A hands-on walkthrough. Pick a real situation and follow along.
Before you start
- Choose a real case, not a hypothetical — pressure is where the skill is built.
- Give yourself a clear finish line: *Explain your work to a non-engineer.*
The steps
1. Frame it. Write down the situation in one or two plain sentences. No jargon. 2. State the outcome. What does a great result look like? Make it specific enough to check later. 3. Make the move. Do the rep: explain your work to a non-engineer. 4. Check against reality. Compare what happened to the outcome you wrote in step 2. 5. Tighten the loop. Note one thing to do better, then run it again.
What good looks like
- You explain the tradeoff, not just the answer.
- You match the depth to your audience.
- People leave the conversation clearer than they arrived.
Done when
You can do this without the checklist — and earn the Plain Speaker mark by landing it for real.
Next: see applying it on the job for a realistic scenario and the traps to dodge.