Data Storytelling: Skills and Elements — Whiteboard Friday

Be a part of Lazarina on this Whiteboard Friday the place she discusses the essential expertise and components concerned in information storytelling. Study information evaluation, and information visualization, in addition to easy methods to talk wins and stability relationships with stakeholders.

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Video Transcription

Hello there. Immediately we’ll discuss information storytelling. All through historical past, we people have used tales to speak data, to cross boundaries, and to additionally relate to at least one one other. So at this time we’ll discuss information storytelling and the way that can be utilized as a part of an search engine optimization or a advertising and marketing advisor’s position.

We’ll speak concerning the 4 essential parts of knowledge storytelling and the talents that you just want with the intention to create lovely information tales.

Information Science

So the primary element of knowledge storytelling is information science. So information science is all about understanding what insights you need to extract out of your information, however it’s additionally concerning the technical expertise that you just want as a advisor or a marketer with the intention to extract that information.

So it combines somewhat bit of knowledge evaluation. It combines somewhat bit of knowledge engineering. Nevertheless it’s all about understanding what information you want with the intention to inform story.

Information Visualization

The second element of knowledge storytelling is information visualization. So information visualization is all about understanding easy methods to visualize the info that you’ve got at hand based mostly on the insights that you just need to talk.

It is also about selecting the visuals that enable you to talk the narrative that you just need to your stakeholders higher. So this implies you probably have a specific information sort, whether or not it is numeric or text-based, it means selecting the visuals or in any other case the charts, the graphs, or tables that may enable you to to speak these insights to your stakeholders higher.

The Narrative

The third element is the narrative. So the narrative is all about how do you convey insights to your viewers. What’s most essential right here is that you just learn to talk wins, easy methods to evoke feelings in your stakeholders, easy methods to possibly create some urgency with the tales that you’re saying, and in addition easy methods to talk the relationships between the tasks that you just’re engaged on and the outcomes that you’re seeing throughout the information.

What can also be crucial right here is to indicate the trigger and influence relationship between the info factors, the tasks that you just’re engaged on, and what the outcomes of those are.

Relationships

The fourth element, the large circle right here that usually folks do not actually think about in information storytelling is definitely the relationships.

So once we discuss relationships, it is all concerning the relationships that you’ve got together with your stakeholders. That is one thing that usually you will have to work on as you might be working together with your stakeholders. However what’s most essential right here is to grasp your stakeholders. Who’re they?

What are their hidden motivations? Who’re they reporting in to? Or what’s crucial consequence for them for this explicit challenge? It is also crucial so that you can know earlier than you create a report or any form of information story what success seems like for that specific particular person and how one can finest bridge the hole between the present efficiency and their splendid efficiency by way of the story that you just inform.

So now that we now have all of those totally different expertise that you must know, we are able to see the three essential parts of a profitable information story, and that’s initially the info. We all know that the info needs to be correct. It needs to be dependable. So what’s most essential, if you end up your information, is to grasp particularly whether or not there’s any sampling utilized, whether or not this can be a dependable information supply, whether or not the info is full.

So these are the type of questions that you have to be asking your self each time you might be analyzing the info that you just need to current to your consumer. The second crucial element and what we now have discovered is that you must have a really compelling narrative. So the narrative is a mix between your skill to bridge the gaps between the info and the tasks that you just’re engaged on.

Nevertheless it’s additionally a mix between who you might be reporting in to. So relying on who your viewers is, your narrative is probably going going to alter though you might be reporting the identical information. The third element is definitely the visuals that you’re going to use. Each time you might be selecting visuals, at all times take into consideration whether or not that is probably the most acceptable strategy to current the knowledge that you must that specific viewers, as a result of though generally you would possibly want to current to the viewers in a sure manner, like as an example, as an illustration, a dashboard, that may not be the best vessel for this information and for this narrative for the actual particular person.

Each time you might be selecting your visuals, it is crucial not solely to consider the platform the place you might be storing your experiences and the way you might be constructing them, however it’s additionally essential to consider whether or not you might be selecting probably the most acceptable graphs and charts with the intention to assist the viewers perceive shortly what the specified actions after the report needs to be.

So each time you might be serious about your information, your narrative, and your visuals, click on on the hyperlink throughout the weblog submit as a result of there can be a guidelines there that will help you by way of totally different questions on easy methods to finest arrange these three components once you’re constructing your information story. With all of that, we now have coated a lesson for information storytelling parts and expertise that you must succeed.

Additional assets:

Youtube Video: Telling Tales with Information – What’s Information Storytelling and Find out how to Implement as a Guide