How do we explain our technology in plain language?

Question the experts with the curiosity of someone encountering the subject for the first time. The Frameworks recommends doing enough homework to prepare useful questions, then interviewing a specialist rather than trying to simplify terminology without understanding it. Ask what the technology does, how it works and why a reader would want to know more.

Use the prepared questions to guide the conversation, but follow up when an expert reveals an important nuance or becomes particularly enthusiastic. The Frameworks argues that accessible communication requires deeper subject knowledge, not the removal of difficult facts. The aim is to understand the subject well enough to explain it differently to people with different levels of experience.

A 2025 Content Marketing Institute survey of technology marketers, mostly in North America and predominantly in B2B businesses, found that 77% said fewer than 15% of employees with specialised knowledge contributed to thought leadership.

Identify the point that matters by asking what the technology changes for the audience. The Frameworks recommends focusing on human impact: how a product or service improves someone's current way of doing things, changes their experience or differs from rival offers. The relevant benefit might be cost saving, more time or a better user experience.

Establish that point before choosing which technical details belong in the explanation. Rather than leading with complex terms, use the details that explain the improvement people care about. The Frameworks argues that plain, simple language makes content easier to read and remember.

A 2026 article in Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images argues that explaining an innovation requires buyers to understand its function, principal benefit and applicability within their own company; functionality-heavy explanations can convey complexity instead of value.

Simplify the explanation with specialists by asking them to describe the essential value in short, plain sentences. In a product naming workshop for radio frequency power components used in cancer treatment machines, The Frameworks asked engineers to explain each product in no more than two sentences. Words longer than three syllables were banned for the exercise.

The engineers then highlighted evocative keywords and active verbs. The Frameworks simplified the descriptions of why each product mattered to its audience and differed from competitors, then translated that understanding into a naming theme. The resulting product names were linked to each product's integral value.

Use the exercise to isolate meaning, not to replace technical understanding. The Frameworks argues that accessible explanations depend on knowing the subject well enough to adapt it for different audiences while retaining its factual substance.