Purpose
Convert a dense technical concept into media-ready language a non-technical journalist can quote, paraphrase, and build a story around — delivering layered explanations, tested analogies, and quotable soundbites so the coverage lands the meaning right instead of mangling it.
When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Prepare a technical product release or feature launch for press coverage
- Turn a data story, benchmark, or research finding into media-friendly language
- Brief a reporter or analyst on how a platform or architecture actually works
- Make an engineering or infrastructure concept understandable to a general business audience
- Write the "what this means and why it matters" section of a press kit or backgrounder
- Rework copy that a journalist found too technical or jargon-heavy to use
Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- The concept to simplify: The product, feature, platform capability, or data finding in the company's own technical terms
- Why it matters: The business or user outcome this concept enables
- Target audience: General business press / trade/industry press / broadcast / analyst — who will read or hear this
- Target outlet or beat: Publication type and the reporter's likely technical fluency
- Technical accuracy guardrails: Any facts that must not be oversimplified or misstated (compliance, security, performance claims)
- Competitive/context framing: What this is often confused with, or the category it sits in
- Spokesperson name/title: Who the quotable soundbites will be attributed to
If audience fluency is unspecified, default to general business press (assume no domain knowledge) and note the assumption.
Instructions
Step 1: Extract the Core Claim
Strip the concept down to the single true statement a reader must walk away with.
- Identify the one outcome, not the mechanism (what it does for someone, not how it works internally)
- Separate the claim (what's new/better) from the proof (how you know) from the mechanism (how it works)
- Flag any part of the concept that is genuinely technical and cannot be simplified without becoming false — this stays precise later
Step 2: Build the Three Layered Explanations
Produce the same concept at three depths, each usable on its own:
Layer 1 — The One-Liner (under 25 words) A single sentence a headline writer or busy reporter could lift verbatim. No jargon, no clauses stacking. Leads with the outcome.
Layer 2 — The Reporter-Ready Paragraph (60–90 words) The paragraph a journalist would paraphrase into their story. Structure: what it is → what it replaces or improves → why it matters to the reader's audience. One approved technical term maximum, immediately defined in-line.
Layer 3 — The Deep-Dive (150–220 words) For the analyst or trade reporter who wants the mechanism. Explains how it works in plain sequence, preserves the technical accuracy guardrails exactly, and connects the mechanism back to the outcome. This is where precision lives.
Step 3: Generate Analogies (3 candidates)
Create three distinct analogies that map the concept to everyday experience.
- Each analogy must map the mechanism, not just the vibe — name what corresponds to what
- Range them: one everyday/domestic, one business/workplace, one physical/spatial
- After each, add a one-line "where the analogy breaks" caveat so the spokesperson doesn't overextend it
- Rank the three and recommend the strongest for this audience
Step 4: Write Quotable Soundbites (5 quotes)
Attributed to the spokesperson, five sentences engineered to survive being clipped:
- Each under 30 words, complete on its own out of context
- Mix: one vision quote, one contrast/before-after quote, one "why now" quote, one customer-impact quote, one memorable/metaphor quote
- No hedging, no nested clauses, no unquotable jargon
- Sound like a person speaking, not a datasheet
Step 5: Build the Jargon-to-Plain-English Glossary
Table every technical term the source concept relies on:
- Term | What the company means by it | Plain-English swap | Keep or replace?
- Mark terms that must stay technical (guardrails) as "Keep — define in-line"
- Provide the actual replacement phrase for everything marked "Replace"
Step 6: Anticipated Questions Brief
List 5–7 questions a skeptical or confused reporter is likely to ask, each with a tight plain-language answer:
- Include the two hardest "so what's actually new here?" and "how is this different from [obvious comparison]?" questions
- Answers stay factual and hold the accuracy guardrails
Output Format
- Structure: Six labeled sections in order; glossary as a table; analogies, soundbites, and Q&A as labeled lists
- Length: 900–1,300 words
- Format: Structured document — scannable, ready to drop into a press kit or briefing doc
- Sections: Core Claim → Three Layered Explanations → Analogies (3) → Soundbites (5) → Glossary table → Anticipated Questions (5–7)
- Tone: Clear and confident without hype — the voice of a communications lead who genuinely understands the technology and refuses to dumb it down into inaccuracy
Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] All three explanation layers are present and hit their word ranges (under 25 / 60–90 / 150–220)
- [ ] Every technical accuracy guardrail is preserved exactly in the deep-dive — nothing simplified into a false statement
- [ ] Exactly 3 analogies, each with a "where it breaks" caveat, with one recommended
- [ ] Exactly 5 soundbites, each under 30 words and quotable out of context
- [ ] Glossary marks each term as Keep or Replace, with an actual replacement phrase for every "Replace"
- [ ] The one-liner and reporter paragraph contain no undefined jargon
Notes
- The most common failure is simplifying a concept until it's technically wrong — the accuracy guardrails exist to prevent coverage that PR later has to correct
- Analogies are the highest-leverage output for broadcast and general business press; the deep-dive matters most for trade and analyst audiences
- If the concept is a data story, lead the one-liner with the number and the change it represents, not the methodology
- Reusable per release: rerun with a new concept and target outlet each time a feature, benchmark, or platform capability ships
How to use this skill
This file is a Claude Code skill in Anthropic's standard format — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top.
Installing in Claude Code:
~/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects)<your-project>/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills)
Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register.
Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:
- Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
- Send your task or request as your next message — the AI will apply the skill where it fits
For Claude Code skill details: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills