Finding Your Voice: A Guide to Technical Communication
Tech
·<br>18 May 2026<br>·
18 min read
Finding Your Voice: A Guide to Technical Communication
Colin Eberhardt
Software engineering is something we’d all consider to be a technical profession (whatever that might mean), and we’d like to believe that those who are the most technically proficient are the most prominent. However, this isn’t always the case. You’ll often find that the people who are the most knowledgeable, or have the deepest insights, are the quietest. Unfortunately, those that possess the sharpest communication skills, the gift of the gab as it is known colloquially, often have the greatest influence.
In reality, for many of us in this industry, our focus isn’t all about having a successful career, climbing the promotions ladder, or sharing our deep insights. It is simply that having your voice heard, and feeling like your opinions are valued, is vital to an enjoyable working experience.
There’s a wealth of materials that help build your technical skills, through courses and certifications, but relatively little that truly helps nurture communication skills. As a result, this is something that people tend to overlook, and those that lack confidence remain quiet. And when this happens, we all lose. Valuable ideas are not surfaced and the individual simply feels a little less valued.
This guide isn’t going to fix all of this, but it aims to help empower the quieter or less confident among us to speak with real confidence.
image courtesy of Joahnnes Plenio
If you’re nervous about communicating your ideas, either in a formal presentation setting, or more informally, in meetings and small group conversations, this brief guide is for you. It’s a simple collection of thoughts and ideas; practical steps that you can take to build confidence, or feel more secure. You don’t need to try them all at once, building communication skills and confidence in yourself takes time. It’s better to introduce them little-by-little.
Anyhow, enough of the introduction, let’s move onto something more practical.
Table of Contents
Practice, practice and practice some more!
Build a network
Be specific
Group practice
Create opportunities
Generating ideas
Constructing a presentation
Beginning, middle, end
Bring yourself to the presentation
Include signposts
Presenting with friends
Scripts, use with caution
Connecting with the audience
Avoid reading your own slides
Ending your presentation
Handling questions
Delivering Technical Talks
Don’t assume your audience are experts
And you don’t need to be an expert either
Technical talks can tell stories
Build empathy
When showing code, keep it simple, and direct their focus
The perils of live coding
Avoid ‘bigging yourself up’
Smile
image courtesy of Clark Young
Practice, practice and practice some more!
The heading for this section might seem somewhat obvious. We all know deep down that getting better at something requires practice, and this is certainly true for communication skills. However, how many of us intentionally practise different ways of communicating?
Practice requires repetition, but don’t mistake repetition for effective practice.
One of the keys to effective practice is constructive feedback, if you’re incredibly self-aware you may be able to determine areas of improvement yourself. But most of us are simply self-critical (finding faults that may not exist) rather than self-aware (a more genuine consciousness of your own abilities), which isn’t always constructive. You need this feedback to understand the areas where you are already good at communicating and also where you can make improvements or try different styles.
So how do you go about getting some constructive feedback? This isn’t always easy, and I’d recommend starting with people you already trust.
Build a network
It’s always better to practice in the company of others. If you want to practice more formal presentation skills, why not see if you can find one or two friends or colleagues who are on the same journey? You can try out your presentation skills in a small group, with people who will be kind and who want to see you succeed. This helps build trust and empathy.
Be specific
The great thing about relying on people you trust is that they genuinely care about you and your feelings, and as a result, you’ll likely receive positive feedback and encouragement. While this is great for your confidence, it isn’t always the feedback you need to improve.
To help tease out the really helpful feedback you can ask your reviewers to be more specific about an area of focus.
Can you please provide feedback on my rate of delivery, am I too fast? Too slow?
Did I waffle a little in that meeting? Did I make my point clearly?
Do my slides support the talk? Or are they a distraction?
Don’t get me wrong, positive feedback (you were awesome!) is great, but you need a balance.
Group practice
One of the most...