Do you struggle to communicate the insights behind your data powerfully? Is it a challenge getting the business to take action using the data at your disposal?
Data storytelling is the critical "last mile" of communication that transforms your findings into actionable insights that will drive change and add value.
You might be great at collating and analyzing data, but if you don’t effectively channel this data into compelling and actionable communication, your data insights will go unnoticed. Done well, data-driven storytelling can transform your organization and create lasting change, resulting in a more responsive, agile, and business-resilient operation.
Stories beat statistics in two ways: One, they are more memorable than statistics, and two, they are more persuasive. The human brain can be influenced to make decisions through both logic and emotion, so data alone won’t cut it — we need the story behind the numbers to be the bridge that connects our emotional side with our logical side.
“No one ever made a decision because of a number, they need a story,” Israeli-American psychologist and economist Daniel Kahneman famously said — and it’s true. Our brains expect and want a coherent story. It’s not enough to just provide insights; you need to craft an inspiring message that evokes action.
However, there is an art and science to data storytelling, and this starts with three pillars: narrative, data, and visuals. Combining data with a narrative helps you explain the insights in a way that’s easy to understand and remember. Data visualization brings the data to life and helps people see the trends and patterns that are often missed when just looking at rows and columns of figures.
But how do you actually "do" data storytelling and where should you start? Read on for my top considerations for doing data storytelling well.
Before crafting your story, you need to understand who your audience is and what the goal of your data storytelling is. Who are you presenting the story to and what kind of metrics are important to them? Is it a specific team within your company or the board of directors? The kinds of things the senior management and other business influencers need to know will differ from what your own team or manager will want to hear. You may need to tell different stories from the same set of data, depending on your audience.
Think about what your different audiences will want to know and how they will want this presented to them. For example, if you’re talking to the finance team, ROI and cost-saving metrics will be more relevant, so shape your data insights around them. If you’re presenting to your sales and marketing colleagues, the most important KPIs for them might be MQLs, SQLs, opportunities, and cost per lead.
Tailoring your data sharing to your audience will help influence the message you convey and how you share it.
A good story is always carefully structured, and data storytelling is no different. The narrative you want to communicate can be thought through using the following storytelling arc.
