Does a report really have to tell a story?

For the past several years, the idea that a report needs to tell a story has been presented over and over in webinars, conference sessions, and a variety of other venues. Intuitively, I personally like the idea. And I have tried to in all my reporting to create a story in all my reports to varying levels of success.  

But part of me is somewhat skeptical of this whole push to storify research insights. In my many years of research, I have only seen a few reports or presentations that really told a coherent story. And, frankly, I don’t really remember any of them going over any better than the “non-story” reports or presentations.

That’s certainly not to say that I am in favor of data dumps. I have been a part of enough of those to understand how truly ineffective they are.

I don’t believe the reporting of insights is binary--either a data dump or a coherent story. The most effective way to report on insights may be somewhere along that spectrum between the two, or it may be something completely outside the spectrum.

I have seen stories that were entertaining and memorable, so well constructed, but ultimately left the end-user of the research unable to move forward. Often, research is full of relevant tangents that don’t fit in a coherent storyline. So they get left out to make the story work. Relegated to the appendix, the end-user of the research stumbles on them and discovers, to their joy, that the tangents are of more use to their decision-making than the story.

Turning the data and insights into a coherent story often means that the researcher is making the pompous presumption that they know the research end-user's needs best. That's a perilous perch to put yourself on. Too often, no matter how well informed the initial brief, there are bits and pieces that are unknowns, and dynamics that can't be articulated. Thus, the researcher risks telling a good story that is completely irrelevant and useless.

And, it doesn't allow for the the end-user of the research to react to insights in an unexpected way that will propel them down a new path.

In real-life, I have seldom been able to work with a client that could distill their research needs down to one objective, or even a set of related objectives, that lend themselves to a clear, coherent storyline. Life is messy. And decisions that need to be made are often messy as well. And thus, objectives can be messy.

Ultimately, the end-user of the research is not looking for story time with data. If they want a story, they can read a book or watch Netflix. What they are looking for is answers to their questions so they can move forward with something. More often than not, that means answers that will inform an intelligent decision. Some of my best received reports were those structured not around a storyline, but rather structured around answering the specific questions of the end-user, or around providing insights into each of the specific objectives. 

In each of those cases, there were stories involved, but they were contained within a section or even page of the report. I am a firm believer that each page of a PowerPoint deck should make a specific point--and that is typically a “story” in order to make it work effectively. 

So, in that sense, the most effective reporting I have experienced has often been more akin to a short story anthology than a novel. So, in that sense, there is a need for storytelling skills, but not, in my mind, in the same way that is preached from the research pulpit. 

Lastly, arguably the most effective use of research and insights have come from workshops, not reports or presentations. When the whole team of researchers and research users have come together to collaboratively figure out what insights mean and turn them into next steps, that seems to put data into action the best. Yet, that is the most non-linear, fluid storytelling that exists, if it could even be called storytelling. 

I am completely open to being proven wrong on my skepticism of storytelling in research and insights. But for now, I will focus less on telling a story with data and more on helping the end-users of the research make better informed decisions and take more confident action based on the data--and structure the reporting and use of the data accordingly.

Tomorrow, some thoughts and ideas around this. 

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I have been involved in the market research field, as a corporate-side research manager, a bulletin board platform co-founder, and then a research agency owner for over 35 years now. I have learned a thing or two about doing research better. My intent with these articles is to share practical and thought provoking ideas to elevate your research game, whether you are the person conducting the research or the person using it to make better decisions. (Or if you wear both hats!) 

Twitter: @TripleScoopPMR