Discover Ways to Share Data Stories
So you have a great story now. How can you share it with your audience?
You probably already decided on the method when you constructed it.
You could use charts or a simple table:
Even a basic table will benefit from selective editing and color to get its story across:
A simple bit of text could get a specific message across even more clearly:
You can use a report to relay the story narrative over several pages. Reports can combine charts, tables, and text and are very helpful in business contexts.
Infographics are a great way to present information in a visually engaging manner. For example, here is one that maps food and wine pairings: 
You might even use a dashboard. Here’s an example of a dashboard made using Power BI:
Scrollytelling is a relatively new technique that is becoming popular. Animated web pages reveal information as you scroll. For example, look at the Every Last Drop example you saw in the video.
More often than not, you end up using a combination of techniques.
You must choose a tool to construct the story. We used spreadsheets extensively in this course, but you can also use specialized data reporting tools, dashboards, visualization tools, or even programming to custom-build a medium for your story. If you need to refresh your memory, go back to part 3, chapter 2 to revisit the tools you saw in this course.
Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Apple Keynote are simple presentation tools. Each slide can reveal part of the story. Presentations are great if you have a captive audience. This report uses a presentation format to tell the story about successful Kickstarter projects.
You must consider the distribution mechanism, which depends on the audience size. If your audience consists of one or two people, you might want to email them a document. If your audience is an entire company, you may want to share this through a company intranet or Slack/Teams channel. Finally, to reach the general public, you could use a public medium like a web page.
Your Turn: Share Your Report With Zara
Now it’s your turn! Take Zara’s story and create a report in a shareable presentation format.
You should cover the following points in the report:
Your goal
The data you used
How you performed your analysis
Your findings
Use Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Sheets, Apple Keynote, or whatever tool you have handy.
✅ Check your work: How did you do? Download my version of the report here.
Let’s Recap!
There are various choices for sharing your story. Here are a few that we looked at:
Methods:
Charts
Infographics
Tables
Text
Dashboards
Scrollytelling
Tools:
Spreadsheets
Visualization tools
Reporting tools
Programming
Presentation tools
Distribution channels:
Email
Restricted website (e.g., intranet) or Slack/Teams
Public website
Great job finalizing Zara's mission! In this final chapter, we’ll move beyond the fictional scenarios and examine some considerations for working with data in the real world.
