Communicating technical information to non technical audience members means explaining systems, data, risks and trade-offs in terms business stakeholders understand and can act on. This training teaches engineers, data scientists and IT professionals to lead with business impact, remove jargon, use analogies and visuals, and handle questions from executives confidently.
- Recommended: 2 days in person, or 4 × 2.5-hour live virtual sessions using participants' real work, customised to your tech stack and stakeholders
- Level: Intermediate · In person · Live virtual · Blended
- Designed with the ADDIE model and customised to your context
- Offered by Bodhih since 2008 to 2,000+ organisations across 7 regions
Also known as: explaining technical concepts training, technical communication for engineers, communication skills for technical professionals, explaining data to business stakeholders
Where and how: communicating technical information to non technical audience training as an in-person workshop in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Jaipur; as a live online course; or delivered overseas in Dubai, Singapore and across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Last reviewed · Bodhih Training, Bengaluru
Why technical brilliance needs a translator in 2026
India's GCCs are moving from delivery centres to owners of products, platforms and AI programs. That means engineers and data scientists now brief global business heads, not just other engineers, often on decisions about cost, risk and AI adoption.
The picture is familiar: a strong architecture review loses the room by slide four, or a model's limitations get lost in terminology. Training in communicating technical information to non technical audience groups turns technical depth into business influence.
About 62% of Indian GCCs cite scarcity of talent combining domain expertise and technology capability as the biggest supply-side constraint.
Around 86% of GCC leaders expect AI to bring substantial or transformational change to work by 2030.
What participants will be able to do
Audience-first framing
Start every explanation with what the listener needs to decide, fear or gain, not with how the system works.
Jargon translated
Spot and replace acronyms and technical terms with plain words, or explain them in a sentence.
Analogies that land
Build accurate, relatable analogies for concepts like APIs, latency, model drift or technical debt.
Visuals that explain
Sketch simple diagrams that show flow, cause and effect or trade-offs without architecture-diagram overload.
Trade-offs in business terms
Present options in terms of cost, risk, time and customer impact so stakeholders can choose.
Confident with executives
Handle 'so what?' and 'can't we just?' questions calmly, without over-explaining or oversimplifying.
Who should attend
- Software engineers and architects presenting designs to product and business leaders
- Data scientists and analysts explaining models, results and limitations
- Cybersecurity teams briefing leadership on risk
- IT and infrastructure teams communicating outages, changes and investments
- Technical leads and engineering managers moving into stakeholder-facing roles
- Pre-sales and solution engineers explaining technology to clients
Program outline
Recommended design, customised to your context after a short needs analysis.
01The curse of knowledgeModule 1 · 60 min+
- Why experts struggle to explain what they know
- Mapping your audience's knowledge, goals and concerns
- The 'explain it to a new joiner' test
02Start with the so whatModule 2 · 90 min+
- Business impact first, mechanism second
- Structuring updates: headline, why it matters, what we need
- Rewriting a technical update for a business head
03Jargon, acronyms and plain wordsModule 3 · 75 min+
- Building a team jargon list with plain alternatives
- Defining terms in one sentence
- Precision without complexity
04Analogies and examplesModule 4 · 90 min+
- Choosing analogies from the listener's world
- Testing where an analogy breaks down
- Concrete examples and customer stories
- Analogy workshop on your own concepts
05Visual explanationModule 5 · 90 min+
- Whiteboard and slide sketches that simplify
- One diagram, one idea
- Showing data and uncertainty honestly
06Explaining AI, data and riskModule 6 · 75 min+
- Explaining what models can and cannot do
- Communicating uncertainty and confidence
- Cyber and outage risk in business terms
07Stakeholder Q&A simulationModule 7 · 90 min+
- Presenting a real topic to mock business stakeholders
- Handling pushback and oversimplification requests
- Recorded feedback and personal action plan
Sample training plan: 2-day hands-on design
This two-day workshop teaches engineers, architects and data scientists to explain systems, data and risk in terms a business head can act on. Every participant brings one real technical topic they must explain soon: an architecture decision, a model, an outage, a security investment. They test it on a 'new joiner', lead with business impact, strip jargon, build analogies, sketch one-idea diagrams and explain uncertainty honestly. The capstone is a recorded Q&A with mock business stakeholders who signal the moment they get lost.
Participants can explain their real topic starting with business impact, in plain words, with a tested analogy.
- 09:30–10:00Forbidden wordsEnergiser
- 10:00–11:00The new joiner testDiagnostic
- 11:15–11:45Start with the so whatConcept burst
- 11:45–13:00Rewrite my updateBuild sprint
- 13:45–14:30Team jargon dictionaryGroup challenge
- 14:30–15:30Analogy workshopSkill drill
- 15:45–16:45Examples and customer storiesMicro-teach
- 16:45–17:30What I learned about my explainingReflection
Participants can explain with one simple diagram, communicate uncertainty and risk honestly, and handle a live Q&A with business stakeholders.
