From Confused to Confident: My Journey to Making Science Actually Make Sense (BTL #2)

My Trial by Fire

When I first joined 54gene, one of Africa’s leading biotech startups, I was handed a big responsibility: content strategy for a company that had raised almost $5 million and would grow to amass over $40 million in funding.

Sounds impressive, right? Yeah, but I didn’t quite grasp what we were doing. I mean, I knew we were in genomics research, but the "why" and "how" were a total blur.

The first week was a disaster. I was quite certain I was going to get fired. I wasn’t delivering what my boss wanted, and frankly, I wasn’t even sure what to deliver. It wasn’t that I didn’t grasp the theory—I had a BSc in Biological Sciences and I’d read many articles. But despite all that knowledge, the science still felt like some mystical language I couldn’t crack.

So, instead of continuing to wallow in my confusion, I did what anyone would do in my shoes: I asked for help. I started reaching out to lab department heads, made friends with people in the lab (they probably got tired of picking my calls at some point😅), and began asking every single question I could think of.

I must’ve looked like a child at a science fair, but eventually, I started to get it. Slowly, I began to understand the why, the how, and the what of genomics.

And it worked. I went from barely scraping by to becoming the person who could answer every question about what we did, how we did it, and why it was changing the game in African genomics.

Suddenly, I wasn’t just talking about science—I was living it, breathing it, and communicating it to others.

Here’s the thing: I’d technically been a member of the general public when I first joined. I was totally lost. And that made me the perfect person to explain what we did in a way that others could understand. I could relate to their confusion because, honestly, I felt the same way. So, I broke things down, kept it simple, and showed the impact of genomics on real lives.

For the scientifically inclined audiences, it was a different ball game. I had to step into their shoes, figure out what they were really after, and speak to those aspirations. The message needed to resonate with their needs, so I positioned the company in a way that spoke directly to what they cared about—whether they knew it or not.

In the end, I learned that simplifying science doesn’t mean dumbing it down. It means truly understanding the material, getting to the heart of why it matters, and then making that connection with your audience.

That’s what I hope to share here in Beyond the Lab—the lessons I’ve learned (the hard way, mostly) about how to communicate science in a way that feels relatable, human, and just a little bit witty.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to reach out if you want to chat about simplifying science—or just to say hi. I’m always up for a good conversation!

Warmly, Faridah.