How do I make my technical information understandable?
The core iSpeak principle: your audience doesn't speak your language — you have to speak theirs. If you don't convert the information for them, they'll be forced to translate it themselves, and something will get lost. Your job is to do that translation before you open your mouth.
The iSpeak AMY Model is the foundation here: Audience first, then Message, then You. Technical presenters almost always have the order reversed — they lead with what they know rather than what the audience needs.
Why it matters: Technical expertise earns you the room. Communication skills earn you the yes. If your audience can't follow your logic, it doesn't matter how sound it is. Data and technical information only drive decisions when the audience understands the so what — not just the numbers.
Practical Tips:
- Use the Simple Conversion technique. Translate your data into units your audience actually lives in. Don't make them do the mental math. A temperature, a dollar figure, a processing speed — if it's in your language, convert it to their language. Percentages are a good universal starting point because they're familiar across roles.
- Apply Zoom for Impact. Reframe large or abstract numbers to create perspective. "$5 billion in infrastructure spending" means little to most people. "$14 per American citizen" is immediate and tangible. Zooming in or out puts data on a scale your audience can feel, not just hear.
- Use Metaphors and Scale Models. Metaphors take something familiar and apply it to something complex — the metaphor doesn't have to be perfect, just useful. Scale models work similarly: we relate better to numbers in the range of 10–20 than to millions or billions. If you can shrink a large concept down to a relatable comparison, you create an "a-ha moment" (from Making Numbers Count by Chip Heath and Karla Starr).
- Answer: What? So What? Now What?A simple structure:
- What? What did you find?
- So What? Why does it matter?
- Now What? What should we do next?
Practice Exercise:
Take a technical topic you know well and explain it three ways:
- To a colleague in your field
- To a senior executive
- To a 12-year-old
If all three explanations are different, you're adapting to the audience. If they're identical, you're probably speaking your language instead of theirs.
Related Resources:
Free eBook: Presenting Data-Driven Messages
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