Leading with Data

Data storytelling is emerging as a critical component of data and analytics. Since we are visual creatures, data enriched by effective, human-centered design principles is the best way to convey clear and compelling insights. So what do you need to know to do it well and how can you get your company to see value in it? 

In this episode, Cassidy speaks with David Ciommo, Data Visualization Principal at Humana, about making the jump from visual storytelling to data storytelling and how he established a data storytelling discipline within his company. 

David is a data storyteller and data literacy advocate and the first ever winner of the Best Data Storyteller Award presented by Narrative Science. A trained illustrator, he began his career in graphic design and art direction before pivoting to data storytelling with no data or analytics background. What he did know was how to take data and tell stories with it. 

At Humana, David founded the Visualization Center of Excellence, an internal site created to share style guides, tip sheets, and other resources around data storytelling and data literacy. His overarching goal is to combine purposeful human-centered design principles with first class data visualizations in an effort to provide meaningful insights and tangible actionable opportunities to the leadership at Humana. 

We discuss: 

-Translating visual storytelling skills to data storytelling 

-Establishing data storytelling within the analytics team 

-The genesis of the Visualization Center of Excellence 

-Why you should always start with the story 

-Teaching data storytelling to others 

-Launching a data literacy campaign 

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data on Apple Podcasts , Spotify, or here. Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? 

Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

Democratizing analytics is not about disseminating dashboards throughout an organization or spending a ton of money on putting in a new data infrastructure. Availability of data is not the key to democratizing analytics.

In this episode, Cassidy speaks with Joel Shapiro, Professor of Data Analytics / Chief Analytics Officer at Varicent, about how having an understanding of how data analytics solves business problems is the key to democratizing analytics.

Joel is an expert at helping organizations generate business value with data analytics. He is currently the Chief Analytics Officer at Varicent, a leading Sales Performance Management solution provider. He also teaches advanced analytics to MBA students at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Joel is a regular contributor to Forbes and CNBC and his work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review and cited by top business publications, such as Business Insider.

We discuss:

Visit Joel at joelshapiroanalytics.com.

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here.

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Data literacy is not only important for businesses who want to be successful and individuals looking to level up their careers. At a macro level, it’s integral to addressing all the problems we face as a society.

In this episode, Cassidy speaks with Ben Jones, Founder & CEO at Data Literacy, about the steps an organization can take to begin closing the data literacy gap.

Ben is an experienced and passionate data instructor. He has taught hundreds of thousands of students in both corporate and academic environments and currently teaches data visualization theory at the University of Washington. An accomplished author, Ben has written five books including Avoiding Data Pitfalls and Data Literacy Fundamentals.

In 2018, Ben became aware of a huge gap in data literacy, data education, and data assessments and decided to launch a company to address what he saw as a critical problem in our society. The company — Data Literacy — helps businesses, government agencies, and individuals break through the barriers holding them back from improving their data knowledge and skills.

Topics covered:

-Filling the data literacy, education, and assessments gap

-The evolution of data literacy

-How to start improving data literacy within your organization

-How leadership has contributed to the gap

-The importance of the human element in data

-The costs of falling into data pitfalls

Reach out to Ben on LinkedIn, by email ([email protected]), or on Twitter (@dataremixed).

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

A lot of data practitioners struggle with telling an effective data story. They excel at getting the data. They have expert-level knowledge of data visualizations. What they lack is a clear understanding of how to choose the right story to tell.

In today’s episode, Cassidy speaks with Maria Massei-Rosato, former Vice President and Data Evangelist at Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Among other topics, they chat about her journey in data analytics and her advice for constructing the right data narrative.

Maria has over 25 years of experience in software development and data analytics. During her time at the Central Bank, she created a start-up practice that elevated their ability to connect and synthesize disparate and complex informational sources and create insightful analyses.

Aside from her strengths in data analysis, she's also a talented writer. Her screenplay, Lost in Control, placed in 14 film festivals and won best screenplay at the Milan International Film Festival and the Montana Covellite Film Festival. The film is based on her memoir, which is a mother-daughter story shaped by lessons she learned while cycling across the country over seven and a half weeks.

It’s this unique combination of skills that made her the perfect person to launch a data storytelling course at Parsons School of Design. Additionally, she leads customized workshops based on this course for organizations interested in learning more about data storytelling techniques.

Topics covered:

-Pursuing a career that combines both analytical and creative aspects

-The process of creating and teaching a data storytelling course

-Tips for constructing a better data narrative

-Why design thinking and adaptive leadership should be more widely adopted

Learn more about Maria on her website, on IMDb, and on Instagram.

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

If you talk to any executive, they’ll tell you that leveraging data is a competitive advantage. But according to today’s guest, a lot of companies still don’t know exactly what that means and how best to operationalize data to gain that advantage.

Cassidy speaks with Benn Stancil, Chief Analytics Officer and Founder at Mode, about how the modern data stack has evolved and why the current data playbook is incomplete.

Previous to Mode, Benn was an analyst at Microsoft and Yammer, where he helped lead product analytics. He also worked as an economic analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC.

At Mode, Benn leads internal analytics efforts and provides strategic oversight and guidance to product directions. An active content contributor to the data science community, you can find Benn’s articles at benn.substack.com.

They discuss:

-How the switch to remote work affected Mode and the SaaS industry

-Mode’s origin story

-The gray areas of self service and the role analysts should play

-Why Benn writes articles and what he gets out of it

-The missing piece in the modern data stack

-Why the most important quality for a good data team is curiosity

-How to usher your company out of the old world into the new world of data

Follow Benn on Twitter, or email him at [email protected].

