Where Should a Technical Explanation Begin?

A technical explanation can lose people in two opposite ways: it starts with specialist terms, or it removes so much detail that the idea becomes vague.

Imagine documenting an API for a teammate who understands the product but hasn’t used that endpoint before. What should the first paragraph help them understand: what the endpoint does, when to use it, or what to send? The order may matter as much as the wording.

When you explain something unfamiliar at work, what helps you choose the first detail—and how do you keep the explanation precise without making the reader learn the whole system first?