How do you turn a forgettable graph into a compelling data story?
For more than a decade, the team at storytelling with data has helped leading organizations and countless professionals transform their business communications into action-inspiring narratives. Now, they're bringing the best of those lessons to you—in the beloved before-and-after format synonymous with their popular workshops. Through twenty powerful makeovers, watch ineffective charts evolve into engaging visuals that captivate, inform, and lead to smarter decisions.
World-renowned data storytellers Mike Cisneros, Alex Velez, and SWD founder Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic guide you through proven methods to strengthen your communications, sharing the thought process behind each redesign so you can confidently apply the concepts to your work. Building on core principles from the international bestseller storytelling with data, refined through thousands of workshops, they demonstrate the straightforward, intentional changes—like simplifying visuals, eliminating clutter, and emphasizing key insights—that will transform your graphs and slides from the expected to the extraordinary.
In storytelling with data: before and after, you'll learn how to:
- Structure stories that connect with your audience
- Create visuals that clarify complex information
- Apply color, layout, and design to focus attention on what matters most
- Overcome common challenges like time constraints and poorly designed templates
- Craft narratives that make an impact and influence outcomes
Every page of storytelling with data: before and after is packed with insights drawn from real-world experience, distilled into easy-to-implement strategies. No matter your role, experience level, or comfort with data, you'll learn practical lessons you can apply right away. Each transformation delivers meaningful takeaways to help you create data stories that resonate—and get results.
This book is your ultimate blueprint for turning graphs into persuasive, decision-driving stories.
Table of Contents:
acknowledgments xiii
about the authors xiv
introduction before storytelling with data 1
Chapter 1 design for insight or action 21
Chapter 2 embrace basic graphs 39
Chapter 3 say it with words 57
Chapter 4 draw attention to what matters 71
Chapter 5 trust your instincts 87
Chapter 6 identify a story to tell 103
Chapter 7 justify your assumptions 121
Chapter 8 know your audience 131
Chapter 9 plan for success 155
Chapter 10 move from “what?” to “now what?” 181
Chapter 11 avoid common mistakes 195
Chapter 12 optimize within constraints 217
Chapter 13 bring beauty to your emails 229
Chapter 14 prioritize substance over style 243
Chapter 15 report with a purpose 257
chapter 16 generate empathy with qualitative data 273
Chapter 17 find the right level of detail 287
Chapter 18 explain with data stories (not dashboards) 301
Chapter 19 value your time 323
Chapter 20 weave it all together 347
what’s next after storytelling with data 372
index 393
About the Author :
COLE NUSSBAUMER KNAFLIC tells stories with data. She is founder and CEO of storytelling with data (SWD) and author of bestselling books storytelling with you: plan, create, and deliver a stellar presentation (Wiley, 2023), storytelling with data: let's practice! (Wiley, 2019), and storytelling with data: a data visualization guide for business professionals (Wiley, 2015), which has been translated into 20 languages, is used as a textbook by more than 300 universities, and serves as the course book for tens of thousands of SWD workshop participants. For more than a decade, Cole and her team have delivered interactive learning sessions sought after by data-minded individuals, companies, and philanthropic organizations all over the world. They also help people create graphs that make sense and weave them into compelling stories through the popular SWD community, blog, podcast, and videos.
MIKE CISNEROS is an award-winning data visualization specialist and a two-time Tableau Visionary who encourages people around the world to tell their own personal, social, and cultural data-driven stories. A contributor to Makeover Monday: Improving How We Visualize and Analyze Data, One Chart at a Time (Wiley, 2018), Mike's work has appeared in a variety of media outlets, including the Washington Post, Slate, Forbes, and Fast Company. In his roles as a data storyteller for SWD and highly regarded speaker across the US and Europe, he teaches individuals and organizations how to take complicated analyses and transform them into convincing, clear visual messages so they can best be heard and understood.
ALEX VELEZ is an accomplished data engineer and statistician who possesses a natural skill for communicating with data. During her time in the finance and pharmaceutical industries, Alex learned to bridge connections between technical teams and senior executives, translating her quantitative experience and education in mathematics and statistics into easy-to-digest formats. After spending several years championing the importance of statistical significance and data quality, she came to an important realization: better data literacy is needed everywhere. Since joining the SWD team, she has focused her career on helping thousands of people across a wide range of industries learn to communicate more effectively with data. Her work has been featured in the bestselling book storytelling with you (Wiley, 2023) and on award-winning storytelling with data platforms.
