One of the most important aspects of working with data, but least appreciated, is how you communicate what the data tells you. If you communicate your insights poorly or mislead the audience it can be worse than not using data at all.
There are no obvious conclusions to draw from the raw data, You will need to do our work as data experts to explore the data and tell the stories it is hiding. What stories will we tell about this data? Specifically we will cover:
- Stories that Inform
- Actionable Insights
Those who work with data are typically skilled in analysis and interpretation, yet many analytically-minded individuals struggle with the act of sharing their findings with others in a way that is not only informative but engaging. The need for high-level presentation skills, however, is critical in the modern workplace; 70 percent of employees report that advancement in their field is contingent on these abilities, and data analysts are no exception.
“One of the key skill sets that you have to learn as you study data analytics is the distillation and presentation of the data,” Goulding says. “It’s one of the most important skills because if you can’t [communicate data effectively], then the data you’ve analyzed isn’t useful to anybody.”
Analysts mold data to make it more easily digestible to larger audiences through a practice called data visualization. Most often, this practice focuses on the development of graphs and other artistic elements to represent findings and visually highlight trends, outliers, or other conclusions, in an effort to translate statistics and fact-based information into a compelling story.
