In March 2016, The Telegraph ran a feature on the future of Africa, titled “What Africa will look like in 100 years", this deeply-researched piece extensively covered various aspects of life of present day Africa and subsequent predictions based on that data. From Africa's economic growth, to the Ebola virus, to the housing landscape, everything was grounded in data. As you can probably guess without even clicking on the link, it must have involved a lot of data, but the article doesn’t feel exhausting, because the data told a clear story. That is data-driven storytelling.
When you hear "data," you probably think about PowerPoint decks, charts, graphs, spreadsheets, databases and lots and lots of numbers. Way too many numbers, stacked on top of one another like bricks to a wall — a huge, impermeable, insurmountable wall. And when you’re presenting to an audience, you probably don’t want to hand them a giant wall. You’ll want them to be connected to your ideas and important messages.
Think of data-driven storytelling as the bridge we can use instead, to connect the dots between human emotion and hard data.
What is data-driven storytelling?
Stories are as old as time, and conceptually, data is rather new, but super important. Without data, it’s hard to ground ourselves in reality, particularly without access to insights and/or facts. However, as important as data is, on its own it feels impersonal, distant, and non-engaging on its own. Just numbers, or images, pieces of information in lots of different formats, existing in a lump. Data certainly informs strategy, execution, and innovation; but can it inform storytelling? Can data make use of classic storytelling techniques to make a lasting impression?
Data-driven storytelling takes up this challenge and marries data to narrative, making it engaging, more consumable, and memorable. You’re no longer doing statistical analysis, you’re telling a story with your findings. Each piece of data is capable of changing perception and deciding the flow of the narrative, and once we realize that, storytelling with data seems like the most sensible thing to do. A good story can only get better if we have strong evidence to prove it.
Data storytelling is the bridge between information and interest.
Why do we need data-driven storytelling?
- More engagement: Stories connect with us in a way that pure facts and data simply can’t. In fact, the connection is so deep that stories tend to linger on in our memory for longer than other kinds of information. Research shows that 63% of Stanford students remembered a presentation when it was presented as a story, compared to only 5% when the information was presented in a simple slideshow instead.
- Speak a language everyone understands: Data, regardless of the format, typically has a technical barrier. Those who get it, get it, and those who don’t may find it intimidating, boring, or worse, a waste of time. And we can’t exactly blame them! Data has to be made more accessible for everyone to understand its deeper implications. For this purpose, it makes sense to break data down into engaging media (infographics, audio-visuals, etc.) so that everybody can get on the same page.
- Beyond analysis: An important thing to remember is that data-driven storytelling is not a substitute for data analytics. Rather, data storytelling builds on statistical and data analysis. Once you have the data, the next step is to identify any causation, interrelationship, or opposition within the data subsets. After you draw these relations between different pieces of information, you and your team can then begin arranging them in a sequence and format, which helps the audience. The data then becomes an instrument to present our analysis with more of a human touch, sense of empathy, and ease for the viewer. This is the intersection of art and technology.
- Encourages creativity and innovation: Doing research inherently requires a certain element of thinking outside the box. Discovering the subject requiring research, how you conduct your research, and the actual data sets are all wide-open to possibilities. On top of that, how you interpret and present that data is subjective too – just ask anyone in marketing! Businesses that want to create new benchmarks and models have to be original, and data storytelling gives you the opportunity to be as original as you can while allowing for commitment to creativity.
- Adds context and meaning: To fully grasp and act on the insights you’ve worked so hard for, we have to understand the entirety of the context. Looking at numbers disconnected from each other will simply paint only half the picture. If we want to inspire action and change from your datasets, you have to connect the dots leading up to the call of action. Data storytelling leaves the audience with a clear picture of what the data truly means and what action it calls of them.
Okay, hopefully now that you know why you need to get into data-driven storytelling, you’ll also want to know how to do it. To make that process easier for you, PowerToFly has designed a course especially focusing on data storytelling.
Get started with the best course for data storytelling
If you are a business that has the data and the desire to show it off like never before, you are looking at data-driven storytelling to drive you. While all storytelling requires some key elements, there is more nuance to it when we add data to the recipe, and even more when you add in your specific industry and stakeholders/audience.
Good news – you don’t have to figure the formula out all on your own! In our data storytelling course, we give you the secret. PowerUp is committed to helping your business get the most out of your data, and our community of experts means ambitious career grow-ers trust us as their one-stop for all things upskilling.
Cristina Duke, our Director of Account Management, created this course with her extensive experience in psychology and human resources. Learn from her expertise and knowledge on how to craft and package data for maximum impact in PowerToFly’s Course for Data Storytelling. You’ll get actionable tips on how to go about data storytelling with exclusive frameworks, tools for your next presentations, and communication strategies.
Check out the trailer below and we’ll see you there!Ready to unlock new skills? Access "Data Storytelling" and more on-demand courses on PowerUp, your upskilling platform for learning essential workplace skills.
