Slide Value is akin to Cost per Wear
Hilary Borndahl
Founder & CEO @ Miix Analytics | MMM, ROI, Market Research Photo Cred: @katelynmurrayphotography.
I'm having dinner tonight with 3 girlfriends, on a patio. 2 years ago that sentence would have produced a so-what response. In 2021, that simple word, patio, brings about joy and anticipation like it never has before. Immediately after the elation fades, I consider what will I wear? Is this an opportunity for me to literally dust off some pieces from my summer office wardrobe? This occasion calls for more than Lulu's or even jeans.
I'm an Analytical person. When I choose items for my office wardrobe I usually like to calculate cost per wear. A good wardrobe is an investment in the craftsmanship of the product as well as the personal brand you are promoting. Great items have staying power and can be included in multiple outfits.
The same can be true when composing a great piece of research. Each slide of a presentation should support the story. Each visual should aid the audience in their understanding of the data. Every single component in the compilation should be something the narrative can't live without. Otherwise, cut it.
In my opinion, the era of the long-form research report is over. Who wants to read through a 200-page, 100-page, or even a 50-page report? On the flip side, who wants to create, edit and proofread that same report? Just for all of your long hours to be breezed through once before collecting dust in some shared folder in cyberspace? What is the cost per wear on that?
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The age of efficiency is upon us. I've written about this before - there are plentiful data visualization tools available today that can be used for multiple meeting formats. In fact, our Miix team presented at a virtual Industry event last week using Google Data Studio in Present mode and I bet over 50% of the audience didn't realize it wasn't a PowerPoint! Seven impactful pages linked to real-time dynamic data. Multiple versions of tables and charts available by the click of a mouse. Using a data viz tool allows you to crisply prioritize your storyboard, select charts with meaning, and ensure every slide has strong value and utility. This produces a higher return on investment of time, resources, and budget - and it's also super cool.
What's your opinion? How's your slide value trending in 2021?
~ hilary
VP/Principal at Kantar | Leading CX Insights and Analytics
3yWhen I was working in Insights for the bank, we tried our best to give our research partners a solid brief that included what insights we needed out of the research and how those were to be used to adresss decisions the business needed to make. We didn’t need data or text heavy decks as deliverables. We needed a concise, compelling presentation about what we learned and recommendations for the business decisions to be made. Admittedly, that isn’t always easy to do and there can be a lot of work involved going through the data just to pull out key insights. I think what is needed for researchers are tools that make it quick and easy to uncover insights in the data and then allow for easy creation of compelling graphics to bring those stories to life. Pre-charting every question and data cut in PowerPoint to uncover insights and then circling key numbers on those same busy slides for client presentations is both inefficient, prone to mistakes and is not very impactful in communicating the key messages. I’d love to hear more about what tools others are using for data analysis, sharing data with clients and presentations.
Chief Empathy Officer @ Data Gives Back | Best-Selling Author of Pain Remixed | B Corp | Corporate Training Maestro in Analytics, Category Management & Storytelling | CPG | Foodservice | Executive Grief Ambassador | DJ
3yI am 100% with you on this one Hilary! Keep it short and compelling. I'm going to have to try out Google Data Studio, thanks for the tip.