The difference between a Reporting Squirrel and Analysis Ninja? Insights.
As in, the former is in the business of providing data, the latter in the business of understanding the performance implied by the data. That understanding leads to insights about why the performance occurred, which leads to so what we should do.
Do you see how far away a Reporting Squirrel's job is from that of an Analysis Ninja?
For one, I hope you see the massive investment in self-development of business skills required to have the foundation required to get to the why and, even more, the so what.
Pause. Reflect on the implication of that why and so what on your current skills/career.
I'm sure you came up with a set of actions you can take to evolve from a squirrel to a ninja, or, if you are already a ninja, how to become even more awesome at ninja'ness.
One of the actions that both clusters will come up with is the ability to communicate the insights you discover. Even if you have really amazing why and so what, I've observed many Analysts die at the last mile: Presenting their whys and the so whats, in the form of stories.
In fact 86.4% of all Analyst careers fail due to a lack of this critical last mile skill!
Ok, ok. I kid. I kid.
It is really 88%. : )
Tom Fishburne's wonderful cartoon is here for another purpose.
We send out our multi-tab spreadsheets, our best Google Analytics custom reports, our great dashboards full of data , and more to the tactical layer of data clients. The Directors, the Marketers, the Optimization employees and our resident social media gurus. The valiant hope is that they will do something.
But, as Tom illustrates above, some of our most important meetings, where data is the hero, are where you have to stand up and deliver your amazing discoveries as an Analyst using Keynote or PowerPoint. These meetings are important because you can't data puke (PowerPoint is not a great medium for that, not that you are not going try! :)), you have to present to perhaps the most important people at your company or client and they likely can do something about your career should you stink. The focus, hence, is on telling stories.
In this post, I want to address this specific use case. You are standing in front of a group of people, and your goal is to communicate your incredible brilliance (specifically the why behind the data, and the so whats ). We are going to discuss a cluster of strategies you can use to ensure that you present your message with radical simplicity and with an incredible focus. You goal is going to be to present your why and so what so quickly that the attention moves away from the data and on to a discussion. Yes. You are going to make the data a sideshow – in the meeting where the data is supposed to be the hero. Because, data is not the hero, the actions you'll take are the hero.
Before we go on…
Challenging Conventional Wisdom.
Let me make a career-limiting move and disagree with two things that Major Big Gurus have made into conventional wisdom. I'm sure there will be blow-back. But. These are absolutely corrosive points of view.
PowerPoint does not suck, you do.
It is conventional wisdom that PowerPoint sucks. That using slides is the problem in telling stories. That the reason you are long and boring just happens to be the thing projecting from your computer.
This is bonkers.
Do you blame your razor when you cut your face, legs or other regions? No, you are smarter than that.
PowerPoint is just a tool. You can cut yourself with it and embarrass yourself, or you can look the very best you ever have by using it optimally.
Judge people who say "Keynote is evil", "Let's ban PowerPoint to get better stories", or "OMG, that was an amazing PowerPoint presentation!" (No, it was not. The storyteller and the story were amazing.)
Don't limit the number of slides, limit the number of ideas!
I'm sure you've heard it from your boss: "You can only present 10 slides!" There are golden rules: "12 slides for 30 mins!"
It is understandable why Major Big Gurus give this advice. Many people do present too many slides in the time they have. But, the reason this is a crazy is that if someone has 35 slides and you tell them they can only have 12, they will, like good people throw away five, but then they will put the content of the remaining 30 slides on 12. See, all fixed.
No!
The thing sucks even more now.
Limit the number of ideas people can present. That is the problem. That is why there are too many slides. Here's my rule for our team: If you have 60 mins, you can present 3 stories with each story making one big point. You'll tell them in 40 mins, leaving 20 for conversation.
Now, you've set them free from a silly number of slides obsession. They can only present three strong ideas. If their presentation style can allow them to present that well in 900 slides, that's ok. If their presentation slide means they can tell three stories in 15 slides, so be it.
By limiting the number of ideas, you've created the right incentive for them.
Don't listen to Major Big Gurus and blame PowerPoint or try to limit the wrong thing. Glory will be yours.
Ten rules to improve storytelling with data.
