Picture When you present data, where do you focus your effort?
As scientists, we can become enamored of our own work and forget that a non-expert audience has a different frame of reference.
They’re usually:
-Less informed
-Less interested in the details
-And potentially distracted!
So my advice to the wonderful audience at the Thermo Fisher Scientific WE-BRG was to create a “container” for data in the presentation, including:
-Purpose
-Key takeaways
-Impact of the results and
-Next steps
So your audience can grasp the meaning of your work even if they don’t understand all the specifics.
Afterward the talk, one participant said:
“It taught me to gain a new perspective on routine things that we do every day so that I can approach them differently to expect better outcomes.”
My inner coach was clapping and jumping up and down to hear this. That’s the best possible outcome, to learn and try new approaches in your day to day work.
Thank you again to Alexa Barnes, Praveena Velpurisiva, PhD, Shoba Varma, John Burrill, Priyanka Singh, and Keerthi Harsha Ram for hosting me to talk about “How to Be Understood: The Art and Science of Presenting Data to Non-Experts.” It was a great discussion!
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