Storytelling with Data
The skill of data storytelling is instrumental in delivering compelling presentations. Anyone can create charts and graphs and add them to a powerpoint, but not everyone can use data to effectively communicate a message. Data storytelling is the art of using, contextualizing and presenting data in order to create a narrative. So, it’s not only about visualizing the data and presenting it to an audience; it’s also about using your domain knowledge to add context and other relevant information to intrigue your audience. A visual can make it clear that a pattern exists, but a story puts things into perspective for the context of your business or industry.
Approximately 65% of the human population are visual learners, so it’s a good idea to put some effort into the way you design charts that you’re presenting because your charts might be the only things people remember. However, good storytelling will not only cater to visual learners, but it will cater to auditory learners as well. This is why you need to couple data visualization with compelling statements supported by your domain knowledge. Whether you’re talking about research, health statistics, sales, profit and loss or forecasts, data storytelling is just like regular storytelling (narratives). There is always a plot with an introduction, climax and denouement.
How to Tell Stories with Data
Know Your Audience
The way you present data to students should be different from the way you present it to your boss or experts in your industry. If you’re presenting to an unfamiliar audience, it’s important to do your research beforehand so you can tailor your presentation style to the needs of your audience. People have varying levels of knowledge, so if you use advanced language and terminology to present to amateurs, there’s a good chance that they won’t understand anything you’re talking about. Knowing your audience matters.
Determine What the Data is Telling You
By doing exploratory analysis, you can figure out the facts about the data and answer important questions such as Who, What, When and Where. By doing explanatory analysis, you can answer questions such as How and Why in order to determine the important points that you can use as the key drivers of your presentation. Even if you tell your audience what happened, the most important questions that they want to answer are How and Why. This is what keeps them engaged and gives them enough context to know how to solve problems or what to do with the information you just presented.
Pick Appropriate Visuals
When adding visuals to your presentation, you shouldn’t pick them just because they look pretty or exotic. You should pick the best visual to represent the data. If a bar chart is more appropriate than a line graph, use the bar chart. The appropriateness of a chart is determined by the type of data you’re presenting.
Think like a designer
The chart below is a great example of storytelling with data. It is simple and effective. By making smart choices with color and by providing a key, the main points of the argument are very clear. A chart like this would immediately spark questions and conversations, which keeps your audience engaged and gives them something to remember.
Graph via Radian Developers
Think like an author/ TED Talk Speaker
Books and TED Talks usually begin by setting the tone with some background information and flow into the main content. They usually end with some resolution, conclusion or call to action, and a presentation of data should be no different.
Practice
Some people are naturally gifted at storytelling but others have to learn. Here are some tips to practice the art of data storytelling:
Write a blog or share your analyses of any datasets with short posts on social media. This will give you some practice with organizing your thoughts in a way that flows well from one point to the next.
Create datafolios and infographics. These are informative tools that can be used to highlight the key data points along with some text to add more information.
Create dashboards or storyboards. Using data visualization tools such as Power BI, Tableau and Google Looker Studio will help you to put charts together in a way that enables your audiences to interact with the charts to find answers to their questions in a logical way.
Write reports or prepare presentations that include the following sections: Business Understanding (Context), Data Understanding, Data Preparation and Modeling, Analysis, Conclusions & Recommendations
Read books. Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic has written three books specifically covering the topic of data storytelling. These books are easy to follow and provide great insights and guidance into the world of storytelling. The titles of the books are Storytelling with Data, Storytelling with You, and Storytelling with Data - Let’s Practice.
Presenting facts and figures to an audience is not enough to convince them to take action or take your advice. People relate to stories, people remember stories, and people have different levels of expertise. If you add the element of storytelling to your presentation, you have a chance to make it interesting enough for people to remember and/or heed your call to action.
