Stories driven by Data

Storytelling can win an audience. Enormous data around us can help decision makers ask smarter business questions

We can glean powerful insights from accumulated many petabytes of data. With the necessary technologies, processes and people in place we can analyze the right data to ask smarter questions. We have the opportunity to transform our culture into one where decisions are data-driven rather than reliant on subjective biases and domain experience. But even the most impactful insights, selling the biggest business impacts, won't necessarily be heard if they are buried in boring presentations. Data analysis is no good if the story it has to tell is lost in layers of detail. 

To be truly data-driven and drive actions and results from our data, we need to shape compelling, fact-based stories. Stories that convince our intended audience and make them care. Ultimately, stories that make people go "wow". The question is, how? 

This sounds like a big ask. A tricky mix of technical and narrative skills that belong to the domains of data analysis, marketing and communications, right? Not for the average all-rounder in corporate sector.Indeed, it's estimated only 35% of employees in most organisations currently use analytics as part of their jobs. I thought so too!

The most eye-opening realisation I came to is that when you break it down, there are really simple principles that any business user can harness to tell data-driven stories with real impact. In this story I've summarised what I learned, broken down into three questions:

1. What do we mean by data-driven ?
2. How can we use data to tell a better story?
3. How can we use storytelling techniques to make our data-driven insights more compelling?

What does Data Driven mean

- "Without data you're just another person with an opinion" - William Edwards Deming, the father of modern quality control.

 Here's a great story of where this went wrong for Ferrari during the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix. That author offers an alternative definition of data-driven, which better suits our context: "to be data-driven does not mean to (only) use data... data-driven really means to help business leaders ask smarter questions of the business and environment around them."

Use Data to Tell a Story .

"Every dataset, every database, every spreadsheet has a story to tell" - Stuart Frankel, co-founder of Narrative Science.

Data provides the vital colour that makes stories stand out and be believed. But imagine that after hours of data collection, processing and analysis you have discovered something significant, something that can be used to impact the business. Your present your information but nobody seems to grasp its importance. 

Gartner predicts data storytelling will dominate BI by 2025. 

Data storytelling combines effective data visualisation (about which I'm not going to touch on, because there is an entire gamut of learning out there. Check out the Information is Beautiful Awards 2022 for some stunning examples) with narrative to help people grasp the context and understand the meaning of what you are showing them. 

Storytelling can drive home the point easily.

So if we've analysed quality data to produce insights and presented them with a clear and meaningful narrative, is this enough to make people want to take action, or a decision?

When it comes to data-driven storytelling, whatever the context or question you're starting with, be clear on what the problem is. Then go one step further and ask, whose problem is it? Why are they asking? What pain is it causing them? Can you speak to a real human who is dealing with this? If you've worked in development or marketing, you might be used to starting with a user story, or crafting a persona. All this is trying to do is make you think the same thing - whose problem is it? Journalists do this all the time - they zone in on a human story to make us care. Dig deeper, go and speak to people, find a customer that you can turn into a testimonial of success later.

 You can show ingenuity in two ways: either the content you're presenting is brand new, shiny and exciting, or the way you show it, is. Don't believe that a data visualization of the noise pollution we hear during our daily commutes could be enthralling? Check out this immersive video.

This is the most important skill these days.Do you agree ?

#futureskills #dataandanalytics #storytelling #skillsforsuccess