Data Authors: Skilled Designers of Data Presentations - Data Fluency: Empowering Your Organization with Effective Data Communication - page 85

informing executives about overall organizational performance or as narrow as
delivering a weekly e-mail highlighting sales activity compared to goals. With
many competing demands, it isn't always easy to clearly define this purpose
and therefore the scope and message of the data you need to communicate.
The purpose is a balancing act, weighing the needs of the audience against
your own objectives and considering the results and insights that percolate
from the data itself (Figure 5-3). Now consider some thoughts on how to
perform this balancing act, starting with the data.

Let the Data Speak
Whatever your personal objectives and the desires of your audience,
your data product must be rooted in fair and honest analysis and sum-
mary of the data. Some data products, such as research reports and
customer survey analyses, should rely first on the data to uncover a
message. In these cases, there may not be a specific action that you are
guiding your audience toward. The data can lead to many unexpected
places and may raise more questions than it answers.

Author

Audience Data
Figure 5-3: Finding balance between the
data, audience, and author's objective

However, we caution against a blanket philosophy of “letting data tell its story.”
The data may not have a story. Or the story may vary for different audiences. Or
the data may point to outcomes that are entirely outside of your organization's
control. The cost of this focus on pure objectivity—and therefore discarding
the inherent knowledge of the author or the needs of the audience—is often
a directionless and sprawling document.

Your Objectives
Data products will, and should, bear the stamp of their author. They should
reflect a goal that is important to you, as the person who is choosing what
data to show and how it gets displayed. What outcome are you looking for?
What do you hope to change in your organization by creating this report,
dashboard, or analysis tool?

Data products can serve many purposes. The following (non-exhaustive) list
includes many of the popular reasons for building data products:

Help management define what is important.

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Educate people in the organization about the things that matter.

⬛

Set goals and expectations for specific individuals or groups.

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