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

In this episode, Cassidy speaks with Lillian Pierson, a world-class data leader, entrepreneur, and educator, and the CEO of Data Mania. They discuss different approaches data professionals can take to become data entrepreneurs and how data science has evolved over the years.

Lillian has trained over 1 million data professionals through her YouTube videos, online courses, and books. She’s particularly passionate about helping data professionals and new data entrepreneurs start their own business. As an independent consultant, she has supported over 10% of Fortune 100 companies and she’s been featured in Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and The Guardian, among dozens of other publications.

They discuss:

- Lillian’s journey building an online business around data education

- Avenues for becoming a data entrepreneur

- Defining your audience in the data & analytics space

- Data science career trajectories

- Lillian’s 2 methods to start a side hustle

- Approaching data as a product versus a supply chain

- The case for creating data products

Check out Lillian’s YouTube page and take the Data Superhero Quiz.

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

Culture transformation — it’s an intimidating project. How do you do it in a way that holistically shifts mindsets and behaviors and tangibly delivers impact to the business?

For the answer to that question, Cassidy speaks with two EVPs from Edelman: Elena Grotto, the Business Transformation Group Head in Chicago, and Felicia Joy, the US Head of Behavioral Science.

Elena has over ten years of experience designing and facilitating behavior change, adult learning experiences, communications campaigns, and employee value proposition strategy. In particular, she specializes in shifting employee mindsets and behaviors and stabilizing the workforce amid enterprise-wide transformation.

Felicia is a behavioral scientist and strategic corporate affairs leader with experience in marketing, public relations, and corporate communications. She has put her skills to use in a range of sectors including corporate, government, non-profit, and academia and across industries like healthcare, hospitality, energy, aviation, and financial services.

Elena and Felicia currently work for Edelman, a global communications firm that partners with businesses and organizations to evolve, promote, and protect their brands and reputations. The two pull out actionable insights from employee data sets and design operational recommendations and communications to elevate the employee experience, often during times of great change within a business.

We discuss:

-How early experiences in the worlds of contemporary art and public relations led them to their current positions

-The types of projects they collaborate on for clients

-How employers have become a source of trust

-How communications can shift mindsets and behaviors

-Tying culture to a business strategy with data

-Measuring the effects of culture change

-Who should be in charge of culture change

-Research on the impact of COVID on work and culture

Check out Edelman’s 2021 Trust Barometer.

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here.

Thinking it’s trendy isn’t a strong enough reason to develop a data strategy, culture or structure for your business. You need to integrate the purpose of your business with the purpose of the data you collect and use.

We’re lucky to be joined by Bruno Aziza, Head of Google Cloud Data & Analytics at Google, who shares how to develop a culture that embraces the use of data in everyday decision-making.

What we talked about:

- Bruno’s dedication and approach to learning and teaching

- The evolution of business intelligence

- Distilling customers’ data challenges

- Why you shouldn’t let vendors label what you do & instead define it yourself

- Red flags that indicate an unsustainable data culture

- The difference between data warehouses & data lakes

- Actionable advice to build a data-driven culture

Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:

Bruno’s LinkedIn profile

Drive Business Performance (a book by Bruno)

Analytically Yours (Bruno’s podcast)

Bruno’s YouTube channel (where you can access The Car Cast)

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

Public health is the great equalizer — it affects everyone.

Data plays an integral role in solving the complex problems of public health by providing evidence-based solutions that can benefit the entire population.

In this episode, Cassidy talks with Dr. Aditi Srivastav Bussells, Director of Research at Children’s Trust of South Carolina, about the importance of making data accessible for all, especially those who may have no experience with it.

Aditi is a public health researcher, storyteller, and strategist with a PhD in public health and 10 years of experience in both policy and non profit settings. She focuses her efforts on using research and data to create sustainable and meaningful change for communities and organizations.

Currently, Aditi specializes in the areas of risk behavior prevention, health equity, health communications, and child health with Children’s Trust of South Carolina. She is also running for City Council in Columbia, SC under the belief that you cannot have a healthy economy without healthy people and vice versa. She plans to bring her unique perspective to bear on solving the challenges of the city as it emerges from the pandemic.

What we talked about:

-Working in public health during the pandemic

-Choosing public health over academia and the corporate world

-The day-to-day of dealing with data in a community versus a company

-Changing the story of data depending on the audience and measuring impact

-Educating groups on data with Stat Chats

-Advice for someone getting started in public health data

-Running for city council

Follow Aditi on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or visit her website: aditiforthecity.com.

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

Data literacy is the missing piece keeping most organizations from truly leveraging data to drive successful business outcomes. Luckily, we’re talking to the man who created the roadmap to data literacy.

In this episode, Cassidy chats with Jordan Morrow, Head of Data, Design, and Management Skills at Pluralsight, about how to bring data literacy to your organization.

Jordan’s on a mission to close the data skills gap and establish a data-centric culture by bringing data literacy to the masses. He’s passionate about delivering a human touch to a world of numbers and gets the greatest satisfaction when he can help people see and understand the power that data analytics can bring to their careers, their businesses, and their personal lives.

Currently, Jordan leads Pluralsight’s data and design/management across various channels. The program is designed to help people learn and improve their data capabilities and gain an understanding of how to effectively use these skills to handle the large amounts of data found in modern organizations.

What we talked about:

-How COVID accelerated the digital transformation of many companies

-Becoming the godfather of data literacy

-Expanding educational content past data literacy to data science, data engineering, and data governance

-The definition and four levels of data literacy

-A five-step process for implementing data in the workflow of a business

-How individuals and companies can get started with data literacy

-Who should own data literacy initiatives

Check out Jordan’s new book Be Data Literate: The Data Literacy Skills Everyone Needs To Succeed. Want a copy? Reach out to Cassidy on LinkedIn or at [email protected].

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.