Technical skills will get you in the room. Communication skills determine whether your ideas survive once you’re there.
In this episode, Colin Doyle and Andy Lapteff 🛠️💬 dig into a truth many engineers discover the hard way: being technically correct isn’t enough. Whether you’re preparing for a conference talk, presenting an idea to leadership, or explaining a design decision to peers, communication is the skill that determines impact.
They pull apart how engineers communicate, why it often breaks down under pressure, and what actually works, especially in high-stakes situations like conference talks and executive conversations.
Below are the core lessons, and why they matter.
1. Why stage speaking feels harder than podcasting (even for experienced engineers)
Many engineers are comfortable explaining ideas in familiar settings: team meetings, whiteboards, or podcasts. Put that same engineer on a stage, and suddenly everything feels different.
Why?
Because stakes change behavior.
On stage:
- You feel time pressure
- You feel judged
- You feel responsible for “getting it right”
That pressure often pushes engineers toward memorization, rigid scripts, and rushed delivery, all of which make communication worse, not better.
One key takeaway from the episode:
Comfort doesn’t come from scripting; it comes from familiarity and repetition.
Practicing in a familiar setup, focusing on ideas instead of exact wording, and accepting pauses as normal are what make communication feel natural again.
2. Slowing down is not a weakness, it’s a communication skill
Engineers tend to speak faster when they’re nervous. Faster feels safer. Silence feels like failure.
But effective communicators do the opposite.
They:
- Slow their cadence
- Use pauses intentionally
- Allow space for ideas to land
A critical insight from the episode is that silence feels far longer to the speaker than it does to the audience. What feels like “dead air” is often exactly what listeners need to process complex ideas.
If your audience can’t repeat your message after you leave the room, speed is usually part of the problem.
3. Attention spans reset; plan for it
Most technical talks fail not because the content is wrong, but because the delivery ignores how people actually listen.
Human attention naturally dips every few minutes. Skilled communicators account for this by:
- Reinforcing key points repeatedly
- Re-centering the message instead of adding new complexity
- Designing talks around remembered takeaways, not exhaustive detail
A strong technical presentation doesn’t try to say everything. It makes a few ideas stick.
4. Lead with the takeaway, not the “big reveal”
Many engineers believe good storytelling means saving the point for the end. In technical communication, that approach often backfires.
This episode introduces a simple but powerful concept: “Show them the E.”
Just like teaching someone how to write a letter, people need to see the outcome before they can understand the steps. Leading with the value gives the audience an anchor, something their brain can organize the rest of the information around.
Instead of:
“Let me walk you through all this context…”
Start with:
“By the end of this, you’ll understand why this matters, and how to apply it.”
That shift alone dramatically improves comprehension and retention.
5. Tell the audience’s story, not your own
One of the most important communication lessons in the episode is this:
Your audience isn’t here for your story. They’re here for theirs.
Effective engineers frame their experiences in a way that helps others:
- See themselves in the problem
- Recognize familiar constraints
- Apply lessons to their own work
Your story becomes a tool, not the centerpiece.
When engineers communicate this way, trust builds faster, resistance drops, and ideas travel further.
Why this matters more than ever
As engineering roles evolve, communication is no longer optional.
- Engineers present to leadership
- Engineers justify architectural decisions
- Engineers influence without formal authority
- Engineers explain risk, tradeoffs, and impact
Technical excellence without communication limits your reach.
This episode isn’t about becoming a motivational speaker. It’s about becoming a clear, credible, effective engineer; on stage, in meetings, and across your career.
Listen to the full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2127872/episodes/18415165
Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/lcOTWOxiZac
Links: https://linktr.ee/artofneteng
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