Engineering-Executive Communication: Building the Translation Layer

The Engineer → Executive Translation Layer

TLDR: Anna Shipman, CTO at Kooth, breaks down why engineering proposals often get stuck in executive decision-making and provides a framework for translating technical ideas into business language that resonates with leadership priorities.

Summary:

This article tackles one of the most persistent challenges in engineering organizations: the communication gap between technical teams and executives. Anna Shipman approaches this systematically by first establishing the fundamental reality that executives operate under completely different constraints and motivations than engineers.

The core insight here is treating executive communication as a user experience problem. Just as you wouldn't build a user interface without understanding your users' needs, you shouldn't craft proposals without understanding executive priorities. CEOs are answerable to boards, shareholders, customers, and sometimes regulators. They're constantly juggling resource allocation, risk management, and strategic direction while being held accountable for company-wide results. This creates a mental framework where every decision is evaluated through multiple lenses simultaneously.

The translation layer concept is particularly valuable because it acknowledges that both sides are speaking different languages rooted in different expertise areas. Engineers naturally think in terms of technical debt, system architecture, and implementation details. Executives think in terms of market positioning, resource constraints, and stakeholder management. Neither perspective is wrong, but the failure to bridge these viewpoints is where most technical proposals die.

What makes this approach especially practical is the emphasis on preparation and research. Before making any proposal, understanding the specific drivers for your company becomes crucial intelligence gathering. Different organizations have different pressure points - a startup might be obsessed with growth metrics, while an enterprise company might prioritize compliance and risk mitigation. The same technical proposal could be framed entirely differently depending on these organizational realities.

For architects and engineering teams, this translates into a fundamental shift in how technical decisions are presented and justified. Instead of leading with technical benefits, successful proposals start with business impact and work backward to the technical implementation. This doesn't mean dumbing down the technical content, but rather contextualizing it within the broader business strategy and competitive landscape.

Key takeaways:

• Treat executive communication as a user experience design problem with specific user needs and constraints
• Research your organization's key stakeholders and pressure points before crafting technical proposals
• Frame technical decisions in terms of business impact, risk mitigation, and resource allocation rather than technical elegance

Tradeoffs:

• Spending time on business context and executive communication improves proposal success but requires engineers to develop non-technical skills
• Framing technical decisions in business terms increases buy-in but may oversimplify complex technical tradeoffs for executive consumption

Link: The Engineer → Executive Translation Layer

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