Data Visualization

Chart chooser

There are endless types of data charts out there: lines, bars, scatters, pies. Which one to pick depends on the type of data you have…

Investment bank memos

Investment bankers usually prepare the data rooms for due diligence in M&A transactions. Shelves full of information…

One science is harder to explain than another

Most of my client work involves a presentation with a hard/difficult business or scientific issue to explain. All science is complex, and it requires someone to study for years to understand it. But in some scientific disciplines I can get away with…

Words and number consistency

It is impossible to make a correct 5 year business forecast in an investor pitch. But your financial projection is not really a forecast, a prediction of the future, it is a picture made out of numbers. “If our company will be successful, this is what it could look like”.

Grasping data charts

Here is what a first time viewer needs to go through when looking at a data chart:

• What’s the unit on the y-axis
• What’s on the x-axis
• What do the legend colours stand for

Storyfying financials

Most presentations have some sort of written summary on the first page. You often almost skip it when presenting live, but it can be important for an important that reads your slide deck at the computer rather than attending a live presentation.

Overdoing the animations

This animation (GIF alert) shows the distribution of music sales over time. Wait a few seconds and you see the pie chart changing for multiple years. This data can be represented much better by a series of stacked column charts. The animation takes too long, and the audience does not…