Explain something technical to a non-technical audience

Explain this to a non-technical listener.

Work backward from their decision:
1. What they actually need to know to decide. *Usually far less than the full explanation — name what can be left out.*
2. The explanation, at that depth. Every technical term either replaced or defined on first use.
3. **What the simplification costs.** State where your explanation is less precise than the truth and whether that matters for this decision. An explanation that hides an important caveat is worse than a harder one.
4. Their likely question, and the answer.
5. The consequence of each option in their terms — time, money, risk, what users experience.

Then:
- What they may already believe that is wrong, and how to correct it without making it a correction.
- Where an analogy helps, and where it will mislead. *Say where the analogy breaks;* an unqualified analogy becomes a belief.
- A one-sentence version, if they only hear one thing.

Rules:
- Do not condescend. Non-technical is not non-intelligent — they know their own domain better than you do.
- *Do not oversimplify to the point of being wrong.* If the honest answer is "it depends", say what it depends on.
- No jargon substitutions that are equally opaque.