From Code to Conversation: Tackling the Art of Cross-Cultural Business Communication
with Michele Garner
About the Event
In the fourth episode of Season 4 on Hitchhiker’s Guide to Marketing Analytics, Nadia Davis is joined by Michele Garner (Microsoft) to discuss how data science professionals can communicate effectively cross-functionally.
Data scientists and marketers often speak different languages. They operate in different professional cultures, approach problems differently, and have very different expectations about what makes a presentation compelling. And yet, for technical innovation to deliver meaningful business impact, these groups must find ways to understand one another.
What if the secret to communicating sophisticated technical concepts isn’t simplifying the science, but learning to speak the language and understand the culture of your audience?
Michele Garner brings a unique perspective to this challenge. She began her career with nearly eight years in marketing, public relations, and sales, where she learned the fundamentals of effective communication, persuasion, and influencing business decisions. She subsequently supported marketing organizations through research and analytics at T-Mobile and Starbucks, before spending the last 12 years in machine learning and applied science.
Across these experiences, she’s developed a set of practical rules for translating complex technical work into stories, presentations, and recommendations that resonate with nontechnical audiences and drive business impact.
In this conversation, Michele explores the art of communicating across technical and business cultures … and what it really takes to turn sophisticated science into meaningful business impact. Drawing on lessons from marketing, public relations, sales, and applied science, she’ll share practical tips and tricks for making complex ideas resonate with nontechnical audiences, building relationships and consensus across organizations, and treating research and analytical insights as products that need to be strategically positioned, marketed, and adopted. From crafting compelling presentations to developing internal “go-to-market strategies,” the conversation explores why producing great science is only half the job.
Because ultimately, the goal isn’t simply to make people understand the science. It’s to make the science matter.
