Telling Stories with Data
Amit Kapoor
me@amitkaps.com

We are all Storytellers

Choose a story
Outline your story
Use five frames
1 2 3 4 5

Story Spine

Beginning | Middle | End

Struggle,
Base Complication, New
Reality, Set Higher Stakes, Reality, Res
up Development olution
Beginning | Middle | End
Change/ Climax
Conflict /Resolution
Inciting Moment of
Event Truth

Once upon a time, there was an old man who lived next to a
beach
Base
Reality
Everyday, in the morning, he would go for a run on the beach
But one day, as he was running, he could see a figure of a
little girl far away, doing a strange dance on the beach Change/
Because of that, he ran toward her and saw that she was not Conflict
dancing but instead throwing a starfish into the ocean
Astonished, he asked the girl, “Why are you throwing
starfish into the ocean?”
Struggle
The girl replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I
don‟t throw them in, they‟ll all die”
Upon hearing this, the old man said, “But there is miles and
miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile.
You can‟t possibly make a difference?”
Climax
/Resolution
At this, the little girl bent down picked up yet another
starfish, and threw it into the ocean.
As it met the water, she said, “It made a difference for that New Reality
one.”

Context
Character
Change
Challenge
Credible
Concrete
Connect

A man is coming back home, tired from work on a late rainy
evening. And he walks into his neighbourhood supermarket Base
store. Reality
As he is folding his umbrella and trying to get water off his
jacket, he walks down to aisle 5.
He is looking for that one breakfast cereal box that his 5 year Change/
old has agreed to eat tomorrow morning. Conflict
He reaches the right shelf and starts looking for the cereal
box. And he doesn't find it there.
He looks for help, walks around and finds a store employee
Struggle
who is busy stocking products in aisle 12.
He goes to him and asks, “Can you please help me find the
cereal box?”
The employee looks at him, and says, “If it is not there, then Climax
it is not there. Go find it at another store.” And he goes back
to stocking the shelf. /Resolution
That is his moment of truth.
New Reality
He walks out and decides never to shop at the supermarket
again.

argument | STORY
analysis | SYNTHESIS
numbers | VISUALIZE
logic | EMPATHY

Make the Case
Solve the Build the Develop the Tell the
Problem Message Story Story
• Define problem • Structure • Apply story spine • Develop the story
• Develop thoughts • Develop /visual
hypotheses • Develop message storyboard • Practice - Retell
• Collect facts • Map audience • Mock-up story and Relive
• Conduct analysis • Understand and visual • Revisit the output
• Synthesize output outcome

Tablet Case Example
Tablets have emerged as a new device
format with the success of the iPad
As a smartphone ad company (SmartAds), I
should be able to serve ads on tablet
devices
How big will the tablet market be by 2015?

Tablet device format provide a
synergistic growth option for
SmartAds
Why do you
say that?
Tablets will be the Tablets installed base Three platforms will
fastest growing will be more than overlap and dominate
device format in 1/4th of smart phones both tablet and
2010-15 base by 2015 smartphones

Annual Shipment by Device Format
(In million units, actuals till 2010, estimates 2011-15)
Growth
2010 -15
Total
1908 2.9x
Devices
1559
1301 Smart
1105 3.7x phones
1121
898
897
739
659 630
468
20.4x Tablets
326
430 477 217
386 297 148
308 63 103
139 172 16
122
82 477 1.4x
305 346 366 388 414 444 PCs
226 264 291
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Installed Base by Device Format
(In million units, actuals till 2010, estimates 2011-15)
909 1,139 1,307 1,482 1,795 2,260 2,815 3,387 4,053 4,877 Total
14% Break-up
22% 23% 25%
31% 2015
37%
42%
Smart
45% 47% 49% 2,383 phones
1%
3%
6%
8%
10% Tablets
86% 13% 643
78% 77% 75%
69%
60%
52%
47% 42% 38%
1,851 PCs
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Device Installed Base in 2015 by OS and Device Format
(In million units, estimates for 2015)
2
Others 147 47 Others 18
Blackberry 282
Windows Legacy 805
206
Android 1,143 OS X/XI 101
334
iOS 423 Windows 8 1,027
WindowsPhone 388
54
Smartphones Tablets PCs
(2383 M units) (643 M units) (1851 M units)

In 2010, Apple iPad created this new category called tablets
and has since redefined computing devices. Base
In the next five years, the overall device sales will growing
Reality
by 3x, and smartphones will be growing by 4x, and the
erstwhile PC will grow at 1.4x. Change/
Tablets will be growing by 20x in the same period. Conflict
More people would start owning one of each devices – a
PC, a smartphone and a tablet.
By 2013, more smartphone devices would exist than PCs in
the world.
Struggle
And by 2015, out of the 4.9 billion devices, nearly half of
them will be smartphones. But also, there would be one
fourth tablets as there are smartphones
There will be three platforms that would common across Climax
smartphones and tablets.
/Resolution
And with Android at 45%, iOS at 25%, and Windows at
15%, they will command nearly 85% of the market.
New Reality
So SmartAds needs to be present on these three platforms
across both smartphones and tablets.

Allows the Builds on
User to Users‟
Builds on
Allows the
Engage Perspective
Users’
User to Engage
Perspective
„Killer‟
Makes the Elements
‘Killer’ Shows the
Insight
Makes the Elements
Data
Shows the
Jump Out
Insight Jump
Data
Out
Focuses on
Substance, n
Focuses on
ot Graphic
Substance, not
Graphic

Keep it Short and Simple
Practice and Play