Thursday evening before I left for ISPOR. My family and I were driving back from dinner, and I asked my 3-year-old if she wanted to see my slides and hear my ISPOR presentation.

She enthusiastically nodded yes.

I launched into what I thought was an eloquent spiel. Three minutes in, she drew a blank and said: "Dada, stop... I don't like it anymore."

There. I lost my audience — without making my point.

An unsettling feeling that took me straight back to seminar at UT, that first fall semester in 2013.

At work, at conferences, at guest lectures, sometimes on Sidebar — I tell stories for a living. Mostly with data.

My success is largely incumbent on getting my point across to a key internal stakeholder. Most often not a scientist. Not someone who understands methods, stats, or how to interpret a hazard ratio. And — just as often — not someone who understands pricing, access, and value either.

So my failure to get the point across to a 3-year-old carries a real sting. Because I should already be able to do that.

Ten years into the force, still learning the art of communication.

Here is the reminder I keep relearning: unless your audience gets the point and is able to make a decision based on your input, your work is useless.

You cannot show ROI. You cannot ask for more $$ if the impact is not there. You cannot say your study matters unless it moved the needle on a decision — access or uptake, price or volume.

That's the bar. Not "was the analysis rigorous." Not "was the deck clean." Did it move a decision?

This brings me back to one of the most fundamental things I teach: your evidence is only as good as its utility to influence hearts and minds. Design it with the end game in mind.

Understand your audience. It's exactly what Sun Tzu said in The Art of War — know the enemy and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will never be defeated.

For most of us trained in HEOR, "know yourself" is the easy half. We know the methods cold. It's "know your audience" that we skip — and that's the half that decides whether the work lands.

Three moves, if you want this to be more than a nice idea:

Start from the decision, not the data. Before you scope the study or build the slide, name the decision your audience has to make. If you can't name it, you're not ready to start.

Lead with the recommendation. Your stakeholder doesn't want your methods section — they want to know what to do. Methods earn trust; they don't make the point. Put the "so what" first, and let the rigor back it up.

Know whether your audience lives in price or volume. A payer-facing argument and a commercial-facing argument are not the same argument. Same evidence, different translation. If you don't know which one your stakeholder cares about, find that out before you open your mouth.

Ten years in, and my toughest audience is still three feet tall.

Still learning. That's the job.

— Sanket

P.S. Sidebar Session 02 is Friday, May 22 — 12–1 PM ET. Same deal: bring the question you can't ask anywhere else.

P.P.S. Hit reply with the question you've never been able to ask anywhere else. I read every one.