Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic focuses on helping organizations and individuals become more effective data storytellers through her blog, Storytelling with Data, and her Amazon best-selling book, Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals. We spoke with Cole about getting people’s attention in a multitasking world, context vs. content of presentations, whether or not PowerPoint is still a viable presentation tool, and more.
Key Learnings:
1. Having a data-driven culture allows you to make better decisions for any aspect of the company, so it should built into every level–including unlikely sectors like HR.
2. Taking data and turning it from an overwhelming spreadsheet into accessible information helps people get to those “aha” moments faster, which helps them act on that data faster.
3. Before spending time creating content or visualizing data, you need to have a clear picture of the intended audience; it’s easy to build a presentation or a graph without pausing and thinking about the person on the receiving end.
4. When it comes to sharing data findings with executives, analysts need to focus on what’s going to add value and how to take action based on the information.
5. As a presenter, keeping the audience’s attention is totally up to you. It’s a combination of delivery, content and structure.
6. Audiences will pay more attention when they can tell that there was time put into the design process, which means you’ve increased your chances of successfully getting your message across.
7. You can talk about what makes the data interesting, but always make sure to end on the action you’re going to apply in light of that data.
8. No presentation tool is inherently good or evil. Rather, any tool can be used well and any tool can be used poorly. You can use PowerPoint; just don’t use the default settings.
9. Delivery of the presentation is key. An excellent presenter can overcome mediocre content, but it doesn’t work the other way around.
10. Anything that gets you up in front of others will help you become more comfortable with presenting over time, but really knowing your content is the biggest part.
ML: Thanks for talking with us today, Cole. To start things off, do you think you could share a little bit about what motivated you to write your book, Storytelling with Data?
CN: So, my career has always been in analytics. I started off working in banking and credit risk management and went from there to Google. I’ve always worked in very data-driven groups that used data to change behaviors and drive decision-making for the business. I was personally always drawn to data visualization because being able to take data and make it visual is one way to help make it accessible to a wide audience. At Google, I had the opportunity to build out coursework on data visualization. After we started rolling out the course, word really started spreading about it, and other organizations reached out to me to teach their teams how to communicate effectively with data. Eventually, we realized that there was quite a demand out there for this type of education. I left Google back in 2013, and since then, I’ve been spending my time primarily teaching workshops where I’ll spend half a day or a day with an organization, talking about data communication fundamentals. The lessons are applicable across all industries and roles, and I want to get those lessons in the hands of more people. I want to make more teams effective at data communication.
ML: So, you started at Google on the People Analytics team. Google is probably the most well-known organization when it comes to building a data-driven culture and looking at all sides of the business from that standpoint. What do you feel other companies can learn from Google about building this type of data-driven culture?
CN: Data has always been in Google’s DNA. Larry and Sergey are very data-driven individuals and use data in ways that other companies don’t. Take HR, for example. You don’t typically think about HR as being very data-driven component of a company but it absolutely can be. It can collect all sorts of interesting information for you, like how employees act and how they’re feeling. You can tell a lot about a company by surveying the people who work there. Having a data-driven culture allows you to make better decisions for any aspect of the company, so it should built into every level–including unlikely sectors like HR.
ML: Many companies are hiring digital analysts right now. When these analysts are hired on, they are expected to showcase almost immediate results. How can they get people excited about data within the first 60-90 days when everyone is looking at their performance?
CN: You have to use data to tell stories that help people understand new concepts and see things differently. Taking data and turning it from an overwhelming spreadsheet into accessible information helps people get to those “aha” moments faster, which helps them act on that data faster. Data storytelling isn’t just a great way to inform us, but it also helps inform our actions so we can be strategic and get to early successes.
ML: Awesome. So, in Storytelling with Data, one of the first chapters talks about context. And I think it’s very important, because context often determines how we look at data and how we analyze it. So, do you have any tips on how context of the presentation should impact the content of the presentation?
CN: Absolutely. Before spending a lot of time creating content or visualizing data, we need to have a clear picture of the intended audience; it’s so easy to build a presentation or a graph without ever pausing and thinking about the person on the receiving end. What motivates that particular audience? What keeps them up at night? I structure all of my presentations through that lens, and I try to frame the content in a way that’s going to motivate them to act.
ML: During analysis presentations, company executives often want to know the history of the data from the past few months. How do you structure a presentation with that in mind? Any tips for how to specifically approach our executives?
CN: Great question. We tend to want to show the executive everything we’ve looked at as evidence of the analysis, to show that we put a lot of work and thought into it. There’s this desire to share everything. But, executives are crunched for time and are typically more interested in the actions we need to take based on the data, not how we got to the insight from the data. Analysts need to step back and think about how to tie it all together in a succinct message. They really need to focus on what’s going to add value and how to take action based on the information.
