Made by clever people for clever people
Time to read: 1 minute
In fintech, Sam Howard asks: Can clever comms people add value, or are they the weakest link?
I’m a comms person in b2b tech, primarily fintech. Fintech – that’s software geeks creating awesome stuff for banking geeks. All fintech comms people have to do is wrap their pretty little heads around how the global markets work. How a financial institution works and how it makes its money.
Then, evaluate the opportunities and obstacles created by the latest market conditions and regulations. Opportunities and obstacles might help or hinder it from making that money. And then piece together how their client’s technology taps into those opportunities and obstacles, so a bank might want to buy it.
Anyone got a PHD in anything at all they are not using right now?
Dear software geeks, we understand your fear of getting us comms people involved. We share your fear. We have reoccurring nightmares where our efforts sufficiently underwhelm Anne Robinson.
But Einstein once said that if you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you can’t explain it. Let’s assume everyone in the room is clever; it is the common denominator, so there is no need to posture on that. Don’t be tempted to use content to show off how much you know – they know you know. The key is to add some value to the debate, explain the complex lucidly, ensure that overarching points are not lost in the minutiae of the detail and that those points stack up to a logical argument leading to an insightful conclusion.
It’s not as ‘easy’ as it looks, I can tell ya, getting the people with the PHDs to look up not down, out not in. And if, in so doing, we tend to simplify things rather than wonder if we haven’t dumbed down your whole reason d’etre, just trust you know how to build software, and we know how to build reputations.
In the kingdom of the big and the clever, it’s the six-year-old kid you need to impress.
