Telling the data story: How to create stories that matter

Planning your data story, like planning a vacation, is when you know where you are now and you can see where you want to be at the end, but you haven’t quite figured out exactly how you will get there. The three steps for planning your data story are as follows. First, who is the audience for the data story? Second, what is the goal of the data story? And third, what format will best achieve this goal?

Step 1: Who is your audience?
Step one in planning your data story is knowing your audience. There are many different audiences and many different variables that could affect how we present our ideas. For example, when it comes to the general public, the level of engagement and understanding regarding any specific topic will most likely be very different than that of a senior government official. Each audience has a unique and specific expectation for how messages are presented.

Step 2: What is the goal of the data story?
Step 2 in your data story is knowing your goal or purpose. There can be many goals to a story. One goal might be to simply to inform your audience about your data findings and where they fit into our current understanding of the topic. An example of this is weather or traffic report. Another goal of a data story is to persuade. The goal of your data story might even be to entertain.

Step 3: What format will best achieve the goal?
Step 3 in planning your data story is to decide what format you will use. The format you choose will affect further decisions on the elements to use to tell your data story and the amount of time and space you have to tell it. Your audience can also affect the format you choose. For example, you are not likely to create an infographic to update your manager or project team on the progress of an ongoing research project. You may want to use more engaging visuals such as dashboards to engage an external audience such as new customers or new readers for your website.