With those critical challenges to conventional wisdom out of the way, let's look at ten examples of data/insights presented via Keynote or PowerPoint and learn how to improve your effectiveness significantly. Our BFFs will drastic simplicity, incredible focus. We will apply liberal doses of our good taste, and common sense. The goal will be to get to the point faster, and move the conversation away from the data to what should be done.
Here are the ten lessons, in case you want to jump ahead (but why!):
1. Don't suck twice, stop creating handouts.
2. Take everything away except the absolute essential.
3. Avoid complex visualizations – they get in the way!
4. Make performance comparisons easier!
5. Convert words into pictures, and expose complexity.
6. Deeply resist, dislike, prettification for the sake of it.
7. Don't make a deal with the devil, stock photos are evil.
8. Leverage proportionality for higher-impact stories.
9. Look beyond the obvious, really look.
10. When faced with a data puke, pick focusing facts!
The examples used below come from public presentations by various tool providers, industry analyst outputs, and other such sources. In almost all cases, except were unavoidable, they have been stripped of source identifiers and anonymized. Because it is not important where they come from, just pop open your personal slides folder and you likely don't have to go very far to find very similar examples. :)
It is important to share that my goal is not for you to create outputs that look exactly like the afterversions below. My goal is that you'll learn a set of filters you'll use as you think about the best ways to create your stories, however you choose to tell them with whatever visual output you most love.
Ready? Let's go have an immersive learning experience and have a ton of fun! Ten lessons in simplicity and focus that help us become better storytellers…
#1. Don't suck twice, stop creating handouts.
The single biggest mistake we make when we present data: We create handouts! The text/data rich horrid creations whose primary purpose in life it to try and work when emailed out.
When you do this, you've decided to suck twice. First, when you present it (people can read faster than you can talk, you are going to read these slides word for word driving the audience to wish for a painless immediate death). Second, when you email out your 58 slide data stuffed monstrosity, no one will read it.
Don't create handouts. Instantly you suck less.
Just think about it. This slide is on the screen…. What thoughts are going through your head?
Perhaps, the sadness at the 20 mins it will require you to understand this. Perhaps, marveling at the creator's extraordinary ability to not leave any area unstuffed. Perhaps, the fact that the proverbial joke starts with the punch line. Perhaps, wondering if everything is already on the slide, why are you listening to someone reading it – why did they simply not email it to you?
Don't create handouts. Retain the respect of your audience.
Handouts can take all shapes, here's one used on TV while an Insights Analyst, not kidding, was talking in a small box on the screen…
Do you need the first two lines? The TV person was talking them any way. Do you need all the super cutified ball-piller things? Do you need the pimpy thing at the bottom (which was also scrolling by the screen).
Handouts. Don't do them. You mom will love you more.
#2. Take everything away except the absolute essential.
Actually, there are two lessons in this story. One, getting to the absolute essential. Two, developing a life-saving obsession with outcomes. (You'll see this obsession of mine threaded throughout this post. It is absolutely critical for Analysis Ninjas.)
When you are presenting, to an audience of 3 or 3,000, your goal should be to get the data out of the way as fast as you can, so that you can move to the so what conversation. If your discussions are constantly getting stymied in data quality issues, arguments about formulas, tool questions, and the this and that of data, you are doing it wrong. All that needs to happen prior to to you standing in front of the group.
Here is a fantastic example of good intentions going awry…
Take 30 seconds, ponder what's going on. You are a Ninja, it will likely take you less. I'm sure you'll come to two conclusions. First, someone worked really hard on this and created a really nice model for a smarter decision to be made for 2014. Second, you'll wonder if it was necessary to open the kimono this wide and expose yourself quite this openly.
The above slide, remember, good work, great intent, will simply lead to a discussion of the data. The puke of rows and sub-rows, are trying way too hard to earn credibility. Someone is going to pick something small and distract the whole freaking discussion down some freaking rabbit-hole.
There is one other problem. It is hidden. Scroll back up a bit, look at the image, did the Analyst make clear what they wanted to business leader/HiPPO to do? How could they, the Ninja in you has already noticed that there is no impact on the business above.
It is important to re-state that a lot of work was done on the slide above, but a wonderfully qualified person. That is what makes the output heartbreaking.
Ok. Let's fix it.
The easiest way to start is to take away elements that are cluttering the story.