ML: In this era where everyone is busy and trying to multitask, how can we focus on grabbing people’s attention (whether executives or other stakeholders) when we only have maybe 15-30 minutes to present our findings?
CN: Yes; we have a lot of things competing for our attention. And as a presenter, keeping that attention is totally up to you. It’s a combination of delivery, content and structure. First, it’s crucial to set the audience’s expectations up front so they know what lens to have on as they’re consuming the content. Knowing your content very well is also critical, especially when transitioning between topics, and you should present it as if you’re telling a story. Stories have characters, challenges, etc., so think about how you can leverage all those elements in your presentation and use them to keep your audience’s attention. Instead of throwing a graph or a bunch of stats at them, build up your graph one piece at a time. That way, they won’t tune out from information overload. Build the story piece by piece, adding a little bit more, talking through context, and tell them what to pay attention to and why. Take your audience along a journey as you present the information.
ML: Moving back to your book, one of the main sections delves into how to think like a designer. A lot of analysts aren’t naturally gifted at design and tend to lean too heavily on the numbers instead of graphical elements. How can analysts shift to a more design-forward perspective?
CN: One of the struggles is that analysts tend to come from very quantitative backgrounds and haven’t been exposed to basic design principles. Some of it is about trusting your gut and your eye and learning as you go, but I feel some of it is about letting go of the need to show everything. It’s not worth it to make something pretty just for the sake of making it pretty, but a good design can help you achieve so much more than you would with a data downpour or a poorly-conceived graph. Product design studies have shown that people actually have more patience and are more willing to overlook flaws when the design is aesthetically pleasing. Audiences will pay more attention when they can tell that there was time put into the design process, which means you’ve increased your chances of successfully getting your message across. Don’t cram so much information on a page that it appears really cluttered; rather, be really conscious about what you’re visually presenting and weigh the pros and cons when it comes to how much information you need to make yourself clear.
ML: So, when you see a slide that could use improvement, what process do you use to make it more appealing for the audience?
CN: When I’m looking at a graph or a slide that is less than ideal, I start by taking a step back and thinking about what the main message is that we’re trying to get across with the given information. What is unnecessary clutter? What doesn’t have to be there? How can we use selective color and size or other visual cues to make it clear to the audience where we want them to look? Text should be used to directly spell out the action that should be taken and to annotate important context directly on the graph. Most importantly, the story has to describe why these insights are important or interesting and what the audience should do with them.
ML: In your book, you make a clear distinction between an interesting presentation and an actionable presentation. How do we take an interesting presentation and make it actionable?
CN: One of things that helps is asking for action or recommending a specific action. Sometimes, I find that analysts might do a fantastic analysis, but rather than taking it to the next step and recommending an action, they’ll stop to talk about what they found interesting about the data. When this happens, it’s easy for an audience to sit back and say, “Oh, you’re right, that is interesting!” and then move on to the next topic. But if you ask that audience to take specific action, they have to respond to that action, and even if they disagree, it starts a conversation that may never happen if you’re simply showing data. Start with the interesting piece, but always make sure to end on the action you’re going to apply in light of that data.
ML: Your book opens with a funny quote about PowerPoint. I’ve been to a number of presentations where the speaker claims to hate PowerPoint and thus refuses to use it, but their presentation could still benefit from a visual component. How do you strike that balance? Are there any other programs you’d recommend for visual storytelling?
CN: Great question. I think that no tool is inherently good or evil. Rather, any tool can be used well and any tool can be used poorly. In my book and on my blog, almost all the examples were done in Excel or in a combination of Excel and PowerPoint because that’s what the majority of my clients use, and I want to make sure that what I’m doing is something that everybody can do. It’s about picking a set of tools and getting to know them as best you can so they don’t become limiting factors when you apply them. I use PowerPoint as a shell. It’s simply the vehicle I use to put something on the big screen. The key is to start with a totally blank slide and build it up from there, which keeps me from falling victim to the teleprompter PowerPoint. The default settings make it very easy to create unlimited slides with one bullet point each, which doesn’t make for an effective presentation. As a device for aggregating information in one place for easy sharing, there’s nothing inherently bad about PowerPoint. I just don’t use the default settings.
ML: Are there any other tools that you like other than PowerPoint? What about Google tools or Prezi?
