Preparing canned explanations

As a developer, I spent a lot of time explaining things to computers (in other words, coding). Starting as a graduate student, and now as a program manager, I spend a lot of time explaining things to people. Turns out that's often harder.

It's particularly hard with canned explanations, such as presentations and specs, where you prepare the explanation in advance. If your audience doesn't understand something, you may lose them; you may not get the chance to try another tack.

Preparing canned explanations is an art, and I know just enough to realize I know almost nothing. Due to the patient mentoring of a great explainer, and through watching several others, I've managed to learn a few pointers. The most important is to tell a story. This is very broad, and includes:

• Start with what they know. Don't throw your audience in the deep end. Start with common knowledge, then build to new things.
  
• Give an intuitive overview. Tell the audience where you're headed. Suspense and surprise work sometimes, but don't keep them guessing about your point. A rule of thumb is "tell them what you'll tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them."
  
• Flow is everything. Top down, bottom up, temporally, procedurally (first, then, next, finally)...however you do it, make points flow from one to another. If you break the flow, or have none, it's easy to lose your audience.
  
• Make every word count. Be brief. Try to make one point at a time. Then, drop unnecessary points.
  
• Be concrete. Define nouns, quantify adjectives, and favor processes over vague verbs. Numbers, anecdotes, and examples go a long way.
  
• Use the conclusion. The audience may skip everything else, but they'll usually wake up for the conclusion. At minimum, reiterate your story outline and emphasis your main points.

Apart from telling a story, I've learned a couple tips about polishing explanations:

• Get feedback on your drafts. Give practice presentations, ask peers to review your specs, etc. Feedback from first-timers is invaluable, so don't waste fresh eyes: have some people review your first draft, others your second, and so forth. It also helps if someone reads multiple drafts, but make sure they're either very patient, or owe you a favor.
  
• Insist on criticism. Ask what you could have done better. Insist people tell you something. There's always something to improve, and people can be surprisingly reluctant to give criticism face-to-face.

I'm always looking for new tips, so if anyone has a good one, please share!