Don't simply show your data—tell a story with it! Storytelling with Data teaches you the fundamentals of data visualization and how to communicate effectively with data. You'll discover the power of storytelling and the way to make data a pivotal point in your story. The lessons in this illuminative text are grounded in theory, but made accessible through numerous real-world examples—ready for immediate application to your next graph or presentation. Storytelling is not an inherent skill, especially when it comes to data visualization, and the tools at our disposal don't make it any easier. This book demonstrates how to go beyond conventional tools to reach the root of your data, and how to use your data to create an engaging, informative, compelling story. Specifically, you'll learn how to: Understand the importance of context and audience Determine the appropriate type of graph for your situation Recognize and eliminate the clutter clouding your information Direct your audience's attention to the most important parts of your data Think like a designer and utilize concepts of design in data visualization Leverage the power of storytelling to help your message resonate with your audience Together, the lessons in this book will help you turn your data into high impact visual stories that stick with your audience. Rid your world of ineffective graphs, one exploding 3D pie chart at a time. There is a story in your data—Storytelling with Data will give you the skills and power to tell it!

Influence action through data! This is not a book. It is a one-of-a-kind immersive learning experience through which you can become—or teach others to be—a powerful data storyteller. Let’s practice! helps you build confidence and credibility to create graphs and visualizations that make sense and weave them into action-inspiring stories. Expanding upon best seller storytelling with data’s foundational lessons, Let’s practice! delivers fresh content, a plethora of new examples, and over 100 hands-on exercises. Author and data storytelling maven Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic guides you along the path to hone core skills and become a well-practiced data communicator. Each chapter includes: ● Practice with Cole: exercises based on real-world examples first posed for you to consider and solve, followed by detailed step-by-step illustration and explanation ● Practice on your own: thought-provoking questions and even more exercises to be assigned or worked through individually, without prescribed solutions ● Practice at work: practical guidance and hands-on exercises for applying storytelling with data lessons on the job, including instruction on when and how to solicit useful feedback and refine for greater impact The lessons and exercises found within this comprehensive guide will empower you to master—or develop in others—data storytelling skills and transition your work from acceptable to exceptional. By investing in these skills for ourselves and our teams, we can all tell inspiring and influential data stories!

Master the art and science of data storytelling—with frameworks and techniques to help you craft compelling stories with data. The ability to effectively communicate with data is no longer a luxury in today’s economy; it is a necessity. Transforming data into visual communication is only one part of the picture. It is equally important to engage your audience with a narrative—to tell a story with the numbers. Effective Data Storytelling will teach you the essential skills necessary to communicate your insights through persuasive and memorable data stories. Narratives are more powerful than raw statistics, more enduring than pretty charts. When done correctly, data stories can influence decisions and drive change. Most other books focus only on data visualization while neglecting the powerful narrative and psychological aspects of telling stories with data. Author Brent Dykes shows you how to take the three central elements of data storytelling—data, narrative, and visuals—and combine them for maximum effectiveness. Taking a comprehensive look at all the elements of data storytelling, this unique book will enable you to: Transform your insights and data visualizations into appealing, impactful data stories Learn the fundamental elements of a data story and key audience drivers Understand the differences between how the brain processes facts and narrative Structure your findings as a data narrative, using a four-step storyboarding process Incorporate the seven essential principles of better visual storytelling into your work Avoid common data storytelling mistakes by learning from historical and modern examples Effective Data Storytelling: How to Drive Change with Data, Narrative and Visuals is a must-have resource for anyone who communicates regularly with data, including business professionals, analysts, marketers, salespeople, financial managers, and educators.

