Upskilling analysts in data storytelling and dashboard design at a major government department

The analysts at a large central government department wanted to get better at presenting their work to other people, to influence decision-makers. They were already using a combination of Python and Power BI to create dashboards, as well as presenting insights in traditional slide decks. The audiences for the data were varied – ranging from the general public, through policy experts, up to ministers of state.

Challenge

Although they were confident and highly skilled in data analysis and the technical side of data visualisation, the teams needed to up their game when it came to communicating the insights.

Their audiences frequently had a lower level of data-literacy than an analyst, and were often time-poor. The analyst teams needed to find ways of distilling down the message without losing accuracy, nuance or level of uncertainty.

Course structure

The in-person training over two days was led by a JBI instructor with over 10 years’ of experience in data storytelling. The training content was tailored to the unique challenges of the teams themselves, and the technology stack that they were already working with.

The formal tuition covered the principles of data communication, as well as key concepts such as graphical perception, pre-attentive processing and the layering of information in interactive data visualizations.

This was blended with hands-on exercises to allow the attendees to apply the learning with real data sets. Finally, there were structured discussions to allow the teams to discuss how changes could be implemented to improve the presentation of data across the department.

Feedback

The response from attendees was universally positive. They appreciated the mix of formal tuition, hands-on exercises and discussion – and how the content was tailored to their specific needs.

“I really enjoyed the interaction and integration of practical exercises to break up the theory and give application to the specific type of work that we are doing.”

“The course was very engaging and interesting - lots of helpful tips and frameworks to use when developing and improving future dashboards.”

“Really good combination of best practice and thought-provoking discussion, good awareness of potential limitations and suggestions of alternative approaches.”