The data doesn’t speak for itself

Welcome to Ryan’s Rant, my weekly newsletter aimed at helping companies drive customer-centric growth.

I’ve worked with some brilliant insights folks during my time in this industry. They’re innovative. They do great work. They uncover some incredible consumer insights.?

But that great work isn’t always seen by the people who need to see it.?

And I think it’s time to get real about something: The data doesn’t speak for itself.

As the expert in the data, it’s easy to think that a takeaway is obvious to anyone who sees it. But people are busy. They aren’t spending as much time with the data as you are. And they often don't have the context you have.?

As a result, they miss out on a lot of great insights.?

It’s time to stop relying on the data to speak for itself. You need to give it a voice.

The problem we’re facing

My latest podcast episode with Grant Feller , award-winning storyteller and Founder of EveryRung, covered this topic. He shared some mindblowing data with me.?

He says that on average, we spend 26 seconds reading any piece of written content.?

We spend 15 seconds on a web page.?

And we decide within 17 milliseconds whether we want to engage any further with something we’re reading.

That’s wild! Think about it: You ask stakeholders to engage with a multi-page report where a key finding is on page 7, buried in a complicated chart. But the person reading it has already decided in 17 milliseconds (basically just a quick glance at the title) that they won’t make it that far into the report.?

So what happens? That key finding never sees the light of day and never influences the right decisions.?

It’s time to act like a journalist

We’re all consuming stories every day in the news we read, the content we engage with, and the stories we tell each other. We know what a good story looks like. Can you honestly say that your 100-page deck tells a good story??

Grant describes how he would often speak to marketers who would say that they have an incredible amount of data they can access, but they aren’t able to make sense of it fast enough to use it to make decisions. And Grant realized that, as a former journalist, he could help insights teams tell stories.

How can we get people to engage with this data? Not just engage, but share. Remember. Care. Make decisions. Have emotional feelings about it. And do it in a matter of seconds.

Because it’s time for insights teams to adopt a journalist’s mindset. Journalists take a lot of facts and turn them into a story people will pay attention to. Something they will care about.?

Insights teams need to start thinking like that.

How to tell a good story

Grant makes so many good points in the podcast, but here are a few of my favorites:?

• Storytelling isn’t about writing. Before you start writing a report or building a deck, think about the story you need to tell.
• If you can’t tell your story in 7-10 words, you don’t have a story.?
• Your business cares about making money. Always tie your message back to how you can help with that goal.?
• Keep the audience in mind. Always be thinking about why they care about what you’re saying. Say that part first.
• It’s not your job to give everyone all the context that you have. Focus on giving them the “so what?” and the “now what?” first. They’ll engage further if they need more context.

Storytelling is critical in the future of insights

This is a topic I really care about because I believe that as we face the future of AI, we have to pay attention to our people. We have to think about how we’re upskilling teams and enabling them to use technology to do their jobs well.?

Because AI has certainly become more advanced and can tell stories from complex data. Check out this example from the Zappi platform of an AI-generated summary.?

But it’s still up to you as the expert to tell the bigger story that makes your organization pay attention.?

Because insights should be influencing decisions and setting up their businesses to be truly consumer centric.?

But they can’t do that if they’re relying on a 100-page deck to speak for itself. Because it never will.?

If you missed it

Catch up on this week’s episode with my guest, Grant Feller.