👋 Reader,

Want to maximize the impact your insights have?

Meet your stakeholders where they are at.

What you need to know:

Stakeholders want to know three things:

• What do I need to know?
• Why does it matter?
• What do I do next?

Why does it matter?

Brevity in research communication matters.

People are flooded with information 🌊

People want to understand and act on the information you share, so you must be strategic in your approach.

People read headlines, glance at subject lines, and skim content.

When people choose to read something:

• ⏱️ They spend about 26 seconds looking at it.
• 📱 Are distracted—on average, people check their phone 250 times a day!
• 💻 Are trying to multitask, i.e., Slack, email, video meetings, etc.

All of this leads to a perfect storm of releasing game-changing findings to…

🦗

People are busy; they choose to read research reports to serve a specific purpose—they want to do their job better.

Next steps:

People want (and need) content delivered efficiently.

And it’s your job to deliver it.

Immediately stop delivering content the way you want; and start delivering content the way they need by eliminating:

• 🛑 Meandering communication
• 🛑 Overdoing the backstory
• 🛑 Burying the lede

🎁 Give people the gift of their time back.

Use as few words and sentences as possible.

Five tips to employ this strategy:

1. Think like a copywriter. Your headline should hook the reader and inspire them to keep reading.
2. Keep it simple. One sentence is better than two. Two sentences is better than one. If you think you can’t edit, you are wrong.
3. Put your audience first. Full stop. What do they need to know, why does it matter, and what action should they take. Value their time and attention span.
4. Use clear, concise language that is easy to understand. Don’t use SAT words or acronyms; we think this makes us sound smart, but it only makes people stop reading.
5. Break down complex concepts into digestible chunks.

Go deeper:

The average attention span when consuming content varies depending on the individual and the type of content. However, a widely cited study from Microsoft in 2015 suggested that the average human attention span had dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to just 8 seconds in 2013. This statistic has been debated and may not be entirely accurate, but it does highlight the challenge of capturing and maintaining people’s attention in the age of digital content.

When we put work into something, it becomes “or baby.” It becomes hard to “kill our darlings” and ruthlessly edit out the less pertinent information.

But we must stop writing self-indulgently.

We must stop writing they way WE want to write, and start writing the way THEY need.

Ask yourself one question:

• What does the person I am writing it for need?

When you do this, you’ll find yourself start to think more clearly and speak more clearly.

The tl;dr:

Give people their time back—while giving them the information they need to do their job.

This is the way.

/ari

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