Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

 

I'm new to project leadership so I've been trying to read at least one book about managing, data, and design every month to get fresh ideas about how to do my work and where to take my career (hence my new Goodreads shelf, tech-boss-babe-reading-list). STORYTELLING WITH DATA went on sale recently for $4.99 and I decided to snap it up since graphs and charts aren't exactly my strongest point as someone who tends to be more verbal and less mathematically inclined.

Some of the complaints for this book are that it teaches the basics. That might be disappointing for people who take to this sort of thing easily or have been doing it for years, but for newbies like me, it's really great. I like how the author included "before" and "after" examples, as well as examples of what "good" and "bad" displays of data look like.

My one complaint is that she doesn't really talk about tools. She says it's to make the stuff he talks about more relevant to everyone, by keeping things simple, and she does link to templates and other sources that give more in-depth how-tos with specific software, but I guess I was kind of hoping for a "Graphing on Excel for Dummies" checklist, so I will admit to being a little disappointed.

Overall, though, this has some really great lists of what to do and what not to do and it will help people who do not think abstractly or mathematically tell "stories" with data in a way that makes sense.

3.5 to 4 out of 5 stars