Scott Berinato

<article-ideainbrief class="article-ideainbrief">
 <h4 class="ideainbrief-title">Idea in Brief</h4>
 <div class="ideainbrief-contents">
  <h5>Context</h5>
  <p>Knowledge workers need greater visual literacy than they used to, because so much data—and so many ideas—are now presented graphically. But few of us have been taught data-visualization skills.</p>
  <h5>Tools Are Fine…</h5>
  <p>Inexpensive tools allow anyone to perform simple tasks such as importing spreadsheet data into a bar chart. But that means it’s easy to create terrible charts. Visualization can be so much more: It’s an agile, powerful way to explore ideas and communicate information.</p>
  <h5>…But Strategy Is Key</h5>
  <p>Don’t jump straight to execution. Instead, first think about what you’re representing—ideas or data? Then consider your purpose: Do you want to inform, persuade, or explore? The answers will suggest what tools and resources you need.</p>
 </div>
</article-ideainbrief><p>Not long ago, the ability to create smart data visualizations, or dataviz, was a nice-to-have skill. For the most part, it benefited design- and data-minded managers who made a deliberate decision to invest in acquiring it. That’s changed. Now visual communication is a must-have skill for all managers, because more and more often, it’s the only way to make sense of the work they do.</p>

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<p>Not long ago, the ability to create smart data visualizations (or dataviz) was a nice-to-have skill for design- and data-minded managers. But now it&#8217;s a must-have skill for all managers, because it&#8217;s often the only way to make sense of the work they do. Decision making increasingly relies on data, which arrives with such overwhelming velocity, and in such volume, that some level of abstraction is crucial. Thanks to the internet and a growing number of affordable tools, visualization is accessible for everyone&#8212;but that convenience can lead to charts that are merely adequate or even ineffective.</p>
<p>By answering just two questions, Berinato writes, you can set yourself up to succeed: Is the information <em>conceptual</em> or <em>data-driven?</em> and Am I <em>declaring</em> something or <em>exploring</em> something? He leads readers through a simple process of identifying which of the four types of visualization they might use to achieve their goals most effectively: idea illustration, idea generation, visual discovery, or everyday dataviz.</p>
<p>This article is adapted from the author&#8217;s just-published book, <span class="mediatitle">Good Charts: The HBR Guide to Making Smarter, More Persuasive Data Visualizations.</span></p>

Visualizations That Really Work

Not long ago, the ability to create smart data visualizations (or dataviz) was a nice-to-have skill for design- and data-minded managers. But now it’s a must-have skill for all managers, because it’s often the only way to make sense of the work they do. Decision making increasingly relies on data, which arrives with such overwhelming velocity, and in such volume, that some level of abstraction is crucial. Thanks to the internet and a growing number of affordable tools, visualization is accessible for everyone—but that convenience can lead to charts that are merely adequate or even ineffective. By answering just two questions, Berinato writes, you can set yourself up to succeed: Is the information conceptual or data-driven? and Am I declaring something or exploring something? He leads readers through a simple process of identifying which of the four types of visualization they might use to achieve their goals most effectively: idea illustration, idea generation, visual discovery, or everyday dataviz. This article is adapted from the author’s just-published book, Good Charts: The HBR Guide to Making Smarter, More Persuasive Data Visualizations.

Visualizations That Really Work

Summary.

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