This is something that doesn’t just affect the data area of an organisation but other areas too. Please, please, please avoid creating presentations where the viewer at the end says to themselves “so what?”
The best part about working in the data team at a company is that if you do it right, your work can have a major impact on a company’s performance and its overarching strategy.
However in order to do this the work that the team produces needs to be well understood by everyone and that work must produce clear and concise actions that the business can execute. The key to this is clear and effective communication.
In my opinion I would rather have an averagely skilled analyst who was extremely effective in communicating what they had found out than a supremely talented analyst whose communication skills were mediocre at best. All of those numerical and analytical skills are useless unless you can convey what you found out to your audience and why it’s important.
Here are some pointers to keep in mind when creating your next presentation:
- Unless you work in a small company describe Who you are and what you do.
- What have you been investigating and why?
- Include a “Why you all need to listen to me today?” point. This is the crux of the presentation and should draw your audience’s attention.
- What did you find out?
- Why what you’ve found out is important.
- What actions need to be taken from this insight, preferably with time frames and task owners.