The Data Whisperer's practical guide to explaining and understanding the strategic value of data management. The need for data management is everywhere across your company. The value of every digitally transformative customer-facing initiative, every data science and analytics-based project, every as-a-service offering, every foray into e-commerce, and every enterprise software implementation is inextricably linked to the successful output of data management efforts. Although it is a simple function of garbage in garbage out, that slogan rarely drives any sustainable executive action. We need to tell a better data story. Data Storytelling is probably the hottest non-technical trend in the technology-related space. But it does not directly support data management because it is focused on analytics or telling stories with data. So, it is time to expand the realm of Data Storytelling to recognize the role of data management by telling stories about data. Learn how to secure stakeholder involvement and executive commitment to fund and support data management as a systematic, consistent, fundamental part of your business. This book is for: Data management leaders trying to explain your value to C-Level and business stakeholders. As a practitioner, you may already know how to fix your data, but your business leaders ignore your advice. When you explain data management to the business, they may nod "yes" on the outside, but they nod off on the inside. Business stakeholders trying to comprehend why data management is important. Many business people may be frightened, threatened, intimidated, or at the very least confused and bewildered by the techno-babble often associated with data-related conversations. If you want to know more about why data management needs to be a strategic imperative in your organization, you'll learn it here in simple terms. Data scientists looking to understand better how you connect to "The Business." A recurring struggle I hear from data scientists is the need to get "closer to business." If you are a data scientist, then you need to understand your company's data story. The more you can align your work to the core value your company delivers, the more successful you will be. This book will help you discover the essence of why data brings value to your business. Anyone interested in understanding the business value of data management. I offer simple explanations about why data management is essential for your organization. Without going deep into technical concepts and processes, I focus on the business-related outputs. I share ways you can think about what foundational data does. Its importance is vital for the future of your enterprise. Since this is a book about telling data stories, I share it through stories divided into five sections: My data story. Why I know what I know and why you should listen to me. Everyone's data story. A collection of classic, foundational data situations relevant to all enterprises. Framing your data story. A set of simple frameworks about data value. Selling your data story. Tips on creating a compelling narrative. Building your data story. Why you must align with the strategic intentions of your enterprise.

This book presents an accessible introduction to data-driven storytelling. Resulting from unique discussions between data visualization researchers and data journalists, it offers an integrated definition of the topic, presents vivid examples and patterns for data storytelling, and calls out key challenges and new opportunities for researchers and practitioners.

From tracking down information to symbolising human experiences, this book is your guide to telling more effective, empathetic and evidence-based data stories. Drawing on cross-disciplinary research and first-hand accounts of projects ranging from public health to housing justice, The Data Storytelling Workbook introduces key concepts, challenges and problem-solving strategies in the emerging field of data storytelling. Filled with practical exercises and activities, the workbook offers interactive training materials that can be used for teaching and professional development. By approaching both ‘data’ and ‘storytelling’ in a broad sense, the book combines theory and practice around real-world data storytelling scenarios, offering critical reflection alongside practical and creative solutions to challenges in the data storytelling process, from tracking down hard to find information, to the ethics of visualising difficult subjects like death and human rights.

Tell Insightful, Actionable Business Stories with Tableau, the World’s Leading Data Visualization Tool! Visual Data Storytelling with Tableau brings together knowledge, context, and hands-on skills for telling powerful, actionable data stories with Tableau. This full-color guide shows how to organize data and structure analysis with storytelling in mind, embrace exploration and visual discovery, and articulate findings with rich data, carefully curated visualizations, and skillfully crafted narrative. You don’t need any visualization experience. Each chapter illuminates key aspects of design practice and data visualization, and guides you step-by-step through applying them in Tableau. Through realistic examples and classroom-tested exercises, Professor Lindy Ryan helps you use Tableau to analyze data, visualize it, and help people connect more intuitively and emotionally with it. Whether you’re an analyst, executive, student, instructor, or journalist, you won’t just master the tools: you’ll learn to craft data stories that make an immediate impact--and inspire action. Learn how to: • Craft more powerful stories by blending data science, genre, and visual design • Ask the right questions upfront to plan data collection and analysis • Build storyboards and choose charts based on your message and audience • Direct audience attention to the points that matter most • Showcase your data stories in high-impact presentations • Integrate Tableau storytelling throughout your business communication • Explore case studies that show what to do--and what not to do • Discover visualization best practices, tricks, and hacks you can use with any tool • Includes coverage up through Tableau 10