Hi ,
There's a reason most people's first instinct, when a friend offers to show them all the photos from their latest
international holiday, is to run. And it's got nothing to do with jealousy.
Nobody wants to endure hours of looking at very similar photos of well-known landmarks with no explanation of why they should care.
Yet, if that same friend were to show you a curated set of pictures selected so that you can understand the most interesting aspects of their travel for yourself, you would probably feel differently.
That is, instead of overwhelming you with an avalanche of photos, they use a selection of pictures to tell a story.
Here's the thing...
Presenting your stakeholders with hundreds of tables and visualisations, and expecting them to draw their own conclusions, is the data science equivalent of a friend forcing you to endure their travel pics.
And their reaction is likely to be the same. But so, too, is the solution - to tell a story.
However, this time, the story is a data story.
Data storytelling involves combining data, narrative and visualisation to engage with your audience and help them understand what is most important about the data you’re analysing.
It's not about telling your stakeholders every
aspect of your analysis. It's about enlightening them about the greatest insights of your analysis - the insights that make a difference to them.
And the better you can do that, the more value you create.
I recently had the opportunity to talk to data storyteller Dr Selena Fisk on Value Driven Data Science. You can listen to the entire conversation HERE.
Talk again soon,
Dr Genevieve Hayes.
