Cross-Department Study Session: Explaining Tech Concepts to Non-Developers

Last week, I hosted a benkyoukai (study session) for non-engineering departments (Planning, QA, Legal, etc.), primarily covering web development concepts.

When I first brainstormed the content, I thought about thoroughly explaining mechanisms like DNS, IP addresses, and network packets. But on second thought, these details are rather trivial for people from other departments; aside from satisfying tech geeks, it wouldn’t be very effective.

My goal was simply to give them a foundational understanding, so I chose to avoid technical minutiae as much as possible and instead relied heavily on analogies to help the audience grasp the core concepts.

Topics included HTML, network fundamentals, servers, APIs, and JSON.

I spent quite a bit of time creating interactive elements, such as multiple-choice questions right on the slides and even an embedded editor for live coding. This wasn’t my first time giving a talk in Japanese, but it was my first time presenting in Japanese to non-developers—especially with an audience made up almost entirely of native Japanese speakers and no interpreter.

However, the reception was much better than I expected. In the feedback survey, many wrote “わかりやすかった” (easy to understand) and “聞きやすかった” (easy to follow/pleasant to listen to). While there might be some polite flattery (oseji) involved, filling out the survey was optional, so receiving nearly ten similar responses made me very happy.

Some feedback even touched on things I had never considered:

「穏やかな話し方」 (“A calm speaking style”)

「口調が丁寧で優しかった」 (“Polite and gentle tone of voice”)

My past presentations were mostly aimed at developers, a large proportion of whom were foreigners. Earning this kind of praise from a predominantly Japanese audience in this study session was truly gratifying. It also made me wonder: could this be a strength I hadn’t noticed before?

Compared to masters like 3Blue1Brown—who can seamlessly turn concepts into animations and explain them with crystal clarity—I often feel I still have a long way to go. But this experience showed me that, despite the gap, I still did quite well.

“Easy to understand,” “easy to follow,” “calm delivery,” “gentle tone”—these are compliments I rarely receive, especially coming from Japanese colleagues. Recording them here as a small personal milestone.