How do you balance accuracy and simplicity when explaining complex data?

Understanding the audience and its knowledge level helps in tailoring the communication line accordingly. Making the audience engage in the agenda will keep them attentive, so somewhat putting them into a position where they have to make a decision, in a rhetorical devices, storytelling or sharing of a relatable situation. Such an approach not only educates you but also captivates the readers/audiences focus on the point on agenda. Additionally this assists in simplifying the message leading to a demonstration of power of simplifying complex information without compromising on accuracy.

Simplifying is clearly advantageous although over simplifying can send the wrong message because of the oversimplification. A severity of a decision can be simplified to explain but oversimplifying can lead to misunderstanding the message. I think the factor of relevance is clearly goes hand in hand to maintain the line that divides simplicity and over-simplicity.

When I'm working with a client, if I don't reflect the target audience, I ask the following questions: - Does this audience know this particular term or acronym we're using? - What questions does your target audience ask before getting to the point we're trying to cover in this blog? - Can you explain this process / term to me like I'm an alien who arrived on Earth and has no idea what anything is? Any time you can step back and explain something in the most basic terms possible, even if you get more complicated than that in the writing, you'll be able to write about it from a point of view that will be more easily digested by more people. In my experience, over-explaining is better than under-explaining almost all of the time.

In Chapter 7 of my best-selling book, Delivering the Digital Restaurant (www.thedigital.restaurant), I had to explain complex profit and loss statements to restaurant owners struggling to understand the incrementality of orders gained through marketplaces such as Uber Eats and Doordash. To do this, I used figures sequentially throughout the chapter demonstrating different ways to interpret the numbers and 'dispelling' alternative perspectives as the text progresses. These charts were supported with a fictional story to initiate the chapter and then practical examples of how a leading company is helping restaurants address the concerns that are raised and why taking first-party ordering seriously is important.

To make an effective intro, show us what we don't know, don't tell us what we do know. Skip the generalized statements about the direction the world is going, etc. Your reader does not need to be eased into your content, they need to be struck by something they MUST read. Try to plop them into the middle of a scenario instead of providing a lot of unnecessary background.