Convince with Data, Inspire with Stories

In companies—and especially in project management—we often find ourselves in a conflict: we need to make business decisions based on insights from data analysis. For the analysis itself, we dive deep into the details of our Data Lakes 4.0. But when we surface and try to present our findings to management as a decision paper, we fail precisely because of those details. Why? Because our audience’s brains shut down when faced with too many dry facts. Data storytelling solves this problem. Our brains respond better to stories than to a list of pure numbers. In data storytelling, data is presented alongside an easy-to-understand visualization and an engaging narrative. The usual information overload is reduced to essential and relevant key messages. This makes the content more understandable and forms a solid foundation for business decisions.

Enriched with scientific facts about how our brains work and “veteran stories” from project management, this book shows ways to combat “Death by PowerPoint” and free the world from poor presentations.

The Contents

• What is Data Storytelling?
• Projects, Communication, and Presentations
• States of Data Storytelling: Audience, Aha Moment, Storyboard, Narrative Arc
• Visualization: Pre-attentive Attributes, Gestalt Principles, Slide Design, Data and Presentation Visualization