Brent Dykes, Senior Director of Insights & Data Storytelling at Blast Analytics and author, dives into the art of data storytelling. He shares his journey and the reasons behind his book on the subject. Discover how empathy and understanding your audience can transform data into compelling narratives. Brent discusses the integration of visuals and narratives in decision-making and the importance of collaboration between data scientists and business teams. He also explores the future of data storytelling and its role in enhancing organizational data literacy.
52:54
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
question_answer ANECDOTE
Brent's Background
Brent Dykes' background is in marketing analytics, starting at Omniture and later Adobe.
He consulted with Fortune 1000 companies and became an analytics evangelist, leading him to write a book on data storytelling.
insights INSIGHT
Data Storytelling Misconceptions
Data storytelling is often misused as a synonym for data visualization or dashboards.
True data storytelling involves a narrative structure, not just text added to visuals.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Effective Data Storytelling
Don't equate data storytelling with visualization or dashboards; those are tools, not the story itself.
Craft narratives with a clear structure, not just annotations, to communicate insights effectively.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Effective Data Storytelling explores the art and science of communicating data insights effectively. It emphasizes the importance of narrative structure, visual communication, and audience understanding in conveying complex information. The book provides practical techniques and strategies for creating compelling data stories that drive action and decision-making. It also addresses common challenges in data communication and offers solutions for overcoming them. The book is a valuable resource for professionals in various fields who need to communicate data insights effectively.
Python and R for the Modern Data Scientist
The Best of Both Worlds
Boyan Angelov
Rick Scavetta
This book helps data scientists from both the Python and R communities become proficient in both languages, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. It provides insights into integrating Python and R in workflows for tasks like exploratory data analysis, machine learning, and reporting. The book includes case studies and a 'bilingual' dictionary to facilitate learning.
Made to Stick
Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Chip Heath
Dan Heath
In this book, Chip and Dan Heath explore the anatomy of ideas that stick and provide methods to make ideas more memorable. They introduce the SUCCESs formula, which stands for Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories. The book is filled with examples from urban legends, business stories, and personal anecdotes, demonstrating how these traits can be applied to make any idea stickier. It is particularly useful for anyone interested in influencing others, whether in business, education, or other fields.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
In this book, Daniel Kahneman takes readers on a tour of the mind, explaining how the two systems of thought shape our judgments and decisions. System 1 is fast, automatic, and emotional, while System 2 is slower, effortful, and logical. Kahneman discusses the impact of cognitive biases, the difficulties of predicting future happiness, and the effects of overconfidence on corporate strategies. He offers practical insights into how to guard against mental glitches and how to benefit from slow thinking in both personal and business life. The book also explores the distinction between the 'experiencing self' and the 'remembering self' and their roles in our perception of happiness.
In this episode of DataFramed, we speak with Brent Dykes, Senior Director of Insights & Data Storytelling at Blast Analytics and author of Effective Data Storytelling: How to Turn Insights into Action on how data storytelling is shaping the analytics space.
Throughout the episode, Brent talks about his background, what made him write a book on effective data storytelling, how data storytelling is often misinterpreted and misused, the psychology of storytelling and how humans are shaped to resonate with it, the role of empathy when creating data stories, the blueprint of a successful data story, what data scientists can do to become better data storytellers, the future of augmented analytics and data storytelling, and more.
DataFramed 