In this case, you simply get rid of the sub-rows with the tiny fonts. They were not adding much value to the overall story (and screaming: I AM CREDIBLE, TRUST ME, LOOK AT ALL THIS DETAILED DATA!!!).
Here's the resulting output..
Simpler, right? Scroll back up, compare the two versions. Just, less stuff.
Don't underestimate the value of this strategy in your storytelling. Just. Less. Stuff.
Let's apply that principle again. You'll notice above that there are some numbers that are repeated multiple times. Why do we need them cluttering our story? Why not get rid of them? Oh, and impression share really adding value?
Here's an even less stuff view…
OMG! Less stuff rules! :)
You can present this slide, and you'll look like a champ. It tells the story you originally wanted to, in a simple and focused manner.
But, now that all the data clutter is gone, you'll start to see the problems you should have been worried about in the first place.
For example, it is a mistake of the most gigantic proportions to end any analysis on Investment Required. Rookie mistake. No boss/client wants the story to end on money going out. They want to know how much money is coming into the business!
You'll want to do that. It will make you realize you have no idea what the value of a Raw Contact it. You go and figure it out (yes, it is your job to compute economic value ).
It will take you a while, but you are going to die of happiness when you do finish the task.
When you have it, you'll move investment to the very top (it is what causes the rest to happen after all), and add two more rows at the bottom…
How cool is this? Attention is now shifted to what the company is actually going to get out of that investment (Economic Value minus Investment).
As the room now considers if we should go for stable spend or clicks or impressions or more clicks, they can see how much more comes to to bottom-line from each decision. A smart discussion ensues.
There is one more thing left.
You are the smartest person in the room when it comes to data. You've done lots of deep dive analysis (hence v1.0 of your data-rich slide!). You understand a good amount of how this area of marketing works, you understand the company's goals.
Why not use all that knowledge to make a recommendation in terms of what the company should choose?
Tighten the slide up just a bit, and put a ring on it…
Now, your boss, directors, VPs, everyone has a simple view of the data (even with all the numbers!), and they know exactly what you want them to do.
They might not agree with it. But, that's beside the point. You would have successfully moved the discussion away from the data and on to dealing with the so what. They'll argue about why not go for stable impression share or clicks, or, since they are so smart, why not go for total opportunity (how dare you not shoot for six mil!). All, very good discussion about the business, and not the data.
#winning
I hope you see that while we are fixing the slide, we really did so much more than that. We ended up in a place with a lot more business analysis, and you had to work harder to develop a point of view on what to do. We added to your analytical skills a demand for business savvy. That's what makes an Analysis Ninja (and simpler slides).
#3. Avoid complex visualizations – they get in the way!
The general belief that we need to visualize data is well founded. Lots of numbers look burdensome, and can often be boring (especially if your story has lots of these slides). You don't have to go very far, just scroll up a bit in this post. :)
But, often, despite our good intentions, we end up in a much worse situation when we deploy an extra-layer of effort to create something visual.
Here's a fantastic example of that…
How hard did you have to work to figure out what was going on here? Here are some reasons why it was way harder than necessary.
Add this to your rule-book, don't ever do percentages of percentages. It is very hard for people to get a real concrete sense for what's going on. In this case, 49% is 75% more of 28% is hard to get.
I'm sure you are wondering why the red parenthesis was used, it seems to imply that 49% is less than 28% (or all of the right is less than the left).
Surely you are curious why the lovely hipster gentleman in a t-shirt was necessary to communicate with B2B bosses.
At this point your head also hurts as you tried to commit to memory all the numbers so that you can compute the difference between each bubble.
Net, net. A delightful mess. The visualization actually gets in the way (besides the extra money you spent doing the work of making the bubbles and finding the optimal hipster).
This is a lot less pretty, but a lot more effective…
The use of colors helps drag your eye to the column that's actually important, the red is effective at giving the core message (I should have made the 21 green, dang!), and the percentage points are simpler to internalize.
Of course, to send your core message, you might decide you don't need the numbers for each year, you can further simplify…
No hipster, red parenthesis, or bubbles, but makes your point for you.
At this point, you have your choice. You can keep using the percentage point change, or you can switch to percentages. Either one works really well, because that column of numbers is all by itself…
Compare the more time-consuming, bubble-hipster original with the table. I've heard some say that the bubble-hipster is cooler. If that is you, I want you to focus on which one is easier to understand.
