What is Data Storytelling?

​Data continues to get bigger, the techniques to analyse it more sophisticated and it continues to grow in importance in our everyday lives. For those of us in data centric roles, we love it. It’s exciting.

But for a lot of our audience, the consumers of our data and insight, that love and excitement might not exist. Lots of people can find data daunting, abstract and even uninteresting and we need to be respectful of that. Data storytelling is an approach that can help bridge the gap between those that create insights and those that consume insights. By bridging this gap we create understanding, engagement and, ultimately, value.

So if we go along with the idea that Data Storytelling is the key for unlocking the value of our work, why isn't everyone doing it? What typically tends to happen when a data advocate comes to talk about their work?

When a data lover comes to talk about data, what we can often find is that their talks can be:

- Overly complex, 
- Long,
- And lacking in focus.

“I’ve got so much to say so you sit there and listen to it all”.

This is a problem because:

- Our brains in general don’t like numbers, so can struggle to connect.
- Long and hard to follow talks or documents can quickly lead to disengagement.

Disengagement then leads to apathy, indecision and disinterest, which leads in turn to missed opportunities.

I have sat through (and to be fair have delivered) presentations that are tens and tens of slides of charts that leave people bored and reaching for their phones.

So we have to find a way to do things differently. Step in Data Storytelling.

In my course I teach that to be good at data storytelling you need to do three key things:

1. You need to storyboard, to ensure focus and structure to your presentation. A talk that has focus and structure is easier to follow and helps audience engagement. It also helps challenge our urges to show everything we know and instead focus on what does our audience need to know.
2. You need to focus on elevating your content to create engagement. Elevation comes from creating exciting, memorable, tension rich experiences that engage your audience and make them sit up and take notice.
3. You need an ending that is action orientated and helps audiences make decisions and makes change happen.

My course on data storytelling is a course focussed on taking a different approach to writing presentations and telling data stories that ensure you stand out and make a difference.

The course is designed to be informative, genuinely enjoyable and a chance for people to take a look at themselves and how to do things differently.

If you want to proactively bridge the gap between the creators of insight and consumers of insight, please do get in touch or find more details on my course here.

You can also download the course brochure by following this link:

Data Storytelling Course Brochure