Give me 20

Learnings from a 10 years+ data storytelling journey

“Drop and give me 20!”

This kind of sentence is usually shouted at you by a performance coach asking for pushups. And it’s not associated with happy moments. Recently, I stumbled upon this concept in an unexpected way—in a business book.

In The Business of Expertise, David C. Baker encourages the reader to provide 20 insights that emerge from their field of expertise and their experience. The rules are simple: assume that the reader is smart and that they know a bit about your area.

I loved the exercise, so I gave it a go. Below are mine, in no specific order!

20 salient learnings from the field of data communication.

#1 You need two levels of information hierarchy. Don’t expect people to always read 100% of your content: highlight the most salient information so it’s scannable quickly, and leave the rest for those who will read the entire piece.

#2 Colour perception is wildly personal. Different people will view different variations (or even hues!), so make sure you’re not relying on colour alone for your data insights.

#3 Storytelling requires real thinking and structure. Doing data storytelling doesn’t equate just making a data visualisation; you employ actual narrative and rhetorical techniques.

#4 Copywriting is not an after-thought. You need to practice and master effective title writing to engage the audience and create message redundancy; the data does not speak for itself.

#5 Keeping up with the field is part of your job. While looking at nice projects published by others can seem like leisure, it’s actually key to developing your design and storytelling eye.

#6 It's your job to advocate for best practices. Whether you have external or internal clients, you’ll sometimes need to explain the research and push back on what the stakeholders are asking—even if you end up going with their request.

#7 Expect the process to be iterative. Don’t have high hopes for finalising the chart or storytelling piece in one go; quality results require discussion and time.

#8 You’re a teacher half of the time. Whatever your focus within the field, pedagogy and onboarding will take a big chunk of your time (and patience).

#9 You need to be a jack of all trades. Even if you have a team of specialists, you’ll still need a basic understanding of many fields—communication, design, web, data— and it's both scary and fun.

#10 Communication is your superpower. You need to work on clear and effective messaging to explain your approach, outputs and roadblocks.

#11 Think of the human behind the data. Whether you’re reporting app usage stats or the number of people with access to water, always consider that there are humans behind that data—would they be happy with how you’re communicating it?

#12 You need to know many tools. Unless you specialise in one superpower like D3.js, you’ll need to switch easily from one tool to another depending on the client’s needs—not mastering it 100%, but enough to be operational quickly.

#13 Compromise is your second name. The most beautiful or creative solution might not be the best one for the stakeholders; you’ll often need to swallow your pride and go with the group’s consensus.

#14 You cannot do it alone. Even though you have an understanding of many fields to communicate data effectively, you’ll need help from experts to deliver parts of the projects and that’s ok; it will only make them better.

#15 You repeat “it depends” like a broken record. Most of the time, when you’re asked which chart or narrative structure is best, you’ll have to consider a dozen variables and the solution won’t be straightforward.

#16 No two projects will look the same. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to work on different projects and industries; it will be both thrilling and terrifying each time.

#17 Feedback might be uncomfortable. A big part of your job is to accept and integrate constructive criticism, for which you’ll need to develop thick skin.

#18 Simplicity is harder than complexity. Removing information from a design takes more skill and confidence than adding to it; the best data narratives are often the most concise ones.

#19 Your audience is not you. What seems obvious to you after weeks of staring at a dataset will not be obvious to someone seeing the chart for 5 seconds—test your work on fresh eyes.

#20 The field is still being defined. Data storytelling sits at the crossroads of many disciplines, and that means you’ll regularly have to explain what you do and why it matters.

Baker writes, “if you can’t articulate your expertise quickly, concisely and in a compelling manner, it’s just simply not true.” I'd add: even if you cannot get to 20 insights right away, the exercise of trying will sharpen how you think and talk about what you do.

What would you add for data storytelling?

Thanks for reading! See you next month.

—Evelina