Telling Stories with Data
when i was eight years old
my grandma would tell me stories every
single sunday
she had this big grimm brothers fairy
tale book where she will tell me stories
like little red riding hood
and hensel and gretel out of those are
stories
that were popular when she was a kid
during world war ii
and long before that when her grandma
was a kid
those are stories that will remain
popular when i have kids someday
when i would go over there every single
sunday
i would never get bored of these stories
and i’d want to hear the same ones over
and over
and over again but why is that
that is because the concept of a story
is appealing to us humans
with a story we managed to transform
information
into a message a message that can convey
emotions like awe
passion or sadness a message
that can enable us to inform and to
educate
sometimes a message that can teach a
lesson
for example that you should never trust
the wolf
storytelling is an art that has been
practiced for millennia
to inform and to educate and to teach
over thousands of years humans have
perfected this art
to make information more universally
accessible
to seniors adults and eight-year-old
kids
alike
the concept of storytelling however is
not just limited to literary genres
fairy tales and bedtime stories and that
is
because in a way the only requirement
for a good story
is the availability of information or
data
what a story in the literary genre does
is it takes
letters structures those into words
into sentences into paragraphs into
chapters
and so on we use that to make
a message understandable from
information
and the concept of data is not too
similar of that
only now we don’t have 26 letters that
we can take
and craft a message from we have nine
numbers that we can use
now when we deal with data it is
mathematics
that serves as the grammar in the syntax
to make our
information more universally
understandable
telling the story with data describes
the transformation
of raw information into a purpose
and in a nutshell there’s two major
elements to telling a story with data
first and foremost there’s the area of
statistics
and math now i know that is commonly
equated to magic
but it really is not that bad we use
statistics
to extract aggregate and to clean data
to basically make it understandable to
us
statistics and math serve like a
dictionary to us
that we can use to make information
understandable
secondly is a notion of creativity
and that is the part that is often
forgotten when we tell a story with data
data science and data analytics have
become a buzzword
however seldom the notion of creativity
is mentioned
creativity means that you understand who
you are
crafting your message towards and you
take a unique approach
to structure your message and your story
in a nutshell that was telling that is
what telling a story with data is about
for me
in a way telling a story with data is
like painting a picture with words
only instead of words we use numbers
let me give you an example according to
the u.s census bureau
in 2018 over 50
of the people who live below the poverty
line in cincinnati
or black in that same year only 40
percent
of the population are black
you do not need to be a data scientist
to see that this number is
disproportionate
and that there is a disproportionate
amount of black people living in poverty
data can be our cue that can enable us
to tell a story
and to enable us to tell the story of
400 years of exclusion
and systemic racism it can enable us
to tell a story to chart a more
inclusive path forward
in the united states of america
with data like this becoming more
universally
available becoming ubiquitous almost
i’m going to make the bold statement
that numbers
are becoming the new words as
storytellers
we can use data like this to inform
to educate and most importantly
to empower it is this very notion of
empowerment
that led me to found the neo initiative
last summer
we are a student organization at the
university of cincinnati
that provides pro bono data analytics
consulting
to minority-owned small businesses in
our community
now i know that sounds like quite a
mouthful but our work
is really straightforward one we do data
research
we try to aggregate data that will help
our clients make the next big decision
in their business number two data
analysis
we analyze the data we try to uncover
patterns within that data within that
information and most importantly number
three
we are problem solvers we use data to
solve
a bigger problem step by step
we are hoping to empower small
businesses
and do our part to a more inclusive
cincinnati
economy
we are storytellers for those who have
been marginalized
and excluded for those who do not enjoy
the privilege of fair competition
in our economy and although
we may only have the resources to do our
work in cincinnati
i can guarantee you that does not make
it any less powerful
that is why i want to illustrate that
with you with our largest client
they are cincinnati’s leading
entrepreneurship
accelerator and they focus their work on
black and brown
aspiring entrepreneurs their work is
truly incredible
and founded upon the notion of
empowerment
and when they approached us not too long
ago
wanting our help with measuring their
impact we were all in
impact can look many different ways
so although this question of let’s
measure our impact
may sound easy at first i guarantee you
it is pretty complicated
so we have divided this project up into
three simple steps
that will take us from identifying the
information to helping them
tell their story in our community
step one finding the data defining the
scope
we want to define impact not only as
profit but also as people
as clients as
the support that they contribute to our
economy
we are constructing surveys that will
help them get data from their clients
and that will enable us to take it to
step two
analyzing the data with statistics we
use statistics as a tool to uncover
patterns
and to find meaning behind that
information and that leads us to step
three
telling a story using that data
we are helping them tell a story of
community empowerment
and hopefully we will be able to be a
part of their plans moving forward
maybe expanding their services all over
the united states
who knows telling the story with data
can have that power
i have committed to help small business
owners
tell their story because of a history
of exclusion and racism because they
have been
denied fair competition in our economy
because black and brown entrepreneurs
have struggled
for way too long
telling a story with data is my way
to transform information into insight
and my passion into real tangible
impact
as somebody who works with data on a
pretty regular basis
the one thing i appreciate about it most
is its versatility
now we just talked about the community
applications but there are also
organizational applications
as well as individual applications
community applications for me it is my
activism outlet
it is my possibility to combine my
passion for my academics
with my activism and my desire for
social change
on the organizational level i can think
of a single large company
that doesn’t use a data science division
to make decisions nowadays
it has become so vastly popular that
people often equate data science
to magic and then lastly the individual
applications of telling a story with
data
each and every one of us has a little
thing up here called the brain
and all this brain does all day is
taking the information
that we have available around us and
make decisions based upon that
in a way that makes each and every one
of us somewhat of a mini data scientist
really that’s what data scientists do
all day
so seeing that we are all somewhat of a
data scientist
we need to know you need to know how to
tell a story
using data so today
i want to leave you with a simple
three-step game plan
on how you can tell a story using data
step one identify your data
identify what you’re passionate about
but also
identify what fulfills you in the long
run
this is a process of introspection that
takes many people
years but it is important to find out
what you care about
deep down step two
find a pattern within those things you
care about
maybe family or faith or you work
research activism all these things
try to convey a message to you they’re
coming from your principal center
and try to convey a message about who
you really are
step 3 let your past become your
identity
tell your story and let your future
actions be guided by who you are
deep down by your principle center
by your virtues at the core of your
existence
data for me is the abstraction of
information
into numbers and if you understand that
simple concept
it can open doors for you in all areas
of life
it will enable you to tell a story to
tell your story
that can last for centuries and will not
be forgotten
so let me ask you how will you choose
to tell it
you