ConversionXL Chad Sanderson – Building an Innovative product

ConversionXL Chad Sanderson – Building an Innovative product

Become great at Data presentation and visualization

Online course

By Tim Wilson,

Senior Director of Analytics @ Search Discovery

Course length: 3h 45min

Drive stakeholders to take action with the results of your reports and analyses

There is a dangerous belief that, because data is objective, it can speak for itself: as long as the charts and tables and slides are accurate, then the analyst’s work is done. This is analogous to stopping and going home after running 25 miles of a race and believing that you have completed a full marathon. What gets delivered in a report or as the result of an analysis, and HOW it gets delivered, is as critical in determining whether stakeholders take action with the information as the underlying analysis itself. More information is generally NOT better. Changing up the data visualizations throughout a presentation primarily just to “mix things up” is a terrible idea.

Presenting “the data” and expecting the stakeholders to draw their own conclusions is a guarantee that they will draw no conclusions at all! The great news is that there are a range of straightforward tips and techniques—grounded in some basic understanding of how the brain processes information—that can be learned and immediately put into practice to ensure that analytics deliverables are clear, understood, and retained by the business stakeholders to whom they are delivered.

Introduction video (4 minutes)

Data visualization is critical for an analyst.If you don’t do data visualization well,if you don’t communicatethe results of your analysis well,that’s kind of like running 26.19 milesof a marathon and then walking awayand going home.So you really need to actually,you have to be able to deliver the resultsof your analysis or develop reportsor dashboards that are really effectiveand deliver them to your stakeholders,if you want them to take action.And that’s ultimately what we want to do,is we want our data, our information,our analysis, to actually lead to actionthat benefits the business.So it’s really kind of the last mileof analysis in my view.And if you take this course,we’ll cover a few different things.We’ll cover one, kind of a deeper lookat why that mattersand how the brain kind of ties into this whole topic.We’ll learn how to actually look and assessour own visualizations, the visualizations of others,and figure out when is there,when is there a problem?Cause recognizing that there’s an opportunityfor improvement is kind of the first step.And then finally,how do we actually do this well?What are the different conceptsand what are the different approacheswe can use to really effectively communicatethe results of our analysisso that when people turn to you and ask a question,it’s not just that you can crunch the data.We’ve got to be able to crunch the data,but what they get back,they know they will understand it,they will care about it,and they’ll be able to remember itand ultimately act on it.Hi, I’m Tim Wilson.I’m a senior analytics director at Search Discovery.I’ve been in the analytics field,mostly in kind of the digital analytics world,for about 20 years at this point.And I wanted to teach this coursebecause it’s an area that there are so many very tacticaland tangible tips and tricks and techniques,that there is plenty of literature out there,but still so many analystsdon’t actually spend the timeto learn those techniquesand then to learn how to apply those techniques.And when you do learn and apply them,you’re so much better.And I just want to see analysts,I want our profession to be producingbetter end result deliverables.In this course, we’re going to break it downinto kind of three big sections.The first piece is really just kind of an overview,but we start to explore kind of the neuroscienceand the psychology that actually goesinto analytics communication,because ultimately, we’re going to be crunching data,but we’re ultimately communicating to peopleand that means they need to use their brain effectively.So we’ll tackle that.The second part of the course,which is kind of really the meat of itis data visualization.And in that we’ll cover some conceptsthat kind of apply to any visualizationthat are very kind of tangible and practicaland ideas and ways of actually thinkingand viewing visualizations.But then we’ll also look at specific typesof visualizations.So you’ll kind of learn how to actuallytake specific challengesand actually visualize them effectively.And then the last part of the courseis data storytelling, and data storytellingis where we take visualizations with words,with images and kind of craft a narrative.And really what we’re doing with data storytellingis trying to tap into the emotions of our audience,because if we can tap into the emotions,we get their attentionand they’re more likely to retainthe core information that we’re communicating with them.So if you take this course and you’re ableto apply the concepts and the techniques in it,you wind up being an analystwho really does communicatemore effectively with your audience,which means the impact that you haveon your organization is much higher.Because when you deliver resultsof an analysis or a report,it’s actually much, much higher oddsthat it will actually be taken, understood,and then acted upon in a waythat positively impacts your organization.So if you’re looking to have that sort of an impacton your organization, then come to cxl.comand sign up and take this course,Data Visualizationand Effective Analytics Communication.

After taking this course you’ll…

• Identify the most effective data visualization for any situation so that the information is readily understandable by your target audience
• Create data visualizations that avoid pitfalls that can introduce confusion and require unnecessary effort for stakeholders to understand and internalize key takeaways
• Craft a narrative that holds the attention of key stakeholders, while also improving their ability to understand and retain the information being presented.

This course is essential for you if …

• You are responsible for analyzing data and presenting the results to peers, executives, or other stakeholders who need to make decisions based on the information you present to them.
• You want your analyses to be regarded as some of the most valuable work conducted within the organization.
• You need the skills necessary to improve the actionability of the reports and analyses you develop, as well as the ability to teach others how to develop those same skills.

This course is NOT for you if…

• Deeply believe that the “data speaks for itself,” so how that data is packaged and presented does not matter.
• Are already deeply familiar with and actively putting into practice the data visualization and data storytelling best practices established by Edward Tufte, Stephen Few, Dona M. Wong, Nancy Duarte, Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, and Brent Dykes.
• You are extremely adept at doing the data crunching while relying on others to determine how best to take the results of that work and communicate it effectively so that the business can actually put it to use.

About

Tim Wilson

Tim has been working with digital data full-time since 2001 in a variety of roles: from managing a web analytics platform migration and developing analytics processes as the head of the business intelligence department at a $500 million high tech B2B company; to creating and growing the analytics practices at multiple agencies that worked with a range of large consumer brands; to his current role consulting with the digital analytics teams at Fortune 500 companies on their strategies, processes, and tactics for effectively putting their sales, marketing, customer, and digital data to actionable use.

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