How to Simplify Complex Tech Messaging for Real Human Decision-Making

If you’ve ever sat in a boardroom trying to articulate what your product actually does—and felt the room tilt slightly sideways—you know the feeling.

The truth is, most tech messaging isn’t confusing because it’s complicated. It’s confusing because no one has stopped to make a decision.

And in a world where 70% of the B2B buyer journey happens before anyone ever speaks to sales (McKinsey), you don’t get to show up late and explain it in person. If your story doesn’t land fast, it doesn't land at all.

Start with the four essential questions

Skip these, and you’re building on sand.

1. What is it?
2. Not the features. Not the tech stack. Just: what is this thing we’ve built?
3. Who is it for?
4. Be brutally specific. Your product is not “for everyone.” No product is.
5. What value does it bring?
6. What’s the business outcome your buyer can count on?
7. What category is it in?
8. As April Dunford puts it: if they don’t know what kind of thing it is, they won’t know where it fits—and they won’t buy it.

These are not branding questions. These are survival questions. Especially in a crowded market.

Clarity is your first strategic advantage

Most teams try to message before they decide. That’s backwards.

First, you need alignment. Across product, marketing, and sales. Across founders and functional leaders. You need what Gartner calls a shared language, and what I call a source of truth.

Because once your message has to travel through a website, a sales deck, a growth campaign, a CS call—it breaks. Unless you’ve taken the time to decide together.

Build your foundation before telling the story

Documenting your decisions is the moment everything changes.

Call it a Positioning Playbook. Call it your Messaging Core. Call it whatever you want—just make sure it answers:

• What you’re selling
• Who it’s for
• Why they should care
• How it compares to alternatives
• What the first 10 words on your homepage should actually be

This is how you stop guessing. This is how you create internal alignment that scales.

Once that’s done, then, tell a story

Only once the fundamentals are in place should you move into narrative.

That’s where Donald Miller’s StoryBrand framework earns its keep. It reframes your product as a guide—not the hero—helping your customer succeed.

And it forces you to ask the real questions:

• What’s at stake for your buyer emotionally, not just functionally?
• What keeps them stuck, overwhelmed, or behind?
• How does your product resolve the tension?

Because your buyer might have a VP title, but they're still human. They still want to feel smart, safe, ahead of the curve. Messaging that forgets this will always miss the mark.

Communication is key

Your product may be brilliant. But if your buyer doesn’t understand it in 15 seconds flat, you’ll lose them.

This isn’t about simplifying the tech.

It’s about clarifying the truth of what it does—for people who don’t have time to decode your vision deck.

So sit down. Decide what matters. Write it down. Share it. Use it.

Because the first step to telling a story that moves people—is knowing what story you’re in.

👋 Want help building a positioning playbook that unlocks clarity and drives conversions? [Let’s talk.]

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