Learn to Tell a Story With Your Data. Watch the ODSC West 2019 Livestream for Free!

Disclaimer: This is a video taken from our Livestream from Boston. Sign up to watch our ODSC West 2019 Livestream for no cost! http://bit.ly/LiveStreamODSCWest2019 

You’re a data scientist who wants to use impactful data to influence important business decisions. But how do you present your data in a way that will convince stakeholders or management?  Unfortunately, charts and data appropriate for an academic journal will be completely ineffective in a business setting.

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Issac Reyes, the Founder of DataSeer, shares his insights on how to effectively present data and “storytell” in front of management.

 Four key elements to successfully storytelling with your data:

• Audience
• Data
• Visuals
• Narrative

Understanding the audience is the first and most important step in this process. Issac Reyes explains that establishing who the audience is will help you understand what design choices to make to create a story with the data. The data and visuals must be framed in a way that is easily absorbed by the audience.

Next, sourcing the right data metrics for the audience is important when it comes to being understood by the decision-makers in a business. Data scientists regularly use multiple points of data and metrics, often complicated and varied. For the audience, choosing universally recognized and understandable metrics will help them stay focused on the key point, rather than confuse or distract them.

Charts and visuals tie all the data into a perceptible and vivid presentation. However, it is easy to confuse the audience if you use the wrong type of chart. Depending on what you’re trying to convey, you could use a pie chart, bar chart, line chart, or some other variation. For instance, when comparing two datasets, the magnitude of performance increase over time can be better conveyed by selecting a line chart rather than a column chart.

Finally, when tying all the data and visuals together for your target audience of businessmen and stakeholders, you need to fit the narrative to support the point you’re trying to make. Too often have we been instructed to get everything “on one slide”. The narrative should selectively examine and go over the visuals to tell a better story.

Watch the full talk here and learn to create more impactful presentations with your data.