Five worst mistakes

"What are we looking at?" Five Dreaded words you Don't Want to hear After putting hours into crunching numbers to present to company executives. Today, I'm going to help you avoid making five mistakes when presenting data. This will ensure that executives can understand your data at a glance, allowing you to seize every opportunity to impress them and tell the story behind your data points. The first mistake is the most common, presenting the raw data instead of a chart. A big wall of numbers is hard to understand quickly. To fix this mistake, think about what the executives need to know. In this example, they don't need to see all the data. They need to know if sales are above goal. Visualizing the data with a simple bar chart will show that fast. The second mistake is a rushed approach. The less time you take in revising your charts, the more time the executives need to understand them. So put the time in before you present. Using shorter headlines, simpler colors, and cleaner charts make a big difference. The third mistake is using default charts. PowerPoint, for example, has a feature called SmartArt. It can insert a chart like this funnel visual that seems to be useful for showing, say, the steps a customer takes before buying a product. But this funnel doesn't represent the data. It's not to scale, meaning the smaller numbers should appear as much smaller parts of this funnel. A quick fix is to replace this default chart with a standard accurate chart like a bar chart. This allows your audience to quickly see the lowest and highest points of progression for a customer's visit to a website and making a purchase. This fourth mistake is a big one, burying the story. Think of your chart like a newspaper article. Does the headline say what's most important? Does the biggest visual show the biggest point? If you answer no, then you may have buried the real story under too many words and visuals. Dig out. Shout that story in the headline. Reinforce the story with your biggest visual. In this instance, the revenue is a big story for superstores email campaigns. The final mistake is an easy one to make. A highly detailed chart is better for analysts, not executives. I always tell analysts to make data visualizations that make your job easier. If unusual charts and intricate colors help you find the insights, great. But when communicating these insights, you'll need to transform them into a chart that is more digestible. By making clarity the top goal when visualizing data, you can avoid these mistakes. A great tip is to imagine that you are seeing the raw data for the first time. This will help you to make clear, presentable insights for your conversations with executives. And the more you practice, the quicker you'll spot these mistakes. You've got this.