There’s a popular joke in data circles that you might have already heard: Data practitioners spend 80% of their time preparing data and 20% complaining about preparing data. The truth is, there’s much more to being a data professional than this. Sure, you’ll prepare data — and complain about it sometimes — but you’ll also need to make data presentations to key stakeholders in your company. Remember, data doesn’t mean much until you provide context and present it clearly.
Thankfully, we’re here to help. Here are 10 data presentation tips to effectively communicate with executives, senior managers, marketing managers, and other stakeholders.
1. Choose a Communication Style
Every data professional has a different way of presenting data to their audience. Some people like to tell stories with data, illustrating solutions to existing and potential business problems. Others enjoy using personas to demonstrate how their data findings impact real people. And then some like to present data more conventionally and simply explain what different figures and statistics mean in a business context.
Whatever style you choose, think about the words you will use and how you will present your information. You’ll want to engage your audience as much as possible, even if your findings aren’t particularly interesting.
2. Break Down Complicated Information
Not everyone will comprehend data as well as you do. As a data practitioner, you’ll understand the nuances of data, such as how different data sets correlate with each other and how outliers can impact analysis. However, most people lack knowledge of these concepts.
That’s why you should simplify your data presentations and focus on key takeaways from your findings that stakeholders will understand. For example, instead of showing your audience a spreadsheet with lots of numbers, explain what those numbers prove and what they mean for the company you will work for.
3. Choose the Right Data Visualizations
Sharing cold, hard data sets with people won’t be very effective. Instead, use different data visualizations so your audience can understand the relationships between data sets and the context behind them. There are lots of different visualizations that help you communicate important information:
- Reports
- Heatmaps
- Pie charts
- Bar graphs
- Line graphs
- Scatter plots
- Histograms
The type of visualizations you choose depends on what information you’re trying to convey. Graphs, for example, help you showcase potential business outcomes to stakeholders clearly and consistently. Heat maps, on the other hand, let you highlight the most critical data values your audience should know about.
4. Choose the Right Visualization Tools
Numerous data visualization tools on the market will help you communicate data to people in your company. These tools include:
- Tableau
- Looker
- Microsoft Power BI
- Google Charts
- Qlik
All of these tools are inherently better than presenting data in Excel. You’ll be able to communicate patterns and trends in data more effectively and encourage your audience to interact with your findings.
5. Get Your Audience Involved
Communication is a two-way process, so encourage those at your future data presentations to interact with your content. Before you begin your data presentation, you might want to tell your audience to interrupt you if they want more clarification about a particular data point or insight.
Alternatively, people can ask you questions at the end of your presentation if they don’t understand something or require additional context.
6. Be Authoritative
You’ll almost always present your data findings to key stakeholders in your business. Project confidence when sharing insights and make it clear you know what you’re talking about. Otherwise, your audience might lack confidence in your abilities. Ultimately, explain how you came to a particular conclusion and why you think it’s important to share.
Of course, there will be times when the data you present won’t be what your audience wants to hear. For example, a line graph might reveal that a business will lose revenue over time. In these scenarios, always communicate the facts, even if doing so puts you in an uncomfortable position.
7. Label Your Data Clearly
This point goes back to the fact that your audience won’t know as much about your data as you do. So, avoid using unfamiliar acronyms to label charts or complicated jargon that only other data practitioners would understand. Your role is to present information in a clear and visually compelling way to help stakeholders make better data-driven decisions.
8. Practice Your Data Presentation With Other Team Members
You can always have a dress rehearsal for a presentation before walking into the boardroom. Delivering your findings to other data practitioners on your team, data scientists, data engineers, or other data professionals in your department will help you identify any weak spots in your presentation and ensure you use the right communication style for your audience.
9. Allow Your Audience to Access Your Findings After Your Presentation
A 30- or 60-minute meeting normally won’t be long enough to communicate all your findings or receive stakeholder feedback. Audience members might also forget key points after it’s finished. So, share your insights after your presentation, perhaps in a document. You’ll be able to email colleagues your report so they can review important information. Alternatively, you can upload your presentation slides to Dropbox or your company’s intranet.
10. Relax!
Data practitioners often worry about presenting their data to an audience, which is understandable. But you’ll develop a unique communication style and become more confident as the months and years go by. Just remember you’re not a doctor breaking bad news about an incurable health condition. You’re helping businesses understand data, which can be an exciting thing, so try to relax and enjoy yourself!