Your primary objective is to make sure performance is understood quickly, and you can move to the so what faster.
We are surrounded by such bubble-hipster efforts. Time-consuming anti-understanding look-at-me-I'm-so-cool visualizations that get in the way.
Take a deep breath, find a teddy bear to cuddle for emotional solace as I unleash the next example on you.
Teddy ready?
Take a look at this incredible craziness…
Dear lords of Saturn and Jupiter, what the heck is this!!! Old timey gas station pumps? A new race of aliens?
The visualization is getting in the way. While all slides in this post are shrunk to fit the width of this blog, even in it's full version, projected on a giant screen, it is hard to understand what's being communicated. And, remember, the thing you are looking at above took a lot of time to do, and it does have some good insights. Sadly, the visualization above is like cutting your legs off to run faster.
There are 50 ways to do this right/differently. I'm sure you can think of 40 of them. Let me share two.
For my first attempt, I tried to separate the two distinct things that were being communicated using the three different numbers above. When I presented the data, I showed the data in the blue (current ratings) and then click my mouse and the second set of data in the orange comes into view…
By not showing all the data at the same time, I control the pace of the story, and also spring a surprise on the audience. It turns out the biggest numbers on the right, do not indicate the best.
And, just look at Fox! Foxy!!
When you do this, you'll have to figure out what to do the sort on. I choose YOY Change for my sort (worst to best) as I thought that was the more important thing to drive the conversation.
You can sort the above by Reach. Quite ok. But, in a very subtle way, you'll drive a different conversation.
There is no wrong answer, your local knowledge will help you pick the right thing to focus on. It is important to pick though, don't be random about it.
And, just to prove to you that a good old table sometimes can be better than a ugly over-worked visualization, here's a table version…
The Conditional Formatting (Excel: Home > Conditional Formatting > Color Scales), is there to just draw your eye as an audience to where I want it to be to tell my story quickly and efficiently.
Better than the thing we started with, right?
Data visualization is always a good thing to consider. But. Don't let what you create cross your own boundaries of good-taste and common-sense. Don't let the visualization get in the way of the story you are trying to tell.
#4. Make performance comparisons easier!
I'm sure you are catching on by now that the slides and names have been changed to protect the innocent. And, the normal crud that pollutes a slide (logos, ugly template design elements, confidentiality declarations, company fonts) have also been removed for the same reason (and because I did not want you to weep when you see how much more hideous these slides would be with all that added in).
Ok. Take a look at this slide. Don't scroll. Just take a look at it, do you understand what it is saying? Write it down in just a few words on a post-it.
The design and layout are quite simple, definite kudos to the Analyst for that. Despite that, I bet it was still harder than necessary for you to figure out what is going on.
The reason is quite simple. We are trying two sets of comparisons. First, between RB and a collection of it's peers. Second, between 2012 and 2013. That's hard enough. But, the way the design is accomplished, you have to make too many hops to make the comparison.
For example, to understand Aquantive you have to leap over Flurry and Yahoo! to look at all the data. Maybe this is less difficult because of the huge bars, but it is difficult to do for Flurry and Yahoo!'s performance.
It is not all that hard to fix though. Just put the relevant set's of data together…
Easier to compare, right? I use animations to control the story, so things appear on screen as I'm talking about them (rather than puking out the whole slide at a time and allowing people to roam free and stop listening to me). Hence, the first view will look like above. It allows me to just focus on one thing: Aquantive.
You'll notice that the scale is gone. It is by design. It was hard for me to let go of it as some part of me as an Analyst always wants that there. But, look at the slide above. Does it really matter if the scale is there or not? Especially, if I know that the other bars are coming. Check out the whole slide, does it matter if the scale is there or not?
It is completely irrelevant. You are just comparing performance, and the numbers would only clutter the slide. When I present it, I'll say something like "Our peak investment, in Aquantive in 2013, was 700k." That gives the audience an anchor. Rest is irrelevant.
(Now, I know this is going to be hard for you to do. You can have the scale there if it will make you feel better. It really is ok. You don't have to go that far to de-clutter slides, if you'll be uncomfortable. But, do try it sometimes.)
Bottom-line, but moving things around you've made the data much easier to understand and allowed three companies to be looked at independently, even as they give context to each other.
Remember the common theme in this post? An obsession with outcomes.
