Better Excel Charts — Be one with the plot.
Pick up any book on presentation zen, pitching and making great power point slide deck. You will find some common themes:
- Simplify your story,
- Keep a tight focus,
- Use a dark background,
- Large readable fonts,
- Avoid too many bullet points,
The same recommendations also works with Excel charts.
Treat each graph, each plot like a slide in your pitching deck. Keep it simple (ideally relationships with no more than two variables), keep the story, the message in front of you (what is the plot supposed to show — don’t make me think) and ensure that you, yourself can read the trend and the data from a distance.
Takeaways — One : Understand the difference between correlation, causation and attribution before you attribute a cause to an effect. You need to explain your model fundamentals or at least have a thesis ready to share. Without a fundamental model causality doesn’t work well in presentations.
Takeaways — Two: Ensure that your analysis is credible and complete; that you have considered all possible opinions and angles; that you haven’t made or used assumptions that can be challenged and set aside. Most important of all, always cite your source so that your reader knows that your information comes from a credible industry source and not through the school grapevine of my ten year old daughter. Citing credible sources is something that newbies often forget. Remember it doesn’t take anything away from your work, it only adds credibility to your analysis and shows your professionalism.
Takeaways — Three: Simpler is better. Fancier is not always an improvement. Delivering comprehension at a glance takes effort. Use the full real estate available to you by tweaking your axis.
Takeaways — Four: Don’t dilute the message, don’t confuse the audience. If you need to explain seven relationships, use seven charts. Don’t bundle all of them in one.
Takeaways-Five: Answer the question first, what is the point? Why are we here? Why should I care? Why did you bother?
Takeaways — Six: How do you treat data with respect? Spend time with it and on it, understand and use the context. How do you treat opinions with respect? Explore both sides of the story and look at the context. The context is key because you will find the story, the relationship, the perspective you want to share with that. A graph with a clear story and a clear message is a very powerful tool. Without the story it become just a simple curves and lines on art paper.
You are entitled to your own biases and presentation but give your readers the chance to explore all credible point of views.
Takeaways — Seven: Keep on digging for data till you find it. While I used a lot of assumption in my initial analysis on rig counts and productivity, I kept digging till I found the rig productivity data set I had been looking for. Sometimes all we need is just a simple plot without any hacks or tweaks to make our point. Data brings the best of credibility.
Originally published at at Better Excel Charts as part of a series on data analysis for data analysts.
My Doha oil price thesis — the trigger event that led to this post and the surprising relationship I found between rig productivity and US crude oil production. Also see Data analysis in Excel — Five tools in twenty minutes.
