For starters, check out this video
I sometimes struggle with conveying my analysis (say, in Excel) into a presentation (say, in PowerPoint). The best way to capture the attention of your audience and to deliver an effective presentation is through data visualization. No matter how sound and detailed your analysis, if it is not communicated well to your audience then all of your hard work in performing that analysis was wasted.
Presenting data in a visual format can often be the quickest and most effective ways to convey results of your analysis and capture the attention of your audience. This can communicate a message that may have taken hours to develop in a matter of seconds if done correctly.
One of my favorite new data visualization resources that I am learning to use is called Tableau. Tableau is a software company that was founded in 2003 and does nothing other than data visualization. The company had sales of $34.2 Million in 2010 which grew to an astonishing $232.44 Million in 2013 and the company went public. It is now traded on the NYSE (ticker: DATA). It is extremely intuitive and the product looks amazing. Here is a great video that gives you an overview of the capabilities of Tableau (also linked above).
There are some really revolutionary and interesting methods to communicate data visually that are becoming more and more accepted in business and is thought by many as a way for companies to distinguish themselves among their peers. Often times my company might be similarly positioned to perform work for a given client, and I have seen that a lot of the work we have “won” has come from an effective pitch that highlights the strengths of our organization in a visually compelling manner that engages the client and shows that we can “give meaning to numbers” which is a skill that is hard to quantify.
I would be curious to get any thoughts on your experience with data visualization software and any recommendations you might have.
Other helpful data visualization links:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-data-visualization-revolution/
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/04/the-quick-and-dirty-on-data-visualization/
http://fortune.com/2011/11/15/how-tableau-software-makes-business-data-beautiful/
This was awesome Ash. As somebody with an Engineering and Statistics background, I love to crunch numbers and perform Data analysis. The problem I run into is communicating it properly. I see the data, its distributions, and understand everything in my head, but laying it out in a way that is very easily understood by others who have no ‘feel’ for the data is a challenge. These articles lay out some really good tips in ‘Presenting’ your data, rather than just ‘Communicating’ it. Excellent compilation of support articles. I enjoyed reading through them.
Thanks for the feedback Matt, I’m glad you found this to be helpful. From working together in MP I know that we have similar professional roles and data visualization is a constant challenge, trying to balance “too much” with “not enough”. Hopefully this ia another tool/resource you can try out and see if it adds any value to the projects that you’re working on.
I’ve heard about the amazing functionality of data visualization software like Tableau. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to work with it. But I also struggle with presenting data in an effective way. With a financial analysis background, I am basically buried in the numbers and am prepared with how I prepared my analysis. I am developing better ways to show the data in a more digestible form that is actionable for the audience.
Kristen, it sounds like we have pretty similar backgrounds as well, both coming from roles with a heavy emphasis on financial analysis. I would highly recommend downloading the free trial that Tableau offers (it used to be 90 days), and to try it out on a particular project. I did something similar and it was very well received and my company offered to pay for the full licensing rights for me to use it going forward. Anyways, try giving the free preview a shot and see what you/your colleagues think!
Unfortunately, I have not heard positive feedback for Tableau. Major concern has been about Tableau’s inability to work with very large data sets, inability to work on mobile devices, and no geographic mapping services. Per the video it seems they have added the ability to run on mobile browsers and the mapping functionality, but they are new features.
I work with data analytics and our chosen software for seamless big data analysis is Logi. http://www.logianalytics.com/info
But then Logi requires some coding experience. So, I think, for basic needs Tableau is the way to go.
Very cool Anisha. I just looked into Logi this morning after seeing your comments and it looks like it has some very advanced capabilities. I think your work with data analytics is a little over my head, so I would love to chat at some point about Logi and how you’ve been able to incorporate it into your everyday work. It sounds like I may need to brush up on my code-writing skills but this looks like a resource that could be very useful for me (and others) going forward. Thanks!