Convince with Data, Inspire with Stories

In companiesand especially in project managementwe often find ourselves in a conflict: we need to make business decisions based on insights from data analysis. For the analysis itself, we dive deep into the details of our Data Lakes 4.0. But when we surface and try to present our findings to management as a decision paper, we fail precisely because of those details. Why? Because our audience's brains shut down when faced with too many dry facts. Data storytelling solves this problem. ****Our brains respond better to stories than to a list of pure numbers. In data storytelling, data is presented alongside an easy-to-understand visualization and an engaging narrative. The usual information overload is reduced to essential and relevant key messages. This makes the content more understandable and forms a solid foundation for business decisions.

Enriched with scientific facts about how our brains work and veteran stories from project management, this book shows ways to combat Death by PowerPoint and free the world from poor presentations.

The Contents

• What is Data Storytelling?
• Projects, Communication, and Presentations
• States of Data Storytelling: Audience, Aha Moment, Storyboard, Narrative Arc

• Visualization: Pre-attentive Attributes, Gestalt Principles, Slide Design, Data and Presentation Visualization

  Data storytelling is the solution to increasingly data-heavy reporting It presents alternatives to Death-by-PowerPoint It helps readers present essential content in a clear and concise way

  Autorentext

  Friederike Oehlerking founded the consulting firm Lückenkrach in 2022, specializing in data storytelling. Her announcement of a mission to free the world from bad PowerPoint presentations attracted significant attention on social media, and since then, she has been creating content on LinkedIn. Friederike co-hosts the podcast “Chefin ruft an” together with two experienced female leaders from the business world, aiming to break down barriers for young women considering leadership roles. She has also been actively supporting women in STEM fields for many years. She studied business administration and engineering and worked for 17 years at a major German technology corporation, both domestically and internationally. After many years as a commercial and technical project manager for large-scale plant engineering projects, she most recently served as the global head of commercial project management for the new machinery compressor business. In that role, she was often the only woman in the room when it came to making strategic business decisions based on her analyses. Even in those settings, she was able to convince with data and inspire with stories.

  Klappentext

  In companies—and especially in project management—we often find ourselves in a conflict: we need to make business decisions based on insights from data analysis. For the analysis itself, we dive deep into the details of our Data Lakes 4.0. But when we surface and try to present our findings to management as a decision paper, we fail precisely because of those details. Why? Because our audience’s brains shut down when faced with too many dry facts. Data storytelling solves this problem. ****Our brains respond better to stories than to a list of pure numbers. In data storytelling, data is presented alongside an easy-to-understand visualization and an engaging narrative. The usual information overload is reduced to essential and relevant key messages. This makes the content more understandable and forms a solid foundation for business decisions.

  Enriched with scientific facts about how our brains work and “veteran stories” from project management, this book shows ways to combat “Death by PowerPoint” and free the world from poor presentations.

  The Contents

• What is Data Storytelling?
• Projects, Communication, and Presentations
• States of Data Storytelling: Audience, Aha Moment, Storyboard, Narrative Arc

• Visualization: Pre-attentive Attributes, Gestalt Principles, Slide Design, Data and Presentation Visualization
  The Author

  Friederike Oehlerking founded the consulting firm Lückenkrach in 2022, specializing in data storytelling—with the mission to free the world from poor PowerPoint presentations. She studied business administration and engineering and worked for 17 years, including as a global project manager, at a major German technology corporation both in Germany and abroad.

  The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.

  Inhalt

Basics.- Project and Communication.- What Happens in Our Brain?.- Steps of Data Storytelling.- Visualization.- The Performance.- Final Tips.