Prompting the Audience to Care: A Skill Every Scientist Needs Outside the Lab

Marwa Zafarullah, a neuroscientist at Stanford, learned this through trial and error: She used to introduce her research on a rare neurodegenerative disorder by its full scientific name. By the second word, people’s eyes had drifted elsewhere and they didn’t hear what she was saying. Now she starts with: “Do you have an elderly family member whose hands shake when they hold a pen?”

When she began opening this way, she noticed something: people focused. They engaged. And she could then give them more information.

I met Marwa when I coached her team for a persuasive VC pitch at Stanford’s Ignite Program. We got talking about what makes for clear communication.

She named a challenge I often see in my work with scientists at Stanford, Vir, and Genentech: scientists often give their audience everything at once. The audience ends up witnessing knowledge instead of feeling invited to engage with it.

Marwa’s communication strategy: start by linking the familiar to the unfamiliar. That first line doesn’t have to be the science itself. It can be the door that leads people toward it. Once they step inside, then you bring the data.

Don’t Oversimplify Communication Skills

When I coach scientists, I often hear a familiar concern: that communication strategies are just “dumbing it down.” I’ll admit, sometimes I do tell clients to K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid). But I understand the pushback. Scientists worry that simplifying risks losing the nuance and integrity of their work.

One climate scientist told me, “That’s the problem! Both sides use simple stories instead of data. If people actually understood the data we analyze, they wouldn’t be swayed by propaganda.”

I get it. Oversimplification is dangerous. Take the example of banning plastic straws. It is a message that spread everywhere. Memorable. Repeatable. It felt like I was saving the oceans one sippy cup at a time. But it left many people believing it was the whole solution. In reality, plastic straws have a minimal environmental impact compared to industrial waste. That is exactly the trap scientists fear: the simple story sticks, and the science gets reduced to a sound bite.

Still, without an entry point that appeals to humans being human, you risk having no conversation at all. And if your audience never engages, the data will not matter.

Prompting the audience to care means starting where they are, then guiding them from the familiar to the new, and finally, into the technical depth your science deserves. Trust that you can do this and that your audience can meet you there.

Bridge the GAP with A.G.P.

Marwa and I found that it often comes down to connecting what you know with what your audience cares about. To bridge this gap, remember these three questions:

• Audience: Who’s in the room, and what matters to them right now?

• Goal: What deeper science do I want to lead them toward?

• Prompt: What opening line will make them take the first step with me?

Using A.G.P. (Audience, Goal, Prompt) to bridge the gap helps you start with shared context and guide your audience toward deeper understanding, making it easier for them to follow/engage with your work.

Why It Works

In an era when science is under pressure, in funding, public trust, and policy, we can’t afford to let our work stay on one side of the gap, unseen. The Curse of Knowledge reminds us: the way you came to understand something isn’t always the way others will.

Don’t worry. Your science won’t be watered down. It will be welcomed in. And once it’s in, the science takes on a life of its own.

Marwa’s goal, and mine, is simple: when we prompt people to care, we help the public engage with the research they fund and benefit from. In a time when the future feels uncertain, that means not just defending the sciences, but showing why it exists: human to human, because it serves humans.