Power of data visualisation: good data storytelling boosts business
AI is making design more accessible and available. It’s up to businesses to prioritise training and make sure people have access to the right tools they can actually use.
Data storytelling is redefining the way many businesses communicate by turning complex information into a clear, meaningful story to help people understand what the data says and why it matters.
But not everyone is comfortable with the change.
New research has unearthed a “data dilemma”.
A global Canva survey of more than 2400 marketing and sales professionals shows while data dependency is growing, data competence is lagging.
Almost 90 per cent of those surveyed work with data or spreadsheets weekly and around three-quarters say data reliance has increased in their workplace in the past two years.
But two-thirds are anxious about working with data and 30 per cent go so far as to avoid it altogether – despite recognising its value.
The confidence-capability gap shows up in specific technical challenges such as struggling with formulas and analysing data to identify key insights.
Canva says this data dilemma contributes to data errors, heightens workplace anxiety, hinders productivity and ultimately prevents teams from unlocking the full power of the insights available.
Duncan Clark, head of EMEA at Canva and co-founder of Flourish, a Canva company, says this is something businesses need to address, given data’s growing centrality to the way we work.
“We now live in a world where every decision we make has to be informed by data, but also everything we do generates new data on which we can base new decisions,” Clark said.
“Everyone these days is expected to work with data, but not everyone gets the training they need to give them the confidence to do that effectively. There’s a lot of people who are data-shy, but training, combined with easy-to-use tools, can put everyone on a journey towards data self-confidence.”
Clark said it was up to businesses to prioritise training and make sure people had access to the right tools they could actually use.
“Suddenly, rather than data being constrained to the data scientists or the specialists, it’s something that everyone is now working with, and therefore it’s important to prioritise that skill set across the whole business.”
When it comes to the right tools, Clark said Canva’s numbers spoke for themselves.
“We now have over 230 million people in 190 countries using Canva each month and aspire to reach one billion users, which equates to roughly one in every five internet users globally. We’ve crossed one in six in Spain, one in seven in France, one in five in The Philippines. So it’s become very much part of the culture in many countries.”
It’s also becoming part of business culture. Currently used by 95 per cent of the Fortune 500, Canva is signing multimillion-dollar deals for large-scale rollouts globally and counts the likes of DocuSign, FedEx, Atlassian and Snowflake as customers of its enterprise offering.
Clark said: “With organisations increasingly relying on data to anticipate market trends and inform business strategy, data storytelling isn’t merely a competitive advantage, it’s a business imperative.
“When teams can effectively visualise campaign performance or present data-backed customer insights, organisations make smarter decisions and drive growth.”
Deloitte chief marketing officer and Canva Enterprise customer Carmen Roche said in today’s data-driven world, good data storytelling could make a big difference.
“If we’ve written a 50-plus-page report that we’re asking someone to engage with, we’re asking them to make a really big investment of their time. So it’s on us to make it as engaging as possible, and that’s where great data storytelling comes in.
“We know from research that’s been done that good data storytelling can contribute to a 20 per cent improvement in business performance.”
The research also showed AI is increasingly becoming a powerful partner in data workflows.
More than three-quarters of those surveyed believed AI could improve their ability to work with data, whether suggesting more effective ways to visualise information or data cleaning and preparation.
But Clark said any idea that there were fewer people designing because AI was doing it for them, just didn’t fit with what Canva was seeing. “What we’re seeing is AI making design more accessible and available, and therefore more and more people doing it. And the more design we have, the more demand there is for professional designers to bring that editing layer, that nuance, that brand sensibility.
“So the general trend we’re observing is that AI is an incredibly effective workflow tool, rather than a tool that’s replacing the creative parts of either data or marketing workflows.
“The goal isn’t to make everyone a data scientist but to empower teams to confidently use the data at their disposal to craft compelling, engaging stories, whether it’s for internal presentations or external content.
“Data alone doesn’t move people, stories do – that’s what we should focus on.”
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