Bringing Narratives to Life!
1. Bringing Narratives to Life!
Welcome back! Let's strengthen the client-ready narratives we've written by adding accompanying visualizations. Remember, the goal here is to turn data insights into decisions, so these visualizations will differ to those created during the analysis phase. Let's get started!2. Financial Performance Pack
Imagine we're preparing a financial performance pack for the board of a mid-size company that has spent the past year restructuring. Revenues have stabilized, margins are improving, and cost initiatives are underway. The upcoming board meeting will review progress and decide whether to continue, pause, or accelerate these efforts.3. Financial Performance Pack
During the analysis phase, we extracted a set of key metrics. In the client delivery phase, we narrow these down to a small set of story numbers—the figures that matter most to the client. Each one is directly grounded in the original analysis, but selected to support a clear narrative.4. Analysis Charts vs. Client-Ready Charts
In the analysis phase, we created detailed charts to explore the raw data and uncover insights. In the client delivery phase, the goal is different. Rather than visualizing raw data, we present aggregated metrics—such as quarterly sales or average customer spend—to communicate insights clearly to decision-makers.5. Board-Ready Visualizations: Prompt #1
Let us start by asking the model to generate a first chart from our summary data. We give it brief context on the situation, and ask for a waterfall chart that explains how revenues and savings evolved over the year. We also provide the data and a few instructions about the style of the plot.6. Board-Ready Visualizations: Prompt #1
In response, the AI system returned this chart! The first bar shows the initial revenue when the changes began, and the last bar shows revenue after one year. The bars in between show the revenue contribution of each business unit, and one bar with total cost savings. The plot is useful, but there are several aspects we can improve:7. Board-Ready Visualizations: Prompt #1
the color choices feel random,8. Board-Ready Visualizations: Prompt #1
revenue decreases are not clearly highlighted,9. Board-Ready Visualizations: Prompt #1
and it would be more effective to show the contribution of each intermediate bar, not only the total amounts.10. Board-Ready Visualizations: Prompt #2
To address these issues, we can list the improvements we want, or simply ask the model to enhance the chart's design and visual hierarchy.11. Board-Ready Visualizations: Prompt #2
We can see that the model provides an updated chart that addresses the proposed changes. The title is now more board-ready, and the starting and ending revenue values are highlighted in bold. This is a solid improvement!12. Board-Ready Visualizations: Prompt #3
Board charts should be strategically effective, so let's prompt the model to adapt the visual for a leadership audience. For example, we can ask it to break down cost savings into their main drivers and highlight how each one contributes to overall performance.13. Board-Ready Visualizations: Prompt #3
Voilà! The chart now presents both revenues and savings in a clear, strategic way, revealing useful insights for the board. One key finding we can now see is that even though the consumer uplift is negative, the business still delivers over 50 million euros in savings.14. Board-Ready Visualizations: Prompt #4
Finally, we can prompt the model to improve the chart style by using consistent colors for each business unit, and adding a more impactful title.15. Board-Ready Visualizations: Prompt #4
This final tweak gives us this board-ready chart!16. Let's practice!
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