Which is a critical first step when thinking about how to communicate technical content to a senior business manager?

While a staff member might understand details, identifying them as a primary first step bypasses the crucial need to directly understand the senior manager's business perspective and priorities.

Senior business managers are primarily concerned with business outcomes, strategic objectives, and how technology impacts the organization's performance. Understanding their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) allows you to frame technical information in terms of its impact on their critical business metrics, making the message relevant, impactful, and easily understood from their perspective, thus translating technical discussions into business value.

Planning your message is essential, but it should be done after understanding the audience's priorities (like KPIs) to ensure the options presented are relevant and framed appropriately for their business context.

Drafting a message using vendor-specific language without understanding the customer's specific business context and priorities risks using jargon that may not resonate or provide relevant business value.