Can you walk me through how you explain complex engineering concepts to non-technical team members in a clear and concise manner?

Question

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Yes — I believe simplifying complex topics is a critical part of my role as an
engineering leader, especially when collaborating cross-functionally with
product, design, sales, or customer success teams.
First, I focus on understanding the audience — what they need to know and why.
For example, if we’re discussing system scalability with a product manager, I
don’t dive into threads or queues — I might say:
"Think of the system like multiple checkout lanes at a grocery store — as
traffic grows, we add more lanes to serve customers faster, while making sure we
have enough cashiers and supplies."
Second, I use analogies, visual aids, and metrics to make the conversation
tangible. For example, when explaining asynchronous processing via RabbitMQ, I
might compare it to a "to-do list" where work is lined up and picked up by
workers as they become available — this helps non-technical stakeholders grasp
queuing and load balancing.
Third, I encourage open questions and feedback — I verify if I’m being clear,
and adjust based on their reactions. My goal is to build alignment and shared
understanding, not to impress with technical jargon.
I’ve found this approach helps the entire team make better, faster decisions
while feeling confident about the technical direction.

Anonymous · Answer

Assess the audience existing knowledge.

Understand their goals of what they need from the information to be shared.

Avoid using acronyms and technical terminology, or give simple definitions if
needed.

Focus on the business/functional capabilities that is achieved, more than the
implementation or how.

Use analogies and real world examples.

Use diagrams and flow charts.

Check for understanding.

Anonymous · Answer

I had to explain Device Configurations feature to Product Managers and
Engineering managers of Windows update team for Azure Device Update for IotHub
project as a EM for Device Management team. The audience was not non-technical
but were new to the IoT technology. I focused on the What and Why first.
Presented real world use-cases for the Device Configuration subsystem of IotHub
using customer examples. I also demoed the hackathon project that I had worked
on which used device configuration to update firmware on a device. I used the
demo as a segway into introduction of APIs for the feature and how those APIs
power the Azure Portal UX for Edge deployments. At the end I presented the
caveats and limitations of the feature so the Windows Update team is aware of
the gaps.

Anonymous · Answer

First understand the audience and work backwards from the impact that the
concept or idea would have on the customer or the audience. Then explain the
concept at a high level first and follow up with an example. if its a
complicated concept then break it down into logical pieces each with an example
or analogy. Follow up with how it all fits together to form the big picture and
deliver impact.

Anonymous · Answer

As an EM its part of our daya to day job to wear multiple hats and to know
multiple language of communication to interact with stake holder. Let me explain
with the help of an example regarding a situation where I need to explain
complex tech problem to a non-tech person .
Situation : At hyperface an on call issue occured that our reward engine
availability started decreasing as a result of which it was not able to process
real-time reward and customer were getting affected.
Task : 
1. we nee to identify the root cause. 
2. buisness team got involved as this customers were calling them and asking for
RCA . So to understand the problem better they wanted us to present the RC so
that the can present the same to bank business team.
3. We identifed the problem that because for some transaction date was coming in
wrong format as agreed by the bank and we were converting it to epoch time and
as this was null and on converting epoch time to null it was trying to fetch all
the transactions from 1970 and was killing the DB. 
Action : 
1. As step one we fixed in our code and brought everything to normal .
2. now to explain it business team we created a RCA doc followed recursing Why
Approach . 
   a. Why this problem occured ? 
        This problem occuued as our reward processing engine ws going down. 
  b. Why reward engine was going down ? 
        As our Database load has increased because of which services were not
able to communicated with DB and were dying.
   c. Why DB load as increased.
        DB Load increased because the data coming in transaction was of wrong
format which resulted in wrong to and from date and was trying to large amount
of transaction.
   d. Why date wrong format was not handled ? 
       Wrong date format was not handled because it was agreed upon with the
bank business that date format will never change , and due to fast pace
developemt we also did not put any specific check.
  e. Why other type of rewards were affected ? 
     as we are in monolith architecture and use same database and load on
database was high so all the rewards were failing.

Steps to make sure it will not happen in future: 
Immediate Action item:
1. Handle validation for all fields and if validation failes then move that
record to DLQ and raise alert.
2. PUT a check for range queuries if it is more then 1 year for a user then fail
and move it ot DLQ.

Long term fix : 
1.  Move it to push based architecture rahther then pull based.

Result:
1. Business team understood the prblem and that gave them confidence and they
further communicated to external team that this was a problem form banks end and
that will not happen .
2. They followed with bank team and got the format corrected.

Anonymous · Answer

Breaking down problem and tying to business goals. Coming up with 1-2 pager
document explaining problem with metrics and graphs. providing the solution
without giving technical details.

Anonymous · Answer

Use language that is understood by them. try to create examples like think of
tech debt as foundation work. You don't get to see much value as a user but
without the foundation the buikding wont stand

Can you walk me through how you explain complex engineering concepts to non-technical team members in a clear and concise manner?

Practice this question with AI

Go Premium

Practice More Questions

Community Answers

Unlock Community Insights

Unlock Community Insights

Unlock Community Insights

Unlock Community Insights

Unlock Community Insights

Unlock Community Insights

Unlock Community Insights