Introduction to data storytelling

Data Storytelling Case Study: College Majors

Leondra R. Gonzalez

Sr. Data & Applied Scientist, Microsoft

What is storytelling?

Woman reading a book at home

Young woman with friends watching a movie

Data storytelling

The process of building a narrative to communicating relevant and actionable insights in an understandable and widely accessible format

An addressable question or problem
Data-driven facts
An "Arc"
- Beginning, middle, and end
Actionable insights

Woman giving a business presentation

¹ What is data storytelling? (n.d.). Microsoft Power BI. https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/data-storytelling/

Three I's: Data story maturity

Informative
- Example: "We sold 250,000 cars"
Interesting
- Example: "We sold 30,000 more cars this year"
Insightful
- Example: "The most lucrative sales came from hatchback vehicles"

Informative, Interesting, Insightful Infograph

Why learn storytelling?

Accessible and inclusive
- Simplifies complex information
- Easy-to-follow
- Engaging
Convey value
- Impact
- Data-driven decisions

Woman presenting in team meeting of 5

¹ 1. What is data storytelling? (n.d.). Microsoft Power BI. https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/data-storytelling/ 2. Holland, Taylor (2019). From Stats to Stories: The Evolution of Data Storytelling. Skyword. https://www.skyword.com/contentstandard/from-stats-to-stories-the-evolution-of-data-storytelling/

High demand skills

Verbal
Non-Verbal
Written
Visual

Man giving a presentation

¹ L. Cao and J. Zhang, "Skill Requirements Analysis for Data Analysts Based on Named Entities Recognition," 2021 2nd International Conference on Big Data and Informatization Education (ICBDIE), Hangzhou, China, 2021, pp. 64-68, doi: 10.1109/ICBDIE52740.2021.00023.

Let's practice!

Data Storytelling Case Study: College Majors