a pipe, IP address as the postal address for an individual etc 4. A picture is worth a thousand words, use non-technical diagrams, flows, and concepts as much as possible.

Explaining technical topics to non technical people : While giving presentation or explaining a topic ,Assuming a level of familiarity or background to explain a particular viewpoint/topic turns out to be the barrier in communication and something that hinders effective communication .Having an audience perspective is a thing that I suggest everyone to follow . Besides this people should also be courteous and mindful of the responses of the other people and follow basic etiquette .

Using use cases and real example always helped me to understand behind all the code languages. Also, using similitudes with the person's experience with the use cases it helps

Give them examples from the real world,how it was done without tech and how technology is helping solve the problem or enhance functionality. For e.g databases can be explained using the working of a cupboard. Examples can vary from audience to audience

Every technical concept begins with : -problem definition/Analysis (descriptive/predictive/prescriptive) -problem interpretation(understanding the causes and best way to handle such) -Recommendation(solution provided) -Documentation(for future modification and leaning support

In my position, i like to teach about hardware and software so that a 5-year old can understand it. Of course i am not condescending to my audience, but i ensure that they get the absolute BASICS understood first so that they have a stable foundation to build their knowledge upon. It never hurts to be kind and caring and this method has been so very beneficial throughout my career.

This is a critical point. Your goal is to give your audience the maximum they can digest, not too much and not too little. I've seen this from both sides, and here's what can go wrong: - Get too technical, or dive into details too much, and they get bored; - Explain it too briefly and too abstract, and they are not satisfied (feeling as if you didn't want to explain it better), but might be unwilling to ask for more; - Oversimplify things, and they lose interest because no one likes being treated as "not smart enough". As an example, when the doctor tries to explain me "the internals" of my illness, I appreciate it because it helps me understand the treatment better. I don't have medical education - but I'm smart enough for this to work.

A good teacher should be able to place himself in the shoes of his student. When a student is confused and has a wrong perspective about the subject, the teacher should first learn the student's perspective, and then walk him from there, though reason, to the right angle and to the correct perspective. Same process applies when speaking to a group of people with different backgrounds. The speaker should understand the background of his audience before trying to convey his message.

--There are many things to explain rather than technical details, like explaining the overall process and illustrating functionality using black-box modules. --Sometimes they don't understand why there should be a certain concept. Give them examples that justify the need to add the technical concept. Let them understand the necessity of that technical concept.

There are 3 tips according to my experience - 1] Use Analogies: Relate complex tech concepts to everyday experiences. 2] Highlight Purpose: Emphasize the 'why' before diving into the 'how'. 3] Simple Visuals: A basic diagram or flowchart can clarify abstract ideas.

You must give context for the technical solution. When explaining how it works, frame the detail of the technical solution as an input-> process -> output. Example: we are looking for undiagnosed Atrial Fibrillation, irregular heartbeat, that when found early can be treated and prevent a patient from getting a stroke. The product ingests the patient’s echocardiogram (ECG) waveform data, uses a deep neural network trained on 5,000,000 historical patients and their outcomes, and predicts if a patient will have Afib within the next year. Doing this well allows the non-technical person to generate thoughtful follow ups, like how is the disease confirmed, tell me about performance of the algorithm & what it means for the patient, etc

Some points that I think help us are - to be clear Clarity comes from having your ideas organized. Make sure you know what your key message will be. - to be concise We need to do some explanation before we can get to our point. We’ll need to teach our audience some new concepts. - to avoid acronyms and jargon. The first is to describe things according to what they do rather than by their technical names. And the second is to educate your audience on a few key terms and then use just these terms. - Not to insult audience intelligence it’s easy to think they’re stupid, or to talk to them in simplistic terms that will imply they’re stupid. -Not to trivialize our point

I agree that giving an analogy (e.g., ledger for database) can be helpful and assist the audience in understanding the concept better especially if people don't have a background of what you are speaking about to the same level you do.

The best way is visualizing our big picture. Use visuals to explain technical information and processes However, when your goal is to simplify technical information, visualizing your concepts can be a much more effective communication medium. Why? Visual content is easier to learn and more frequently recalled than concepts learned by reading or just being told.

I personally think there are many ways for this assessment: - one way is encourage our audiences to be reflective thinkers and check for comprehension with interactive notebooks. - other way is to use quizzes Keep any quizzes simple and broad: one or two questions at the most related to the crucial points of the lesson. - one good way is exit slips Exit slips are like a pop quiz without the “pop” and the pressure. At the end of class, we can ask audience to write down a few main ideas from the day’s lesson and any questions they may have about it. On their way out have them drop their slips in a box. Before next class, open it up to measure their understanding.

Yes, totally agree with this point, at the end presenting the big picture and all main ideas with conclusion is very good way to reinforce the points

It is important to remain coherent throughout the process, and avoid any unnecessary detail that doesn't tie in to the main argument. Every point that you make should have a purpose and place within the big picture.

Some audiences might not immediately articulate what they’ve gleaned from a lesson, so instead of checking for it right away in class, give need to give time to reflect. To assign homework for later that night that specifically checks for understanding. Often, this extra time between class and when they sit down to do their homework may be all our audiences need for the day’s lesson to finally click.

Find an analogy more familiar to your audience. It doesn't have to be perfect. For example, I've had a lot of success using house construction to explain building a website. Framing is the HTML, drywall and paint is CSS, and electrical/plumbing is JS.

Focus on impact and results rather than technical details. What information does the person need in order to grasp the key concepts and make a decision?