PyCon UK 2019

One weird trick for improving your communication
09-14, 11:30–12:00 (Europe/London), Room D

The best advice I've been given on technical communication is "understand what you want to achieve before you think about what you want to say". I'm going to discuss why I think this is important, with examples ranging from planning meetings to writing documentation.


"Before you think about what you're going to say or write, think about what you want the people listening or reading to do as a result." This sounds obvious, but I've found that keeping it in mind can make a big difference to how well I communicate in a technical or business setting.

I'm going to talk about specific ways that following this advice can help you to plan a meeting, write an email, prepare a talk or write your docs, and generally get more useful stuff done in less time.


Is your proposal suitable for beginners? – yes

Based in Cambridge, Pythonista for about a decade. Professionally interested in natural language and data mining, unprofessionally interested in experimental music, beer and mountains. Head of R&D at Transversal.