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💨 Let me blow some smoke your way…

Data people are usually brilliant.

Some of the smartest individuals you’ll find inside any organisation.

I can tell you first hand, I’ve worked with some absolute geniuses who knew their stuff inside out.

These data professionals prided themselves on being the smartest in the room. But when it came to communicating what they knew to business stakeholders, boy did they suck.

To quote Homer Simpson:

Your stakeholders do not care about your advanced techniques, niche tooling, or model hyper-parameters. They care about whether you can help them make better decisions and understand their business faster, with less risk.

That is how they make money.

If you want to be taken seriously by senior stakeholders, you need to learn to simplify.

Yesterday, I put together a fun little video on the topic:

tris.j.burns.data

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In the film, Margin Call, it’s revealed that the Peter the analyst is literally a rocket scientist who’s made his way into investment banking.

The boss of the bank, played by Scar from the Lion King, knows Peter is smart, but doesn’t care. What he cares about is Peter’s ability to tell the story he needs to hear in THAT moment.

He therefore asks Peter to explain it to him as if he “were a child, or a Golden Retriever”.

Unfortunately…

Many data professionals hide behind technical jargon. They overload stakeholders with detail in an attempt to sound credible, but instead lose them entirely.

If you cannot explain your work in clear, simple terms, you will lose your audience, your influence, and your seat at the table.

Before we go any further - this week’s poll👇🏻

_{(check down below for the results from last week’s poll)}

🧠 “Look how smart I am”

If you think the company got it right by hiring you, then they already know how smart you are. There is no need to use every opportunity to remind them by going into all the insane details of your working.

They will get over it very quickly and wonder if you’re ever going to get to the point.

Here’s what happens when we focus on the details and not the “so what” of an issue:

🔹 Your recommendations get ignored
Stakeholders nod politely, then move on because they did not understand you.

🔹 You lose credibility
Overcomplicating your explanations makes you look out of touch with the business and it’s strategy

🔹 You miss the opportunity to lead
If you cannot communicate simply, you will never be seen as a strategic partner.

🔹 You get frustrated
You put in the hard work but watch your insights go unused, leading to disengagement.

But there is a way to fix this. Recall the scene in the Margin Call clip above when the boss says to the Analyst:

He says it not because he thinks the analyst is smarter, but because he knows the stakes are too high for misunderstanding.

The same goes for your communication.

Let’s look at ways to fix this below 👇🏻

🛠️ Here’s how we start to fix it:

✅ Know your audience
Senior stakeholders are time-poor and under pressure. They need the so what immediately, not your play by play of how you get there.

✅ Start with the headline
Lead with the single, clear insight or action they need to know. Save the technical details for later, if they ask all. Ask yourself: What are the headlines?

✅ Use natural language
Skip the jargon. Instead of saying “We used a multivariate regression with interaction terms,” say “We found that price and speed are the two biggest factors driving customer churn.”

✅ Use analogies
Translate complexity into something relatable. It shows mastery, not dumbing down.

✅ Practise ruthless clarity
Before a stakeholder meeting, practise explaining your key point as if you were talking to a bright 12-year-old. If it feels too simple, you’re on the right track!

✅ Check for understanding
Ask stakeholders to reflect back what they heard. If they can’t, simplify further.

Your technical skills are what got you into the room.

Your ability to explain your insights simply is what will keep you there.

🐶

Data Leadership Coaching

I work with data leaders all over the world to help them become better leaders.

I help them to:

🔹 Gain influence

🔹 Build strategies

🔹 Increasing their visibility

🔹 Repositioning data teams as value adds

If you’re interested in exploring what a coaching relationship with me might look like, feel free to book time with me for a fee 1:1 intro call here.

Or read more about it here

Tristan Burns

Find me on LinkedIn or Book a 1:1 call

⚡️ Previous poll results

Last week I asked you: What’s your biggest challenge with stepping out of the “player-coach” role?

Here’s how you responded:

Looks like most people are stuck in the “data is a technical space” dynamic.