Engineers Aren’t Bad at Communication. They’re Just Speaking to the Wrong Audience.
There’s a persistent myth that engineers are poor communicators. However, in many cases, engineers are excellent communicators—within their field. They are precise, logical, and structure arguments clearly, defining terms and reasoning from constraints.
The challenge arises when communicating with audiences outside their immediate technical sphere. Engineers often default to highly technical language, efficient within their teams but confusing to executives, product managers, marketing teams, or customers. The issue isn’t an inability to communicate, but a failure to translate complex information into accessible terms.
Explaining technical issues to non-technical stakeholders can often lead to confusion or unnecessary alarm. This often results in more time spent clarifying explanations than resolving the underlying issue. Under pressure, engineers often revert to technical detail, which, without context, can cause cognitive overload, making it difficult for listeners to discern what’s important, normal, and critical.
This is where the narrative of “engineers can’t communicate” emerges. In reality, the missing step is translation.
The AI-Powered Writing Shortcut
A simple way to improve written communication is to utilize AI. Running an explanation through a large language model (LLM) and asking if it would be understandable to a non-technical audience can identify jargon and potential areas of confusion. LLMs can also rewrite content for specific audiences, suggest helpful analogies, and simplify complex ideas without sacrificing accuracy.1
Analogies are particularly effective. For example, system latency can be compared to traffic congestion, technical debt to skipping home maintenance, and distributed systems to supply chains.1 The goal isn’t to oversimplify, but to connect unfamiliar concepts to familiar ones.
Before sending any communication, consider:
- Does the audience need to understand the mechanism, or just the impact?
- Does the explanation facilitate decision-making?
- Are all terms clearly defined?
Translation in Verbal Communication
When speaking, engineers often have a predictable habit: speaking too quickly. Nerves and a desire to convey information efficiently can lead to rapid speech, filler words, and a diminished sense of authority.
To counteract this, aim to speak 10 to 15 percent slower than feels natural. This reduces filler words, allows for thoughtful articulation, projects confidence, and gives listeners time to process information. Another key is to provide only the information the audience needs to move forward, avoiding unnecessary implementation details.
The Core Skill: Audience Awareness
Effective communication hinges on audience awareness. An engineer capable of explaining a complex concurrency bug to a peer can also explain system risk to an executive, but requires adapting framing, vocabulary, and context—not intelligence.1
In an era where AI is increasingly capable of code generation, the ability to translate complexity into clarity is a crucial differentiator. Engineers aren’t inherently poor communicators; they simply need to recognize that translation is an integral part of their role.
—Brian Jenney
This article is crossposted from IEEE Spectrum’s careers newsletter. Sign up now to get insider tips, expert advice, and practical strategies, delivered to your inbox for free!