If there’s one thing I keep learning, it’s
Start with the Conclusion -> and let’s qualify that to be a meaningful one
People like to know what’s the deal up front. No time wasted trying to figure out where this is going. No, nothing is being given away. If it’s something that’s of interest, people will stay more tuned in. Otherwise, let’s not waste anybody’s time. 😐
So now that the audience has been reeled in, build up with supporting information. Take into account your audience of course –
- Address impatient people first
- bullet points
- meaningful headlines
- executive summary
- Then go back and forth between details of what’s happened for the analytics, and the visuals, what’s the future for the creatives
- Finally, talk to the most patient members of your audience
NOTE: Don’t water down and make a mix all of the above into a mush soup. Address the personalities accordingly.
A Better Conclusion in Power BI
In Power BI, there is a tendency to have generic chart headlines (guilty) and this is partly due to the nature of the reports having the desired low touch aspect. A couple of ways this can be improved is through the use of –
- Measures – create measures for the values that change and insert into the Titles
- A few tutorials out there in youtube land
- Take it a step further and add the context with values
- eg. <Store A> had sales of <+/- %> in <month> due to <top reason> vs <Store A> Sales in <month>
- Conditional formatting – icons quickly identify up, down, above, below, etc…
So, these take more effort, but just like anything else the follow through is what’s important. You can hit the ball over the net, but how you follow through your swing is what will determine the effectiveness of your shot.
