Techniques used when presenting to non-tech audience

RESPOND TO THESE DISCUSSION POST BASED ON THE TOPIC “ In response to your peers, identify additional ways in which you could more effectively address brevity or clarity. ”

When responding to your peers identify key points of their discussion that present significant benefits or challenges to an incident reponse program. (TWO (2) PARAGRAPHS EACH WITH REFERENCES ON EACH OF THEM SEPARATELY, NOT TOGETHER)

1.  Jerome G:techniques used when presenting to non-tech audience.

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The following are some good ways to convey technical topics to non-technical people: First, it is important to know your audience.

In advance of a speaking engagement or in preparing a written report, do research, learn the local demographics, conduct surveys to learn all that is possible about the target audience.

Second, dispense with technical language and jargon. The non-technical people with whom you will speak or will be reading your report aren’t necessarily going to understand the same technical language and terms as you are familiar with. Use of technical language beyond the understanding of the target audience will keep you from delivering your message clearly. So, it imperative technical information be expressed in a way that a non-technical person can understand it. If technical terms are to be used, be certain to also provide term definitions. If acronyms are used, be certain to provide the full name for what the abbreviation stands for.

Third, focus on the main message. Think about what non-technical people need to hear. You have to think about the non-technical person listening to you during a speaking engagement or reading a report on a technical topic. Think about what information needs to be conveyed. Focus on tailoring technical information using jargon and colloquiums they will understand. Use real-world examples to bring to life the topic discussion. Doing so will better enable non-technical people to grasp a technical topic presented them.

Fourth,  the format for how this information is presented makes a huge difference. In a speaking engagement, the speaker should bring the discussion topic to the audience in a series of short paragraphs of one or two sentences. This is to be done to keep the audience from being overwhelmed with information PowerPoint should be used to increase visual impact, to increase audience focus. During and after a discussion, the audience audience should be allowed to respond to the speaker with questions. If unable to provide and immediate answer, take the contact information of the person who asked the question, and get back to them with an answer in a timely manner.When it comes to written reports, whenever possible, links to websites with discussion content, to external publications on the subject matter the speaker may have written and published should be included so that the audience can further research the discussion topic on their own.

2.   Robert Sch:

Communicating technical details, technical reports, and technical recommendations to a non-technical audience is one of the main challenges faced by forensic and incident analysts. Demonstrating that the technical information garnered during the investigation may outweigh the benefit of consolidating all gathered information into a communication that includes both the technical and non-technical audience. An executive summary, a very high-level reporting, would include the who, what, where, when, and why of an incident and subsequent forensic evaluation. The summary, however, would not include a great deal of detail as the audience at this level only wants to know what the impact was, how to prevent it in the future, and what steps should be taken going forward. It is important for the analyst to realize that technical details are not necessarily of interest to an executive audience. Ways to bring this to fruition include:

1. Ensuring the presentation is persuasive, and not over weighted with detail, is the first step in ensuring the information can be conveyed with out overwhelming the audience.

2. Ensure the audience understands the problem and how the information provided can solve it.

3. Examples and studies are presented versus lengthy details and information about the incident and the subsequent forensic evaluation.

4. Metaphors and analogies can be a great tool in conveying a message. If the information in question is highly abstract and a concrete case study cannot be provide saying what an incident is like can convey a message better than describing, ad nauseam, the details in question.

5. If all else fails, turn the active presentation into an interactive session where actions of a nefarious actor are turned into questions for the audience to answer. For example a question such as ‘the nefarious actor gained access to a system on our network. What would be the first action they would perform? These types of questions engage the audience and give context to a given incident and subsequent forensic outcomes (Morgan, 2011.)

It is important to realize executives do not want to read twenty pages of technical jargon and detail. A high-level approach to ensure executive support is critical. Leveraging the aforementioned steps when generating an executive report of a technical issue may garner the support necessary to maintain an incident handling and forensic analysis program.

3. Thomas Rice: 

Presenting Information Effectively

When giving testimony in court or when you are trying to “sell” an idea to management, it is important that you get the information across in a manner that everyone can clearly understand.  To effectively communicate technical information to a non-technical crowd, there are a number of techniques that one can use. A few will be discussed here.

Know Your Audience.  If you are speaking to fellow IT staff, it’s completely acceptable, if not expected, to speak at a higher more technical level than you would if you were talking to HR about how personal data on the internal network is protected in the organization. (Zetlin, 2016)

Avoid Jargon.  Avoid the use of industry terms and jargon that a normal person would not know.  When talking about the network for example, most people know what a router is but once you start talking headers and packets, you will completely lose the attention of most of your audience.  Keep the descriptions and terms basic. (Zetlin, 2016)

Use Visual Aids.  Sometimes, if available, the use of a white board or other visual aids will help the audience understand what you are talking about, rather than having to explain to them what a term is, everytime a new one is used.  Visual aids will also keep their attention on you as well. No one likes to be lectured to! (Zetlin, 2016)

As you can see, the main point is to keep your communication at or below the target audience.  You want to make sure that the important information you are trying to get across is clearly understood, making your presentation much more successful.