Story Time with Data

I find myself in this scenario often, I've just completed an analysis project and I have a lot of information, and I'm eager to share it. I was in the thick of it, I know the nuances of the data, the minutia of the many segments designed and applied across my datasets. I explored the data, and now I'm on the hook for explaining it to an audience. "Oh, the stories data would tell, if there were a teller to tell them well"; a sentiment from the author of Data Story: Explain Data and Inspire Action Through Story, Nancy Duarte, as she kicks off her book. Read this book like a normal human (cover to cover), and then keep it on your desk as a reference.

We all know this to the point of verging cliche, that stories captive an audiences attention, and can inspire action. We all have more data than we know what to do with, we have so many great business questions, and even if we identify compelling insights, they will fall untouched unless a story structure supports it.

Insights gained from actions taken, and thus data captured, can profoundly inform our path forward; and a well crafted story is the catalyst to influence action when someone communicates well. I'm a better, more thoughtful analytics professional after reading this book, and I want to share 5 takeaways I plan to keep particular close to the chest.

BE CREATIVE

Defining a purpose can be challenging, driven by too many business questions or general distractions, or even perhaps due to lack of motivation, or a drain on our creativity to identify something worth investing our time and energy towards. Creativity becomes an essential force powering your analysis, as the creative process can instill inventive problem-solving techniques to formulate a point of view about the data. The creative process can come in many forms, and personally, I think creativity from an analysis perspective comes from understanding the field you're analyzing. For example, I believe the best marketing analytics professionals are those who understand the marketing process. By understanding the field you're analyzing, you can better navigate the context driving the data points to triangulate those insights.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

We need to understand who we are communicating our findings to. Are you speaking with an executive, a customer, or a peer? This is critical intelligence you need to grasp before you craft your narrative. In particular, if you do find yourself preparing for an executive audience, there are things to keep under consideration. First, do you have someone in your organization that can help you understand the dynamics of the participating executive team? Taken directly from the book, it is suggested that when you find someone to prepare you, "Ideally, the person you choose to advise you about preferences knows the executives well.?Seek out someone who has spent time with them and has experience communicating with them. They will help you understand...

• Strong opinions executives have that might be out of your purview.
• Where they may want to dive deep, and which kinds of information should be provided if they do.
• The counterarguments they might pose, and how you should prepare for them."

In short, simplify, clarify, be prepared, and be sure you communicate what you are asking from them.

WORDSMITH IT

How often do you think about process vs performance verbs?! I personally get hung up on the alignment, colors, smartart, etc when I'm spending 4x times longer than I should on the 'look and feel' of my presentations. Visualization is important, but equally important are the words we choose to live on the page/slide to achieve the profound insight impact we hope to make. Back to process vs performance, are we taking about actions taken to achieve a goal, or are we talking about actions taken to drive performance? As an example, it makes all the difference to know if we are process focused, as we then communicate that we 'released more video content', but if we are performance focused, than we 'increased our video content output'. The nuance is fascinating to me, and Nancy's book goes into detail on words to consider based on the situation.

STORY TELL

This is not surprising...our insights and findings are only effective when we are able to clearly communicate them in a way that resonates with our audience. Think of your analysis findings in components, into 3 acts as the book describes. Begin your story with the situation at hand, or a 'lay of the land' to indicate the problem you are trying to solve. Then, get into the meat of your analysis and demonstrate your findings and data that need to change through actions you are teeing up to recommend. Your analysis can include trends to explain how the organization landed where they are, or bar charts to compare against other relevant segments/competitors/etc. Data visualization is covered in the book, but if you've spent enough time in the analytics space, you know data viz is an extensive topic well beyond what the book covers. Your final act in the analysis is your ask, your point of view. This closing piece needs to stick the landing, otherwise the entire narrative is lost in time. I highly recommend digging deeper into the storytelling topic because the principles gained from understanding the process will support your communication style and approach well beyond analysis and insights organizing. If you need starting point, check out Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller.

BE HONEST

This last point was not necessarily a covered topic, but it inspired me to keep this consideration within frame. Not every story has a happy ending. It's very tempting for us to find the positive in the data, but I'm going to push back and ask that you seek truth. It's as simple as that. Don't try to chase the positive spin, or adjust the benchmark, or worst yet; create a new metric. Our goal in providing insights is to conceptualize and present a business recommendation, so be a leader and bring attention to the learnings. If your strategy isn't rendered successful, then consider formulating a test recommendation to better understand. Testing is a massive topic to bookmark for a later time.

This is a slice of the value-pie I gained from reading Data Story: Explain Data and Inspire Action Through Story. Go read the book and do the work to become a better communicator.??

#analytics #storytelling Nancy Duarte