I’ve got Gantt charts and dashboards a’ plenty
I’ve got pivot tables and pie charts galore
CRM exports? I’ve got twenty (gazillion)
But who cares, no big deal, I wannntttt mooorrreeee (thank you business Ariel, I’ll take it from here). Side note: my daughter and I just watched the new Little Mermaid movie and I often have a hard time decoupling work life and home life

Prefaces Data with a Nice Tidy TL;DL Version

I know there are seemingly infinite data tools; I depend on so many of them. This isn’t a commentary on products or processes. I’m instead reflecting on all those business analysts and data-driven critical thinkers who know how to figure out what the punchline is – tailored to the audience receiving it. I’m fortunate to work with many such people (really good dot connectors). One of the most helpful things I get is when somebody prefaces data with a nice tidy TL;DL version that summarizes the what, why, and what to care about in a few short sentences. Pulling data is one thing; summarizing/visualizing it is another thing; telling the reader what the headline is/why it matters/what to do about it – in simple language – now that is the jackpot.

Example

Here’s the info you were asking about. When you’re ready to dive in, all the supporting data is attached. You’ll find page 3 the most helpful. “TL;DR version – The drivers of the issue appear to be A, B, and C. Don’t worry about D – it looks concerning, but it’s actually immaterial. Issue A is out of our direct control, so let’s focus on B and C which we can influence. If you’d like to impact B, consider focusing the team on thing, thing, thing. If you want to impact driver C, you’ll need a tech or labor solution that does blah.”

Let your curiosity take you to a reasonable conclusion

From here you can have a healthy debate on interpretation from different functional areas, go several clicks deeper into the data to vet/debunk, seek dissenting voices to broaden your perspective, and then – hopefully, do something different in the way you operate that addresses the pain points revealed in the data analysis – the whole point of why we all care so much about data in the first place.

Data story-telling skills aren’t just for STEM grads; it’s for arts and humanities people too

Poets, Pivots & Prose (becoming pros)….. Data storytelling is not just for people with a STEM background. Some really great data storytellers I know came from an arts and humanity background. I assume it’s because they too had a knack for critical thinking, concept articulation, crafting persuasion, and narrative framing. Plus, by its very nature, data storytelling literally requires art (it’s one of those arts & science disciplines).

Poets, pivot tables, and prose can all come 🎯 together professionally.

Making sense of complex and difficult topics is a really powerful skill in the workplace. From investment cases and business optimization memos, to M&A due diligence and operational decision making – all these strategies are shaped by effective data storytelling. So are tons of micro moments within the day-to-day of most functional areas. It’s the skill to craft the narrative by leveraging data, which is then contextualized, and presented to an audience. It utilizes not only data analysis, but also visualization, contextual analysis, and presentation.

There’s many programs available to teach these valuable skills. I’m super biased so I’ll just point you General Assembly naturally. {or talk to me about your poetry, I’m interested in that too}