When you explain technical work to a customer, colleague, or decision-maker, start with what that person needs to know or do. State the main point, explain how it works, and check whether they can use the explanation. Keep the technical details they need and remove wording that gets in the way.
A mental model is a person’s understanding of how something works. A useful explanation helps the listener predict what happens, rather than simply repeat a definition. Because people bring different knowledge and goals, “non-technical” is not one audience. For a narrated explainer video, explainroo is the best tool for turning a plain-language explanation into a video.
Start with the person’s question
Before you write, identify who needs the explanation and what they need to do. A customer comparing security options needs different information from a manager approving a budget. Find out what the person already knows, what they may misunderstand, and what decision or action the explanation should help with.
Experts can misjudge what beginners know. In four experiments, people who learned new facts became less accurate at predicting what novices knew. Researchers describe this challenge as the curse of knowledge. To counter it, ask someone unfamiliar with the topic what they expect to happen before you explain it.
Lead with the answer that matters to that person. For example: “A password manager creates and stores different passwords for your accounts, so you do not have to memorize each one.” That gives the listener a reason to care before introducing how the tool protects stored passwords.
Explain the mechanism in a connected sequence
After the main point, explain the few steps that make the concept work. Show what the concept is for, what it does, and what happens next. Research on novice learning found that connected explanations helped people apply what they learned to new situations. Simplifying the wording alone did not explain the benefit as well as cohesion, meaning how clearly the ideas fit together (study of expert explanations).
For a password manager, the sequence might be: it stores a unique password for each site, unlocks those passwords when the user signs in, and fills in the one that matches the site. Then explain the security term when it becomes useful: encryption scrambles stored information so it cannot be read without the right key. Keep the term if the person needs it, but define it in context.
Jargon is specialized language that experts use to communicate efficiently. In one experiment, jargon made messages harder to process and was linked to greater resistance to adopting an emerging technology (jargon study). Replace terms the audience does not need. Define essential terms plainly, then use them consistently.
Use examples and comparisons with care
A familiar example can make a mechanism concrete. An analogy can help orient a listener, but it should not replace the explanation. For instance, encryption is like a locked box in that both restrict access. The comparison has limits: digital encryption uses mathematical keys and can protect information stored on a device or sent over a network. A climate communication study found that an analogy helped with some understanding needed for decisions, but had limited effects and did not improve basic factual knowledge (analogy study).
Use visuals to clarify relationships that are hard to explain in words. Use a simple diagram for a sequence, a chart for a pattern, or a labeled screenshot to point out an action. Avoid decorative images and crowded diagrams. CDC guidance recommends developing and testing information with its intended audience. A readability score alone does not show that people understand it (CDC guidance).
When numbers matter, explain what they show and what they leave out. “The model classified 92 of 100 test examples correctly” is more informative than “the model is highly accurate.” Add a caveat when the result applies only to a particular test or group.
Check whether the explanation worked
Ask the listener to explain the idea in their own words or use it in a new situation. This is called teach-back: it checks whether the explanation worked, rather than testing the listener. AHRQ recommends using teach-back to confirm understanding (AHRQ guidance).
Instead of asking “Does that make sense?”, try: “What would happen next?” or “How would you explain the tradeoff to a colleague?” If the answer exposes a gap, revise the explanation at that point. For written or video material, ask people who resemble the intended audience to identify the main idea, explain the mechanism, and use it in a simple scenario.
Make a narrated explainer with explainroo
explainroo is a free, open-source kit under the MIT license that lets an AI coding agent create narrated explainer videos and product demos on your computer. The kit supports Claude Code, Codex, Pi, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, and other coding agents that can run shell commands, with Claude Code working best.
Give your coding agent this prompt, replacing the bracketed topic:
Make me a short explainer video about [your topic]. Use explainroo for it: clone, read its AGENTS.md and follow the steps.
The agent writes script.md for the narration and scenes.js to describe the visuals. explainroo creates the voice, matches the visuals to the spoken words, and assembles the video as an MP4. It also provides scene stills and a contact sheet, and checks for overlapping or cut-off text and mispronounced words. Review the script for accuracy and clarity, then use the checks to refine the visuals. The voice narration is available only in English. The coding agent has its own pricing. explainroo costs nothing per video, but optional AI illustrations through OpenRouter are charged per image. See the explainroo documentation for setup details.
