workingwithdata_ebook_april21_awc2op 4
For example, a 30% increase in conversion rates might sound good, but on itsown, it’s a useless number. Perhaps the number of purchases went downrapidly and only your most loyal customers kept ordering, or maybe you hada very successful marketing attribution project which increased yourconversion rate beyond the 15% you had hoped for. Both stories could comefrom the same number, but they provide very different insights depending onwho you’re telling them to.Storytelling is powerful. Even someone who has only worked in a physicalstore will recognize the effect of customers intrigued by a new display orgood demo, as well as the strength of word-of-mouth advertising, whetherthat is done through conversation or a social media share.So you can understand that this practice extends to all forms of showing andexplaining data. Whether you are presenting at a meeting, buildingdashboards or writing guides. Whatever the form information is presented in,it will always benefit from building a narrative to take the consumer on ajourney from data to business outcomes.51
TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTWhy should I do it?Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of education. Humans struggle toprocess too much complex information, but are great at remembering andretelling stories. And this is exactly what you want to do with your data. Youwant people to remember the important information, act on it and draw theright conclusions that will help them in their roles. The business critical choicespeople made need to be rooted in the data you provide them with. And this canonly happen if they remember and understand what they have been told.Beyond that, stories can be retold. New coworkers, other teams andcustomers can all be provided with this information by anyone who can retellthe story. And if that happens, it can actually relieve the data team fromrepetitive work, so they can focus on more exciting things like enhancing thedata or driving powerful data use cases.Lastly, providing data as a story means that data literacy is no longerexpected or required from every team. Teams which are affected by the data,but not directly involved in collecting or consuming it can still benefit from astrong narrative. This way they do not have to invest in additional resourcesto create understanding, but they can focus on their everyday work.52
- Page 1 and 2: TREATING DATAAS A PRODUCT
- Page 3 and 4: CHAPTER 1THE CHALLENGESOF WORKINGIN
- Page 5 and 6: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTBut it’
- Page 7 and 8: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCT‘I want
- Page 9 and 10: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTBased on
- Page 11 and 12: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTTool eval
- Page 13 and 14: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTOur custo
- Page 15 and 16: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTAccording
- Page 17 and 18: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTAnd while
- Page 19 and 20: CHAPTER 2A GUIDE TODATA TEAMSTRUCTU
- Page 21 and 22: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTData is n
- Page 23 and 24: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTTourlane
- Page 25 and 26: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTA balanci
- Page 27 and 28: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTPEBMED is
- Page 29 and 30: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTOmio (for
- Page 31 and 32: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTHow Snowp
- Page 33 and 34: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTAs compan
- Page 35 and 36: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTThis appr
- Page 37 and 38: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCT1 A dev n
- Page 39 and 40: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTPrior to
- Page 41 and 42: CHAPTER 4REDUCING DATADOWNTIME WITH
- Page 43 and 44: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTA real-li
- Page 45 and 46: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTThe spira
- Page 47 and 48: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTTo take o
- Page 49 and 50: CHAPTER 5HOW DATASTORYTELLING CANMA
- Page 51: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTWhat is d
- Page 55 and 56: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTAsk yours
- Page 57 and 58: TREATING DATA AS A PRODUCTWrap it u
For example, a 30% increase in conversion rates might sound good, but on its
own, it’s a useless number. Perhaps the number of purchases went down
rapidly and only your most loyal customers kept ordering, or maybe you had
a very successful marketing attribution project which increased your
conversion rate beyond the 15% you had hoped for. Both stories could come
from the same number, but they provide very different insights depending on
who you’re telling them to.
Storytelling is powerful. Even someone who has only worked in a physical
store will recognize the effect of customers intrigued by a new display or
good demo, as well as the strength of word-of-mouth advertising, whether
that is done through conversation or a social media share.
So you can understand that this practice extends to all forms of showing and
explaining data. Whether you are presenting at a meeting, building
dashboards or writing guides. Whatever the form information is presented in,
it will always benefit from building a narrative to take the consumer on a
journey from data to business outcomes.
51
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