You know it completely. That's the problem — you're explaining it in the order you learned it, not the order they need it.
why "simplify" feels like lying — 2 min read
WHAT DOES IT DO?
“It's an event-driven pipeline that de-duplicates at ingest and reconciles against the source of truth on a rolling window, so we're not double-counting across regions.”
→ “Right now two countries can report the same sale twice. This makes sure a sale is only ever counted once.”
The second version isn't dumbed down. It's the same claim with the mechanism removed — and the mechanism was never the thing they were deciding on.
Then the cost: your project gets deprioritised in favour of one that was explained better, and you know that's exactly what happened, and there's no way to say it that doesn't sound bitter.
Simplifying feels like lying by omission to someone whose whole value is precision. That instinct is why you keep losing the room.
Nobody in that meeting is trying to understand your system. They're trying to decide something. Everything that doesn't help them decide is noise, however true it is.
HOW IT WORKS
● REC1:24
So the ingest layer
de-duplicates —
against a rolling
window, obviously —
and then reconciles
per region.
ANALYZED
YOUR DELIVERY
49
UNEXPLAINED TERMS5
TIME TO POINTNEVER
PACEFAST
"Five terms they don't have. Say what breaks for a customer, then stop."
Say it out loud. Get scored 0–100. Hear exactly what to fix — down to the word.
42COURSES
2569SCRIPTS
90sPER SESSION
0–100SCORED
The rooms where it goes wrong
Scroll through. Count how many you recognise.
The budget meetingExplaining the outage to non-engineersWhy this takes six weeks, not oneThe board asking what your team doesA doctor explaining a diagnosisA lawyer explaining the riskSaying no to a request that misunderstands the systemThe all-hands slide about your work+ 200 more
For engineers, scientists, analysts, doctors and lawyers
You're not bad at communicating. You're precise, in a room that's optimising for a decision. Those two things pull in opposite directions and nobody ever teaches you how to hold both.
Consequence First
What it means before what it is
5
Kill the Jargon
Same claim, no term they'd have to look up
5
The Follow-Up
Handling "can you explain that again?" without deflating