- 09:30–10:00Sketch in 90 secondsEnergiser
- 10:00–11:00One diagram, one ideaHands-on lab
- 11:15–12:15Explaining AI, data and uncertaintyCase clinic
- 12:15–13:00Risk in business termsSkill drill
- 13:45–15:15Capstone: stakeholder Q&ASimulation
- 15:30–16:30Playback and precisionPeer coaching
- 16:30–17:30My 90-day explaining planAction planning
Every session’s activity, timings, outputs and materials, plus pre-work, a 90-day reinforcement plan and how impact is measured. Free, emailed to you instantly.
Recommended: 2 days in person (09:30–17:30), or 4 × 2.5-hour live virtual sessions using participants' real work, plus a 30-60-90 day manager follow-up. A sample design: every Bodhih program is customised after a short needs analysis.
How long is training on communicating technical information to non-technical audiences?
The recommended design is two days in person, from 09:30 to 17:30, using participants' real work. It also runs as four live virtual sessions of 2.5 hours over two weeks. Managers get a 30-60-90 day checklist to review technical updates after the program, and a one-day version is available.
What activities are included in this technical communication training?
Participants play a forbidden-words game, explain their real topic to a partner acting as a new joiner, build a team jargon dictionary and stress-test analogies. They redraw a slide as a one-idea diagram and finish with a recorded Q&A where mock business stakeholders raise a card when they get lost.
How we deliver it
Real technical topics
Participants explain their own systems, models and projects, so the skills transfer directly to upcoming meetings.
Non-technical test audiences
Peers or facilitators role-play business leaders and signal the moment they get lost.
Draw it first
Whiteboard and sketching exercises build the habit of visual explanation before slides.
Designed with your tech leaders
In the ADDIE analysis phase, we work with engineering and business heads to target the explanations that matter most.
Tailored versions
For GCC engineering and product teams
Focused on briefing global business and product heads on roadmaps, architecture decisions and AI initiatives.
For data science and analytics teams
Built around explaining models, metrics, uncertainty and results to business decision-makers.
For cybersecurity and IT operations
Emphasises risk communication, incident updates and investment cases for leadership.
How we measure impact
Using ADDIE's Evaluate stage, each participant presents a technical topic to a mock business audience before and after the program, scored on clarity, audience focus, jargon use and handling of questions. Business stakeholders can rate real presentations through a short survey or 360° feedback on AssessAll. Managers receive checklists for 30-60-90 day follow-up, and we can review technical updates and design documents before and after for readability.
Pair this program with AssessAll, Bodhih’s AI assessment platform, for pre- and post-program skill measurement.
Frequently asked questions
How do you explain technical concepts to non-technical people?
Start with why it matters to them, not how it works. Use plain words, define any essential terms, pick an analogy from their world and show a simple diagram. Check understanding by asking what questions they have. Communicating technical information to non technical audience members is a learnable skill that improves with practice.
Why do engineers struggle to explain their work?
Deep expertise makes it hard to remember what it was like not to know something, often called the curse of knowledge. Engineers are also trained to value completeness and precision, which can lead to long, detailed explanations. The fix is audience-first structure, not dumbing down the content.
How do you explain AI to business leaders?
Focus on what the system does, what data it learns from, how accurate it is for the task, where it can fail and what decisions it supports. Use concrete business examples and be honest about uncertainty. Avoid hype and heavy terminology. The program includes a dedicated module on explaining AI and data.
What is the curse of knowledge?
The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias where experts find it hard to imagine what others do not know. They skip steps, use jargon without noticing and assume shared context. Recognising it is the first step to explaining technical ideas well, which is why the program opens with it.
How do you avoid jargon in presentations?
Ask a non-technical colleague to review your slides, list every acronym and technical term, and either replace each one with plain language or define it briefly the first time. Keep one idea per slide and lead with the business message. Teams in the program build a shared jargon list with alternatives.
Is this program only for software engineers?
No. It suits anyone with specialist knowledge who needs to explain it to others: data scientists, cybersecurity and IT teams, engineers in manufacturing and R&D, and technical sales staff. Bodhih customises examples and scenarios through ADDIE-based analysis, whatever the technical domain.
Can the training be delivered to teams in multiple locations?
Yes. Many GCC and technology teams take the live virtual format, which runs as four sessions with practice on real work between them. For in-person delivery, Bodhih's master trainers travel from Bengaluru to your location across India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and other regions.