How to Understand Your Audience
Lesson 10 from: Data Storytelling: Deliver Insights via Compelling StoriesBill Shander
How to Understand Your Audience
Lesson 10 from: Data Storytelling: Deliver Insights via Compelling StoriesBill Shander
Lessons
Introduction
1Class Introduction
03:29 2Do The Exercises
00:37 3Communication Challenges and Solutions
05:20 4Exercise: 4X4 Model
04:31 5Exercise Solution: 4X4 Model
03:25 6Introduction - Quiz
Thinking Like a Communicator
The Power of Story
06:48 8Six Ways to Tap Into Your Inner Storyteller
12:32 9The Importance of Understanding Your Audience
03:42 10How to Understand Your Audience
04:35 11How to Embrace Emotion (to review)
04:38 12How to Tap Into Your Inherent Creativity
05:55 13Exercise: An Emotional Story
01:29 14Exercise Solution: An Emotional Story
01:12 15Thinking Like a Communicator - Quiz
Telling Data Stories
16Basic Data Analytics Tactics
08:54 17Basic Journalism Tactics
04:56 18Defining Your Story
05:37 19Sketching and Storyboarding
07:05 20Use Your Words
04:20 21Telling Data Stories - Quiz
Essential Design Principles
22The Power of Visuals
07:44 23How to Pick the Right Chart for Your Data
05:19 24Exercise: Chart Selection
06:27 25Exercise: Visualization
02:59 26Basic Chart Designs Principles
08:21 27Research Driven Design Principles
06:27 28Exercise: A Data Story
03:50 29Essential Design Principles - Quiz
And Now What?
30Great Data Stories for Your Inspiration
05:53 31Tips and Tricks
03:53 32How to Sell Data Storytelling Services
03:56 33A Conversation Guide for Talking to Prospects About Data Storytelling Projects
05:30 34Course Summary
02:48Final Quiz
35Final Quiz
Lesson Info
How to Understand Your Audience
hopefully you buy into the idea that you have to speak differently depending on who your audience is now. You might be wondering, how do you do that? How do you get inside the heads of an audience? If you're not a member of that group, how could I possibly speak to an audience of senior executives in the oil and gas industry? If that's not who I am, how can I speak to health conscious mommy bloggers. There are several ways to tap into that mindset and this by the way, is really important. It's really about embodying your audience, trying to channel them, trying to really think like them as best you can. It's not just understanding them, but temporarily being them in a way this is the best way to make sure you're tapping into everything you need to reach them. The first thing you should do is talk to them. It's that simple if you know people who are in this audience, find them and ask them questions, there's no more effective way to understand what your audience wants than to ask them. ...
Now. This is really important. You can't ask open ended questions or vague questions to most audiences. It's almost never about asking them what they want because generally people don't know what they want. You know, the quote Henry Ford said that if he had asked people what product they wanted, they would have said faster horses. No, you have to ask leading questions questions about context, outcomes and goals, not features and functionality ford would have asked what is the biggest problem with getting from Toledo to Detroit and what would be the most important thing to improve comfort, speed, style or cost and similar questions like that. This is customer research and this is how you understand your audience. Of course in our context the questions are to figure out what style and depth of information to provide. Not product features. So if you were working on a data story about medical research, you might ask your audience how familiar they are with the subject, what education and training they have that's relevant to the topic, what their goals are knowing about it, what actions they might take with more information about it, how likely they are to share it and with whom. But that's not the only way to get to know your audience. You can also study your audience, look at how they speak to each other, watch videos, read articles, read the comments on those articles by studying them in the wild, you might gain some insights into what they know and how they talk. This method can be dangerous. However, for instance, if you follow the lead of publications that target that audience, you may then repeat the same mistakes they're making. If Apple had followed Nokia's lead when it got into the mobile phone market, we might all be using dumber phones for instance. So take this kind of information with a grain of salt, look at similar audiences and how they are in the wild. For instance, if you're speaking to doctors who are highly educated and experts in their field, you might find valuable inspiration by looking at other highly educated expert audiences like lawyers or engineers. While cultures differ to be sure there may be insights to be found. Finally, if you are at all empathetic, you can spend some time working on your method acting skills and possibly just imagine what your audience cares about. This won't get you to the exact level of detail you need in terms of what data to communicate or how much context to provide. But it might get you well enough along that path to have an intelligent conversation about those details. For instance, you can mock up a straw man of a data story, making some assumptions. After channeling your audience in that way and then get a member of that audience to weigh in with their opinion to tell you how you did honestly. The most important thing is to talk to your audience. Not only do you have to ask the right questions, you also have to make sure you get more than one opinion. No one person represents every other member of their group, but of course you can't talk to hundreds of people for one simple data story. In the end, you have to develop and learn to trust your gut, You'll get conflicting opinions, you'll get worthless opinions from people who haven't had a new thought in dozens of years, you'll get tangent opinions that don't even apply to the questions you're asking. You will need to find a way to parse all of this and do your best to communicate with your audience as best you can. This is a skill you will develop over time if you feel you're not a master at it right now, up next how to access the emotions in your story, which are a key ingredient of any great story.