CN: Google products are awesome for collaborative work. I typically use Excel and PowerPoint because I don’t collaborate too much. As far as other tools, Tableau is an increasingly popular data visualization tool. I find it very useful for doing exploratory analysis and looking at data in a lot of different ways with multiple visuals. About a year ago, they introduced a story point feature that allows you to create a PowerPoint-type presentation. I haven’t been impressed with what I’ve seen from Prezi, but like I said, no tool is inherently good or bad. I think it would be interesting for a Q & A format. It would be cool to identify a list of FAQs before the presentation and then dive down into the notes section as part of the conversation. But you want to avoid diving in and zooming out, because it tends to be distracting and could give your audience motion sickness. So again, a lot of this relates back to what’s going to be the best audience experience.
ML: I can imagine that when you are sitting in the audience, you are probably a pretty tough crowd. In light of that, when you hear a presentation and you think, “Wow, this was well done,” what factors into that for you?
CN: For me, the delivery of the presentation is key. An excellent presenter can overcome mediocre content, but it doesn’t work the other way around. Your content could be fantastic, but if your presenter doesn’t know it very well or is rough in their transitions, the impact falls extremely short. So for me, the best presentations have everything to do with the person who’s delivering it. Are they excited about it? Do they know their topic well? Even if they’re showing a graph or a slide that’s poorly done, a good presenter can keep your attention with their voice and talk you through those visuals. When I present, I also sometimes embed personal stories into different components of the presentation as one way to relate to the audience. I am not a natural storyteller, and I don’t necessarily feel comfortable getting up in front of a crowd, but it’s all about practice. I’ll lock myself in my office and talk myself through the slide transitions before the presentation so I’m comfortable with the material before I’m in front of an audience. Delivery, preparedness and audience connection can go a long way.
ML: I personally don’t deliver a new presentation unless I’ve practiced it at least three times, and one of those times has to be in front of a camera. Do you have any rules of thumb for how long to practice before you present?
CN: It varies from presentation to presentation. In some cases, I’ll be okay with two run-throughs; in other cases, it might take many more than that. Sometimes when I practice, I’ll find myself going into way too much detail on a story, so I’ll rehearse it to myself many times to try to get the wording and transitions right. Then, by the time I’m delivering it in front of an audience, it feels really natural. However, some people are just natural storytellers. My husband is one of these who can just stand up in front of an audience and be warm and funny and have people relate to him without practice. Personally, I could never do that; I can be really self-aware. You mentioned recording yourself, which is not something I do every time, but I absolutely recommend it for anybody who’s presenting in front of others. When you watch the recording, you’ll catch little things that can make your presentation so much stronger if you fix them. For example, the last time I recorded myself, I found that I was shifting from foot to foot, and it’s something that I never would have never known I was doing if I hadn’t watched that tape, and it was actually sort of distracting when I did watch it. So now, I make a point to move more intentionally when I’m onstage.
ML: Very interesting. Besides practice, do you have any tips for people who are afraid of public speaking?
CN: Practice really is the biggest thing, for me. I think having a topic that you’re passionate about makes it easier because if it’s something that you naturally want to share with others, that reduces some of the fear. To practice, I like to talk to myself in an open room or do a mock presentation to peers or colleagues. Toastmasters could help, too. Anything that gets you up in front of others will help you become more comfortable over time. But really knowing your content is the biggest part.
ML: When you speak at conferences or share your book with an audience, what are the most common questions that come up? What do you think are the current trending challenges in the industry?
CN: I get a lot of questions about how to convince your organization that you need to spend time on communicating the results of your analysis. And my answer is that you have to be able to showcase that it’s time well spent, and you have to provide evidence of the value as part of the analytical process.
Another common question is how to create a document that serves as both a live presentation document and as a shareable document for those who missed the presentation after the fact. You often end up with this slideshow/document hybrid, which is challenging because it doesn’t meet the need of either scenario. In an ideal world, they would be two separate work products; your slides would be the presentation because you can do the voiceover and make the connection. Then, the report that gets sent out later would be more text-heavy to make up for lack of context from the speaker. But practically, that doesn’t usually end up happening, and we end up with one document that’s insufficient for both uses. To overcome this, I would use strategic animation in your presentations to focus your audience on just one piece of information at a time so they don’t get overloaded. Then, in PowerPoint, leverage the presenter notes, so your slides stay sparse but your voiceover is in the notes. That way, the person who’s receiving the presentation after the fact receives all of that context.
ML: Do you think there will be many changes in the world of visualization and data presentation in the next few years?
CN: I hope that there will be an increasing understanding of how important storytelling is for data communication. All of the data doesn’t need to be shown; it just needs to be a pivotal point of the story. I do think we’re going to eventually be able to consistently share data in a way that makes sense and facilitates action.
