Exploratory Analysis is the process you perform as a data scientist, when you “summarize data sets characteristics, often with visual methods. A statistical model can be used or not, but primarily exploratory analysis is for seeing what the data can tell us” (Exploratory data analysis, wikipedia).
In this course, we focus on Explanatory Analysis, the kind of analysis you use when you present some selected results to someone, in order to convince this someone to do something. It comes after the exporatory analysis.
- Identify the audience
- Identify the message and deliver it in a synthetic way
- Practice the Big Idea Concept
- Build a synopsis of an explanatory analysis with a storyboard
Who, What, How
When it comes to Explanatory Analysis, you have to be clear on :
- Who: To whom are you communicating?
- What: What do you need your audience to know or do?
- How: What data is available that will help make my point?
Who is your audience? What do they care about? These may seem like obvious questions to ask yourselves when you step back and think about it, but too often we completely skip this step. Getting to know your audience (WHO) and understanding her needs and what drives her is an important early part of the process for successfully communicating with data.
As in any communication process, you have to define the purpose (WHAT). What message do you intend to deliver? What is your call for action? What do you want your audience to do? The Big Idea is a tool that can help you to define your message. The Big Idea, originally introduced by Nancy Duarte in Resonate (2010), should (1) articulate your unique point of view, (2) convey what’s at stake, and (3) be a complete sentence. Imagine you would have to announce your presentation on Twitter with only 140 characters ;-)
Once you have a clear message to be delivered to a clear audience, HOW to build your presentation? How to choose the better targeted materials and organize the presentation? Storyboarding is an efficient tool. A storyboard is a visual outline of our content, usually written with a pen on a sheet of paper, or on sticky notes.
Recommended ressource The Big Idea worksheet
Recommended reading Chapter one from the book "Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals", by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic (Editor: John Wiley & Sons, 18 novembre 2015)
Recommended video The "Who, What, and How" of Data Visualization. From Coursera, Creating Dashboards and Storytelling with Tableau, by University of California, Davis.
Recommended video Presentation tutorial: How to create a storyboard
To go further
Recommended video Why is it so important to know your audience, to know their motivations? Learn about the emotion in decision-making. From Coursera, Creating Dashboards and Storytelling with Tableau, by University of California, Davis.