Communicate Like a CTO

In today’s fast-paced and cross-functional work environment, software engineers often need to explain complex technical concepts to colleagues and decisionmakers who don’t share the same technical background. The ability to translate technical work into business value is no longer a “nice to have” and now it’s a core skill.

This highly interactive workshop equips participants with practical tools, frameworks, and strategies to communicate clearly and persuasively with nontechnical stakeholders. Through a mix of short lessons, activities, and real-world examples, engineers will learn how to adapt their message for different audiences, structure information for clarity, and connect technical outcomes to business priorities such as time, money, and risk.

By the end of the day, participants will leave with a toolkit of reusable templates and techniques to improve collaboration, reduce misunderstandings, and influence decisions more effectively.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Apply a repeatable 4-step communication framework to transform technical updates into business-friendly messages.
2. Adapt communication styles for different audiences, using persona-based thinking to tailor content and tone.
3. Translate technical work into business impact by framing it in terms of time saved, costs avoided, revenue gained, and risk mitigated.
4. Use the Pyramid Principle to deliver recommendations upfront to senior managers and support them with clear, concise reasoning.
5. Replace jargon with simple, relatable language that still preserves accuracy and credibility.

Target Audience

This workshop is designed for software engineers, technical leads, and engineering managers who regularly interact with less-technical stakeholders such as product managers, executives, marketing teams, or clients. It is especially valuable for those looking to strengthen their ability to convey complex technical concepts in clear, business-relevant terms, influence decision-making, and build stronger cross-functional relationships. Participants should have a basic understanding of their technical work, but no prior communication training is required.

Schedule

Topic

• Introductions
• Hopes and Concerns
• Communication Fundamentals (How Communication Works & A
• Communication Framework)
• Understanding Your Audience
• Business Language
• Communicating to Executives with the Pyramid Principle
• Simplifying Communication
• Writing for Clarity
• Hopes and Concern Recap
• Wrap Up