TDWI Certificate Track

Prerequisite: Attendees will need a laptop computer with Microsoft Excel for parts of this workshop.

Course Outline

This three-day workshop develops the data literacy skills that every businessperson needs in order to make impactful decisions based on data. Students will take a deep dive into the three key areas of data literacy: analysis skills, data visualization, and data storytelling. They will learn best practices and how they apply in business, review examples, and practice their application. The program is specifically designed for business users in today’s data-centric organizations and does not require any previous background in analytics.

Analysis skills are crucial for every business user, whether they perform their own analysis on data or simply receive reports and visualization from others. Students will learn critical thinking skills needed to evaluate charts and reports supplied by others. They will also learn and practice the analysis skills needed to frame their business challenges, match them to relevant data, and analyze data without any programming.

Data visualization skills are essential in business communication today. As more and more people are using data and analysis to inform their daily decisions, they need to understand how to absorb the meaning of data at a glance. Students will learn both how to interpret others’ visualizations and how to structure their own visualizations to effectively communicate insights. Modern business professionals and data professionals alike need to communicate as effectively with data visualizations as they do with verbal and written communication.

The third key component to data literacy is the ability to tell stories based on data. Analytical insights start and end with the story, and storytelling skills are essential for communicating the message and gaining value from the data. Data storytelling involves understanding the message and the audience, then crafting the right visuals to deliver insights to stakeholders.

The Data Visualization and Storytelling - Finding and Communicating Data Insights workshop will cover essential techniques and best practices for data analysis, visualization, and storytelling over three days of in-depth, interactive training.

Your Team Will Learn

• Critical thinking techniques for analyzing data
• How to frame business problems
• How to analyze business data for positive impact
• Components of data visualization
• How to choose and use charts and graphs for effective communication
• Visual data exploration and analysis
• Visual design techniques
• How to craft a persuasive data story
• How to streamline a design for story clarity
• How to see a visualization or story from the stakeholder’s point of view
• How to leverage best practices in visual design and storytelling

Geared To

• Business analysts and data analysts
• Business analytics leaders and managers
• Anyone who uses data to develop charts and graphs for communication
• Business managers, decision makers, analysts, and other analytics consumers seeking to refine their skills for understanding data visualizations
• Anyone who creates data visualizations for others
• Anyone who views data visualizations created by others

This workshop is not tool-specific training and does not require any specialized data visualization software. The best practices covered can be applied when using any tools, including but not limited to Tableau, Qlik, Power BI, Spotfire, and others.

Business analysis skills will be reinforced via lab exercises using Microsoft Excel.