Describe a time you had to explain something technical to a non-technical person.

The skill is translation without condescension.

• Start from what they care about, not from the mechanism. A user does not want to know about DNS propagation; they want to know when their email will work and what to do meanwhile.
• Use an analogy only if it holds, and abandon it once it stops helping. A stretched analogy creates a wrong mental model that causes confusion later.
• Drop the jargon, but do not oversimplify to the point of inaccuracy. People notice when they are being managed rather than informed.
• Check understanding by asking them to tell you what they will do, rather than asking "does that make sense?", which almost always gets a yes.
• Give them the action. Most non-technical people need to know what to do and when it will be resolved — the explanation is context, not the point.

Note: A strong version involves explaining a security requirement people found annoying — MFA, or a password policy — where you had to get genuine buy-in rather than just compliance. Explaining why something protects them personally works far better than citing policy.