What's the so what of the above collection of data?
In the original presentation it moved on to a whole bunch more points, and then in the end the Marketer made a random set of recommendations that could not be tied to the above (or really much of the) data provided.
As a great Analysis Ninja, you want to add one more thing to the slide.
You are comparing 2012 and 2013, add a row of data at the top that shows your computation of the size of the opportunity for 2014.
Boom!
Based on just the data you originally had, the conversation could have gone in five different directions. But, but adding that row on the top you've brought extreme focus to the conversation around the table.
Past performance is ok, but if you just had that you all might just talk about Aquantive and how much you out-stripped peer-set in 2013. Now, you are all going to discuss what your strategy should be with Flurry as you both stink-compared to your peer-set, perhaps not having taken mobile seriously, and it is where the biggest opportunity is. By more than 2X!
That is the power of obsessing about outcomes – the last mile.
This is optional. Sometimes you might not have the expertise to bring this to the table. Let me assure you that that is A-OK (though, over time I encourage you to build these business skills). But, complete all of the last mile.
Add a slide that comes after the one above, this one tells the company what four things they need to do in order to take full advantage of the 90 million opportunity size.
Each recommendation you make is sized by how much of the opportunity it can deliver. At the very minimum you are guaranteed a sign-off from your boss for Thing One and Think Two. They are too big to ignore.
We end up with two slides instead of one. You put the recommendations of what to do, close to the data (rather than dump them all at the end). You present a complete story, you drive a very focused and productive discussion where the only thing data did is got out of the way quickly.
You might not believe me, but these strategies also cut the meeting time by 50% easily. Now, that's priceless.
#5. Convert words into pictures, and expose complexity.
When you try and tell stories, sometimes it is not a matter of just have as few things on the slide as you possibly can. You will a lot of the time. But, sometimes you simply have to show the complexity that lays just below the surface.
Here's a fantastic example of that… Don't scroll too far, take a look at the below slide, you are presenting it to a group of Sr. Leaders, does it communicate effectively the key point you are hoping to make with the three big numbers? Write down your thought's on a Post-It.
(The best way to learn is to come up with your answer, contrast it with the other person's. Regardless of who is right or better, understanding the contrast is where learning occurs.)
Ok. Got your thoughts down?
I love these three numbers. And, I'm often in pain when I think about how few businesses are structured around taking advantage of this. We still live in an world where we are optimize for single visit sessions. If that single visit is a success, hurray! If it is not, trash!
This is insane. Companies should optimize for the portfolio of visits (multiple!) leading to a business outcome.
The above slide, IMHO, sadly fails to expose the complexity in this user behavior/journey. That means, it becomes one of a parade of numbers that go by in a presentation with nary a change in business strategy. Because…. the Sr. Leader won't quite get it.
To be fair, the user behavior is described in text format. But, who is going to read it, or even understand it when you speak it?
We can fix the problem quite easily.
Dump the text. Show a representation of the user behavior. I would show each line at one time as I speak (84% click, describe, click 86%, describe, click 56%, describe), and here's how the completed slide would look…
It is the same thing that was described in the text. But, it's visualized simply yet.
It really brings home the point about how conversions are happening at the moment, and that as as a company we might be making insanely bad decisions by relying only on last-click conversion attribution models.
Yes, there is more stuff on the slide. But, it works much, much better.
If you have an audience that is even slightly connected to the digital business, and not Leaders who look at the digital data just once very two years, then you can actually go all out and truly how how users behave on the web…
While there is a lot more stuff on the slide, in each case, as you present it one number's behavior at a time, it does such a wonderful job of showing just how sophisticated, and unpredictable, user behavior it. It will kick off a really powerful conversation that will go well beyond attribution modeling and encompass everything from the campaign strategy, landing pages, abandonment rates and more.
Conversation. A good thing as Martha Stewart would say.
[To come up with the so what for the above user behavior, two posts for you: Multi-Channel Attribution Modeling: The Good, Bad and Ugly Models and Multi-Channel Attribution: Definitions, Models and a Reality Check.]
#6. Deeply resist, dislike, prettification for the sake of it.
This is another common trend when we have the opportunity to present data, we add unnecessary stuff to it. One of the most common forms of this is icons.
Here's a great example of this, check out this slide…
<img alt="icons clutter graphs" height=