Change Takes Time: How to Practice Patience in Report Redesign Processes

May 16th, 2022 / Reports
Guest author Abby Henderson started to have conversations with her colleagues about how they could change their reporting. She started by suggesting they add more data visualizations and fewer tables. When she met resistance to this idea, she started to produce two versions of the reports. One version included the tables they were accustomed to, and the second version included more elements of data visualization. Through providing both options, Abby was able to slowly garner traction and buy-in on including data visualizations.
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What Makes a Useful Data Story? 5 Questions to Ask 

Jan 17th, 2022 / Data Visualization
Ready to tell a story with data Great! Let’s remove the guesswork from our graphs. The next step is to figure out which message we’ll highlight. We can’t visualization everything—that dilutes the power of our graph. Here are five thought-starter questions to help you uncover useful nuggets in your data.  
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The 30-3-1 Approach with Unlimited Visual Appendices: The Bare Minimum for Designing Reports that Actually Inform Decisions

Jul 6th, 2021 / Reports
Want to design reports that actually inform decisions? With software you already have?? Nobody wants to pour blood, sweat, and tears into a document that sits on a dusty shelf. I recently gave a presentation where I shared about the 30-3-1 approach to reporting, which is the bare minimum for designing useful reports. And now I want to share it with you.
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Data Placemats: A 3-Step Process for Increasing Data Use

Jun 15th, 2021 / Data Visualization
Want to make sure that your data gets used to inform decisions? Get your stakeholders involved in the sense-making process! Are you familiar with data placemats? Here’s how they work: (1) Design Data Placemats, (2) Facilitate an Interpretation Meeting, and (3) Include those Insights in the Final Report or Slideshow.
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