The Art of Making Data Talk
Got Data, Now What?
by Tammy Mathieu
Showcasing data in graphs, charts, reports, dashboards… is like buying curtains for your house; it highlights features and generally just “makes things look pretty”. Like in most cases, prior to getting curtains, you should have a house first — equipping you with the knowledge of knowing what size and styles you need! This is to say, that data works in the same way — data itself needs to be ready *prior* to moving into the Business Intelligence (BI) stage, once the data is ready — BI works its own magic!
Most commonly, organizations don’t have issues with collecting data. However when crunch-time comes, data-gaps typically become apparent. This is when and where everyone is running around filling-in the blanks; finding out the data is messy; and the best part… everyone has their own versions of what they think is the latest data or even-better yet, we just can’t find the missing pieces! So, how do we get better data?
Once you’ve defined your goal(s), established an information-roadmap, and communicated the vision; this is where the real work begins.

The Art of Making Data Talk: Goals (Part 1)
The Art of Making Data Talk: Information-Roadmap (Part 2)
The Art of Making Data Talk: Communication (Part 3)

Notes:
Icons used in this article by icons8
Some fonts used from Google Fonts