While collecting data and making calculations are considered “hard skills” that result in concrete, measurable results, storytelling evokes images of our ancestors sitting around a flame swapping tales, and leaves room for artistic flair. However, when these two seemingly disparate worlds of data and storytelling are combined, they create a powerful tool that can enlighten and inform, especially for a business audience.
To use data to tell a story, you must first accurately and thoroughly collect it. A precise foundation is the key to telling a true story with a comprehensive picture. From there, you can craft a narrative that not only communicates essential insights from the data to a broad audience but also creates an emotional connection. Storytelling, as ancient as humans themselves, reaches into our emotional core, informing, inspiring, and engaging us. A well-written story ensures the audience understands the data’s findings and how it affects them, influencing them to act.
A data-driven story involves the same elements as any story: characters, setting, conflict, and resolution.
Characters are those affected by or influencing your data collection. They don’t necessarily need to be humans. For example, if you’re collecting soil samples to test the efficiency of a fertilizer, characters in your data story could include the plants, the soil itself, and animals in the region.
The setting is the specific place where the data collection and story take place. Continuing our example above, we see that season, climate, and region will influence the data and the story told.
The problem that needs to be solved is the conflict. What is your company studying in collecting this data? What inspires your clients to seek your product? By properly presenting the conflict, you not only show your customers that they are understood but also that their needs are considered and that they have found the right business to solve their issue.
Resolution is the solution to the conflict presented. Narrate for the audience exactly how the data collected proves that your company’s solution can solve your clientele’s problems.
With thorough and accurate data collection and thoughtful and engaging data presentation through storytelling, you can demonstrate why your company is the right choice.
Lucy Jayes is a development associate with the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning. The Carnegie Center is a nonprofit educational center offering seasonal writing, publishing, language classes, and community programming. For more, visit Carnegiecenterlex.org.