Data Storytelling: The Way to Stakeholders’ Hearts (Part 2)
Motivating stakeholders to act on your recommendations
No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story — Daniel Kahneman
Why this article?
In this article, you’ll learn about the reasons you should choose to tell data stories and when you should use data stories.
In our last article, we briefly discussed the components of data stories. It’s not enough to know what a data story is. To choose a data story as the right data deliverable, you need to understand why.
Why Data Storytelling?
To engage Stakeholders
Let’s try a little task, shall we? Call anyone around you. Tell him or her to sit down. Now, show him or her one or two charts and explain what is in that chart using figures. Don’t use an analogy. Don’t use a story. Just use charts while calling out the figures. After doing this, close your laptop and ask if he or she remembers what you just said.
That person will most likely not remember anything. Why? Because you got the person lost with all the figures you were throwing at him or her.
Now, go back to this person and show this same chart(s) but this time, use a story or analogy to drive home your point. Close your laptop and ask him or her if he remembers what you said.
He or she will most likely remember and even say it using the story or analogy you made. That’s because you left behind the technical things and used a simple analogy or story to explain your point. This is what stories do to your stakeholders.
A captivating story keeps them on their toes and fixes all their attention to you especially if you make your story seem like you’re chasing after a quest. Who wouldn’t want to follow you to know the outcome?
It gives you direction
Yes, you. Not them. Many analysts make the mistake of chasing after different unrelated questions with different charts on a dashboard. Good stories are coherent. Storytelling is just like a quest. Let’s go back to the memorable movies you’ve watched or fictional books you’ve read, do they have several endings or one ending?
One big ending is your answer, right? That’s what your data story should do too. But in this case, it should have one big insight.
Let’s use an example. You explore customer service data and find out that: Response time is higher than usual, Resolution time is higher than usual, A particular complaint category is always higher than the other complaint categories, and the satisfaction rate is unusually low. These are different insights and as an analyst, you might be tempted to talk about all these in one data story because of your excitement to share your findings.
Pause.
You’re wrong if you try to do that. Sharing all these insights in one data story will only end up confusing and overwhelming your stakeholders. And what will you get at the end? “Oh boy! You just wasted our time.” Yes, that kind of statement.
What you should do is prioritize those insights by evaluating their impact on the business. Choose the one that has the highest impact and can be solved in a short period of time. Then share your data story where you’re on a quest to solve that problem(the insight).
Got it?
Great! Let’s move to the next.
To incite change
As I stated before, stories create change in the readers or listeners. If you want your stakeholders to make a big change in the company based on the findings from your data, you need data stories. Let me tell you what good data stories do to them.
Starting the data story on an emotional note stirs up their emotions while making them aware of your proposed change. Peeling parts of the data story bit by bit in a captivating tone keeps their attention on you the whole time while informing them of why you are proposing the change. When you are done with the data story and have given them recommendations with a clear roadmap, they get convinced on why they should act on what you’ve said.
You might be thinking that dashboards are now irrelevant. Yes! Time to dump the idea of making dashboards in PowerBI or Tableau and follow my dreams of telling data stories. Dashboards are dead, yay!
Wrong.
You still need dashboards or reports just as you need stories. The real question is, when should you know when to tell data stories and when to design dashboards?
When Should You Tell Data Stories?
You need a data story when:
- You want stakeholders to make a disruptive change in the company.
- You have one actionable insight to show stakeholders.
- Your stakeholders will need a lot of convincing before they act on your recommendations.
- Your insight is complex and can’t easily be understood.
- Your recommendations will need expensive funding.
- Your insight doesn’t align with the status quo in the company.
You don’t need a data story when:
- You only need to track business metrics.
- Your stakeholders will easily agree to your recommendations.
- Your insights are already in line with the normal affairs of the company.
- The change you desire won’t make a disruptive turn in the company.
Wow! We’ve come a long way already. You’re now familiar with the What, Why, and When of data storytelling. The last thing we’ll get to know about is the How.
That will be the last part of this series and it will be loaded. So prepare your coffee because you’ll need a lot of sipping to digest all that you’ll read. Coffee ready? Let’s read the next one.
