Hi ,
You wouldn't talk to your mum the way you talk to your best friend. And you wouldn't talk to your boss the way you talk to your kids.
We all naturally adjust our communication style to match our audience. And there's nothing wrong with that.
It doesn't make you a phony
or a fraud. It's being respectful of your audience’s needs.
To do anything else, would be selfish.
Yet, when presenting analysis to senior management, for many data scientists, the opposite is true.
These data scientists *do* talk to senior management the way they would their peers - with career limiting results.
Here's the thing...
After spending weeks (or months) performing a complicated analysis, it can be tempting to present it to management
it all its technical glory.
Yet, to do so would be making the presentation about you - it's asking management to be impressed with you.
But management aren't going to be impressed with you, if your presentation doesn't meet their needs - which typically involve running the business.
The way you communicate your analysis, therefore, should focus on its business implications, not how you got
there.
Different audiences have different backgrounds and different needs.
You are doing a service to
your audience if you remember that.
Talk again soon,
Dr Genevieve Hayes.
