Your network is struggling with bandwidth issues. How do you explain this to non-tech stakeholders?
When your network is struggling with bandwidth issues, it's essential to communicate the problem in a relatable way. Think of bandwidth as a highway: too many cars cause traffic jams, slowing everything down. Here’s how to break it down:
- Use simple analogies: Compare bandwidth to a highway or water pipe to illustrate congestion.
- Show real-world impacts: Explain how slow speeds affect daily operations and productivity.
- Offer solutions: Mention potential fixes like upgrading infrastructure or managing usage better.
What strategies have worked for you when explaining tech issues to non-tech colleagues?
Your network is struggling with bandwidth issues. How do you explain this to non-tech stakeholders?
When your network is struggling with bandwidth issues, it's essential to communicate the problem in a relatable way. Think of bandwidth as a highway: too many cars cause traffic jams, slowing everything down. Here’s how to break it down:
- Use simple analogies: Compare bandwidth to a highway or water pipe to illustrate congestion.
- Show real-world impacts: Explain how slow speeds affect daily operations and productivity.
- Offer solutions: Mention potential fixes like upgrading infrastructure or managing usage better.
What strategies have worked for you when explaining tech issues to non-tech colleagues?
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Compare the network to a highway. Just as too many cars on a highway can cause traffic jams, too much data on a network can slow it down.Describe how limited bandwidth affects their daily work. For example, "When the network is congested, it takes longer to load files, send emails, or join video calls, which slows down productivity.Mention common causes of bandwidth issues, such as too many users, large file transfers, or video streaming.Offer practical solutions in simple terms. For example, "We can upgrade the network to add more bandwidth, prioritize task.A simple chart or diagram showing network usage spikes can help them visualize the problem.Let them know you're working on resolving the issue and that improvements are on the way.
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Imagine your internet is a coffee shop with one barista. When a few customers order, everything runs smoothly—emails send, videos stream, and cat memes load instantly. But then, a busload of people shows up. The barista is overwhelmed, orders pile up, and suddenly, your double-shot latte (a video call) turns into a weak drip (buffering and lag). That’s our network right now—too many orders, not enough coffee (bandwidth). We either need a bigger café (more bandwidth) or fewer people ordering triple-mocha extra foam.
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Business stakeholders don't care about the issue until it's expressed in dollars. Explain how bandwidth issues are hampering productivity in hours of lost time or minutes of production delays, etc. Then calculate that to dollars using the average billable hour rate or revenue per minute for production and present that number to your stakeholders. When your world view operates on dollars and cents, all you care about is either increasing revenue or reducing cost. You don't need an analogy to sell the point of "if we upgrade <equipment> for <x> dollars, we'll increase revenue/reduce lost productivity by <y> dollars, which means we'll break even in <z> days and increase quarterly revenue by <amount>".
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It's like sending passengers to the land using lifeboats. There's a limit to how many can be sent at once based on the number of lifeboats and its capacity. When the number to be sent is equal or less than the capacity, that is no rush situation, everyone is happy. And the waiting time of the passengers of the ship is decided by the round trip time of each lifeboat. Now, what happened when Titanic crashed? Too many passengers and chaos, trying to get on to limited seats and sometimes even causing loss of lives. (packet drops/loss)
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Here’s a concise version: 1. Use a relatable analogy: “Think of the network like a highway. When too many cars are on the road, traffic slows down. Similarly, when too much data travels through the network at once, everything slows down.” 2. Explain how it affects: “When the network is congested, it takes longer to load files, send emails, or join video calls, which impacts productivity.” 3. Highlight causes: “Bandwidth issues often occur when there are too many users online at once, large file transfers, or excessive video streaming.” 4. Offer solutions: “We’re looking into solutions like upgrading the network to increase bandwidth, and managing usage better. We’re actively working to resolve this, and improvements are on the way.”
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