My First Writing — Data Storytelling

This is my first writing in Medium. I rarely write in any platform but since I want to sharpen my writing skills, I gather all my courage to start this story. After reading other writings about How to Start Writing, I’ve finally decided to write something that I’m passionate about and suitable with professional background : Data Storytelling.

The purpose of this writing is to share my experience in interpreting data and graphs from a business perspective, particularly when we have to present it to top management. I have been working for around 10 years, mostly in the domain of data analytics and research. Below are just some methods/tools that I often use to do data storytelling :

1. AIDA Framework

Originally this is AIDA funnel, but I’ve adjusted it to Aware-Consider-Purchase. This framework is good when we want to craft a story related with Acquisition of the customer. The data that is being used can be obtained through surveys (both internal and external). We can analyze the drop rate for each phase and compare it with previous time frame or competitors :

• Drop Rate from Awareness
• Drop Rate from Consideration to Purchase
• Overall Drop Rate ( From Awareness to Purchase )

Marketing Funnel

2. 5W ( What, Where, When, Who, Why )

When we see graph like this, we need to spontaneously remember the 5W 1H. First, we can map out any interesting points from the graph like the sudden spike of increase/decrease or the highest/lowest range. Let’s say for this graph we want to understand more about the sudden increase of the orange graph from March to April. We can start to do 5W analysis on this specific time.

• What : What are the hypothesis that can be the key drivers of this sudden increase ( can be from internal or external factors )
• Where : Does the spike occurs in all regions or just in specific areas?
• When : Does the spike occurs in all the 30Days from 1–31 March, or just in specific days?
• Who : Does the spike occurs due to competitor’s condition? Or is it due to Government regulation?
• Why : ( to answer this usually we need to validate the list of hypothesis through interviews and surveys )

3. Balance Scorecard Framework

This framework is very strategic. I often use it when it comes to top-level management. The data for this framework can be obtained through both internal data and external data. For operational, financial, and employee domains, the data are mostly coming from internal — ex : transaction data, employee turnover %, sales data. While for customer domain, the data can also be obtained through surveys — ex : CSAT, NPS — that later on can also be used for calibration with internal data.

By trying to connect all the data points and aggregate it into this framework, we can make a consolidated strong presentation to top management which have a holistic business acumen and rarely look an issue just from a single point of view.