Persuading with Data: A Guide to Designing, Delivering, and Defending Your Data

by Miro Kazakoff

An integrated introduction to data visualization, strategic communication, and delivery best practices.

Persuading with Data provides an integrated instructional guide to data visualization, strategic communication, and delivery best practices. Most books on data visualization focus on creating good graphs. This is the first book that combines both explanatory visualization and communication strategy, showing how to use visuals to create effective communications that convince an audience to accept and act on the data. In four parts that proceed from micro to macro, the book explains how our brains make sense of graphs; how to design effective graphs and slides that support your ideas; how to organize those ideas into a compelling presentation; and how to deliver and defend data to an audience.

Persuading with Data is for anyone who has to explain analytical results to others. It synthesizes a wide range of skills needed by modern data professionals, providing a complete toolkit for creating effective business communications. Readers will learn how to simplify in order to amplify, how to communicate data analysis, how to prepare for audience resistance, and much more. The book integrates practitioner and academic perspectives with real-world examples from a variety of industries, organizations, and disciplines. It is accessible to a wide range of readers—from undergraduates to mid-career and executive-level professionals—and has been tested in settings that include academic classes and workplace training sessions.

Genres: Business, Design

264 pages, Paperback

Published March 29, 2022

Reviews

[Yolina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the insights in this book may appear obvious to seasoned analytics professionals, as they are often gained through experience. However, the book is highly practical for two key reasons:
1) it offers an excellent framework for organizing what you already know on communicating data findings;
2) provides a fantastic structure for teaching professionals who are new to communicating with diverse audiences.

[Phasathorn Suwansri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read. If you work in the data-related role.

[Mehmet Demir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book. Must read for any professional who presents data to influence others. Especially nice are the structured frameworks and plenty of examples and cases.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit dense making it feel more like a go-do data dump but good use of headlines and actionable language throughout.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and engaging mash up of Minto’s Pyramid Principle, Tufte’s data viz work, and even some presentation skills. I loved the audience confusion matrix.