What a Surprise! Data Storytelling has been alive, and real, all along

We’re pleased to share a short guest post from our long-time friend Ted Cuzzillo, author of the excellent Substack Data Doodle (“I traverse the faultline between data and the people who use it.”)

…At least according to a new horde I've found of genuine practitioners

I had written off data storytelling as a fraud. All I could see was a parade of visualized data. Then I took another look.

I used to tell people to search for “data stories.” Look at the sentence, I said. “Visualization” would be found within a few words of “story.” The two are compatible but not exclusive.

But I had given up too soon. Right under my nose, old friends such as Andy Cotgreave of Tableau and Zach Gemignani of Juice Analytics had found a new frontier. I had given up too soon.

There were others, too. The great Brent Dykes, for one, with his “insight funnel.” The curious and aspiring Paulina Davila, of JPMorgan Chase & Co, and her eagerness to apply techniques of journalism. Also, the traditionalist Kim Herrington, senior analyst at Forrester, and Mico Yuk of BIBrains. And my old friend Lee Feinberg, a professor at the University of Chicago and president of DecisionViz. He says he would rather not say “data” at all.

It was Andy Cotgreave, director of visualization at Tableau, there since 2011, who went down to the roots: the data. It all comes down to the data — what data you store, how you store it, how you curate it. Even subtle differences can change the story.

“There is no single version of the truth,” he said. “That’s bullshit. That’s a selling tool.”

With any luck, a story is repeated. People who’ve heard the story at a meeting now retell it in an informal setting. They may dissect the data and ponder the meaning. It’s what I’ve called “the Starbucks story,” an informal version that’s socialized and remembered. If the organization’s culture allows it, useful insight can make its way back inside.

Data storytelling can be real afterall.