As a researcher, explaining my research to others is a key part of what I have to do. Whether this comes from giving a presentation or simply explaining it to a friend, I have found that the most important aspect is that you understand the goals of your project. Especially to someone who doesn’t have experience in your field, they want to understand the big picture, or why what you do is important, and that requires a high level of understanding. There are also other factors, like using less technical jargon or acronyms. I find it difficult to not use the acronym for my subject, Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE).
Professionally, I want to work in a setting that integrates both my knowledge in programming, managing large projects, and related to the biology/genetics field which I also do work in. Outside of the CS sphere people are largely unfamiliar with many programming concepts, so knowing how to explain these concepts to anybody working in a different department or discipline, or simply any executives in the field will be important. Even in my current project I find myself having to find new ways to explain my research to someone with a different set of skills and experience.