AUTHOR: Lolly
find the story. ditch the data.
No one wants to look at your bar chart, mate. Seriously, I’d rather lay my eyeballs on some spikes than on another fucking graph. Jesus wept.
tips for storytelling with data
Or, hopefully, not.
Data is dull. There, I said it. Just like the people who throw walls of numbers into a presentation and pat themselves on the back for a job well done.
Oh, and you can add another label to them: lazy.
It’s your job, as a storyteller, to find the story behind the data and present that. If you’re just waving numbers at the crowd, you’re asking them to do too much work. They just won’t bother.
how to turn data into a compelling story
You need to look through those numbers like you're in the Matrix and see the challenges and the people behind them. For example, your darling data might show a dip in sales. Not useful. Your audience needs to know why.
Take your audience on a journey of discovery. Show them how the numbers reflect a larger trend, a decision that paid off, or an insight into a customer’s needs. The emotional hook lies in the reasons behind the numbers.
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find the 'why' behind the numbers
Maybe your data shows that more customers are abandoning their shopping carts, but why? What’s going wrong in their experience? Can you point to a solution, a change, or a new opportunity? That’s the real story.
More importantly than the why, your audience needs to know what the fuck you expect them to do about it. You can use data to back these actions up too. Link from the why to the action, then give them a predicted benefit, based in fact, from your numbers.
"If we continue to trend in this way, we could reach the damn moon."
emotional storytelling beats data in decision making
Humans like to think they make decisions based on facts. But humans are idiots. We make decisions based on emotions, then we tell ourselves we’ve made the right decision by backing it up with any evidence — no matter how valid.
Tell the emotional side of your story, and then throw in a powerful stat to back it up. Easy.
For example, you want to show how successful your product launch was. Instead of listing sales figures and customer demographics, focus on a customer’s journey—how they first heard about the product, what challenges they faced, and how your product solved a real problem—told through the eyes of the customer.
Then, at the end, show how the number of real stories that one can be multiplied by.
You think that was good? Imagine this happiness, multiplied by 2,546. Fuck yeah.
ditch the data to connect to humans
It is barely ever necessary to present a chart. If you remember nothing else, please for the love of all things good and holy, remember that.
Data doesn’t need to be the hero of your presentation; the story does. Present with emotion, clarity, and purpose, and back it up with stats only when absolutely necessary.
video
Reading is tough. Rest your weary eyes on this moving picture instead.