Not everyone is made for numbers. Worse still, when it comes from a deluge of raw data. But the inevitable trend is that businesses will increasingly rely on this source of information to formulate strategies and drive growth.
Forbes reported that "data-driven companies are 23 times more likely to top their competitors in customer acquisition, about 19 times more likely to stay profitable and nearly seven times more likely to retain customers".
With plenty of empirical evidence to support this methodology, it becomes necessary for many more professionals to rely on spreadsheets to manage the often-copious information coming from data. While capturing this intelligence for data analysis is a powerful tool, the raw numbers and statistics themselves often fail to capture the bigger picture. This is where the art of data storytelling comes in, translating bewildering numbers into sensible narratives.
Making Sense of Facts and Figures
Data storytelling is the process of transforming dry data points into compelling narratives. Combining visualisations and narrative techniques, professionals well-versed in the skill can convey the insights, patterns, and trends discovered in their research into a digestible presentation.
Data storytelling fulfils four purposes:
Engagement: A well-crafted story captures the audience's attention and keeps them engaged. A study by Gartner predicts that by 2025, data stories will become the most widespread way of consuming analytics.
Clarity: It simplifies complex data and makes it accessible to a broader audience or to a target group, putting everyone on the same page.
Persuasion: By framing data within a narrative, it is more relatable and thus more persuasive and compelling, helping to drive decision-making and rally stakeholders.
Retention: Stories are far easier to remember than raw data, so the key points will stick and last a lot longer with the audience.
Thus, in today's data-driven world, the ability to translate numbers into meaningful stories is an increasingly prized and critical skill.
Tools to Transform Spreadsheets Into Visual Stories
The good news is, spreadsheets already offer a variety of built-in visualisation tools, including charts, graphs, and heatmaps. Each of these has its own strengths and can be harnessed to illustrate the story you want to tell. Bar charts, for instance, are ideal for comparisons between categories, and are one of the easiest to use and understand. Line graphs are perfect for showcasing trends over time, helping to plot the course of anything from website traffic to sales figures, highlighting any growth or decline over time. Pie charts are also popular and are best suited for visualising the composition as a whole. These can be breakdowns for budgets or detailing segments in a market.
For example, an e-commerce company owner needs to swiftly understand their customer base better. A spreadsheet filled with customer data like age, location, and purchase history can be dense and difficult to interpret. However, effective data storytelling can concisely bring the owner the valuable insights he needs to make good decisions.
A pie chart can quickly reveal the age and locations of their customer base, highlighting which groups are most engaged with the brand. This information can then guide marketing efforts. Bar charts can display sales performance across various brands, helping with decisions on inventory and procurement. And finally, a line graph detailing the visitor and sales trends through the year can inspire strategies to boost lull periods or capitalise on peak ones.
Augmenting Data Storytelling With AI Tools
The rapid technological advancements in the last decade have integrated artificial intelligence (AI) into the playbook for data analysis. Those with good fundamentals in business analytics and AI will be well-placed to benefit and improve their data storytelling with increasingly powerful tools.
One can expect:
Fast and accurate data processing: Render results effectively from raw data using task automation with macros, VBA, and AI. They tackle repetitive tasks like formatting and chart creation and reduce human error, as well as free you to focus on the narrative. Some, such as VBA, even allows you to create dynamic visualisations that update in real time with your data.
Rich contextual databases: Power Pivot - an Excel add-in - lets you build a rich data landscape by merging your gathered databases. Think sales figures combined with customer surveys for a vivid backdrop for your stories.
Efficient data use and trendspotting: Data Analysis Expressions, or simply DAX, unlocks deeper insights that one might otherwise miss, and helps with.
Brainstorming: Still overwhelmed? Take ChatGPT for a spin and let it help you design a narrative. Feed your data and story theme into the system and receive suggestions on anything, from narrative elements to catchy headlines.
The significance of these tools is not lost on Gartner. The global consulting firm projects that 75% of data stories will be produced by augmented analytics techniques automatically by 2025. As technology and the analytics field matures, one can expect to produce improved advanced data analytics that will keep organisations a step ahead of lagging competitors.
Begin Your Data Storytelling Journey
Eager to weave data into compelling narratives? While intimidating at first, transforming overwhelming information into clear, actionable insights becomes manageable when one looks at it as five steps.
Collect and analyse data: Gather your relevant data from reliable sources. Clean and organise the data to ensure it is accurate and up to date. Then, process the data using spreadsheet analytics to identify meaningful patterns and trends, allowing it to shape itself into an emerging narrative. Remember: Less is more when it comes to stories.
Craft the narrative: Having identified the narrative, focus on the key supporting insights and structure an arc with a clear beginning, middle, and end. At this point, it is good to define your purpose, audience and goals to further distil the findings. Depending on your wish to inform, persuade or entertain, you can then insert the relevant data to guide the story. A tip: Anecdotes, quotes, or case studies help to make the data even more relatable.
Choose the appropriate visualisations: Having arrived at your insights, use the best tools to illustrate them. Always remember to keep them impactful by adhering to some simple design principles. Keep visuals clear and easy to interpret, use consistent styles, and only add elements that support the message. Ensure that your narrative is constantly represented vividly with compelling data to guide the audience through your story.
Present your story: Choose the appropriate format for presenting your story, whether this be a report printout, live presentation, or published article. Practice your delivery and tighten it for clarity. Whenever possible, encourage audience interaction and questions to enhance understanding and retention.
A Powerful Skill to Add to Your Business Toolbelt
Spreadsheets are more than just data storage tools. A proficient data storyteller harnesses the full potential of raw data, combining their communication acumen and most advanced visualisation features to engage and compel audiences. When used effectively to convey a message, spreadsheets have the profound ability to bolster understanding and align stakeholders.
Embrace the power of data storytelling. Start exploring the tools and techniques with SMU Academy’s programmes today and make your data come alive!
