Looks IS important!

Scientists in companies often work with marketing departments to provide them scientific results. It is very simple, give them results and graphs and explain what they mean and when they have made them look appealing, pretty and simple to non-scientists, they run the draft through to check that scientific integrity is maintained. 

One day I gave our marketing department the results of a clinical non-inferiority trial and they looked like I provided them with a plateful of worms. I asked what the problem was, thinking furiously what on earth was wrong with the results (which were great, and they should have been jumping with joy). “The competitor product is so much better!” was the answer. 

I looked at them (weirdly, as they later said) and said that no, the competitor product is worse than our own. “But the bar is so much higher with competitor’s product!” 

In that particular graph, the higher bar indicated the worse outcome (more lesions), but they told me the way they look at things is that the taller is better. All of them. And asked if I can provide the data the other way around so that our product is the taller bar. I cringed inside and thought that how on earth can I do that, it does not make any sense. However,I made it to work and they were happy. 

This little episode made me realize that we look at things very differently. Some results that are clear as a sunny day to us, might be something completely different to someone else. What I learned is that you need to keep this in mind when you are preparing the graphs and other presentation aids. 

I learned that it is always good to ask for other people’s opinions of the data you are about to bring in front of any audience. I have always been praised for having clear and understandable presentations, but I never thought of the ‘first impression’ that my data might give to someone. This is especially important when you break the departmental boundaries (like between science and marketing). 

This is not a big problem when giving presentations, since you have an opportunity to explain your results and rarely people walk out in the middle of a presentation (this sometimes happens!). But it is the whole different thing in a conference where there are hundreds of poster presentations and most people just take one look at your data. If it is not appealing, understandable or even gives a wrong impression of the results, they won’t stay. And ‘they’ might just be a head of a major funding corporation. Or your prospective next boss. 

I have been looking at posters in the conferences and most of them are boring. They are very scientifically sound (most of them), but when I walk around, I am not looking for that particular aspect. I am looking for a WOW factor. If a person can clearly and appealingly present their key data (just few graphs and very small number of words), I am much more likely to hire that person than someone who might have super excellent science, presented in a boring way with too much of everything on a poster.

Marketing your science is a very important skill nowadays and it starts from good data that is presented clearly, in a way that everyone understands immediately. It might be a good idea to peek into other people’s posters, browse the pictures of high-quality journals and ask for feedback from your own team. That way you might give someone a WOW moment and make them give you a great job.